English Rose, Austin Rose 'Abraham Darby'

The blooms on this rose are absolutely beautiful but they are very stingy with them. I had it planted in an area that I think has very in...Read Morefertile soil so it was moved to a flower bed with it as the center. It definitely has done much better there but it's still not out doing itself. The plant is very small, the branches are very skinny, and the blooms are very tiny. I will add that this will be my first spring with it. I got it in June of last year and I live in louisiana soooo that may be why it didn't respond well. I got a very beautiful bloom that I posted a picture of in December!!! I did love that lol. If the rose improves this year I will update my post. I have my fingers crossed bc I really want to love this rose.

My Wife bought an Abraham Darby this year to replace ones we lost. So far the blooms have had the shape of a Darby, but have been distin...Read Morectly pink and not the apricot that we have been used to.

I think that we were sent a rose that was not a Darby, but my wife is trying to convince herself that the rose will bloom with the apricot color in later years. (The Darby is her favorite rose and mine too.)

Does anyone have experience with a Darby blooming pink the first year and reverting to the apricot shade in subsequent years?

I have several David Austin roses, but this one is my favorite. I don't use any chemicals in my garden. Toward the end of August, there i...Read Mores sometimes a little black spot, but it doesn't seem to affect the plant the next year. Even after the worst winter the midwest has had for a long time (winter 2014), my three Abraham Darbys bloomed very well. We didn't even have Japanese beetles this year.
Frances Seth, Evanston, Illinois

On Denman Island, B.C. I have good success with many roses but not this one. Although various publications seem to promote it I think it...Read More is oversold. Yes it is fragrant and puts out lots of bloom, but it is certainly not resistant to black spot, it drops many leaves, is droopy and the blooms are very susceptible to balling. Don't have the heart to chuck it but I wouldn't buy it again.

Very disappointed. After 4 years I'm about ready to give up. Yes the blooms are amazing but he's very stingy with them. Wimpy skinny c...Read Moreanes with few leaves. A very ugly plant. I don't think he likes Louisiana. Not worth the effort.

This rose does very well here as far as beautiful prolific blooms. It is subject to quite a bit of black spot in our humid climate. I t...Read Morehink it's worth the effort. Truly a lovely rose!

We grow a whole bunch of roses in our zone 6 garden, and 'Abraham Darby' has to be one of our favorites. Even my husband has made note of...Read More it several times and gardening isn't his thing. It has several flushes of blooms during the growing season (usually around 4). The canes tend to grow thickly so I prune out the center of the plant to allow more air circulation as black spot does trouble ours usually around late summer, but never enough to cause serious concern. The biggest thing I would recommend if you grow this rose is to plant it in a very large container as the canes are lax and the flowers droopy. In a container it forms a more pleasing fountain shape and is at just the right level for smelling the roses heavenly scent!

I live in Sonoma CA and am one of those who has a hard time with this rose. I love the blooms, which when they come successfully are heav...Read Moreenly, it's one of my favorites and I am very frustrated. After the initial spring bloom the blooms end up nodding, the leaves look terrible and tend to mostly fall off, suffer from rust etc, leaving a pitiful tangle of sickly looking stems. (it's almost bald now mid-July) I've moved it, from a shadier location to a sunnier location, amended the soil and occasionally feed (various organic fertilizers) and still have the same issues and results on the whole. Perhaps I need to amend and feed more.... maybe it's something about my soil which probably tends to include ample clay/adobe. (I seem to have poor luck with other roses as well but this one is the worst).
I'd love to learn any recipes for success. I have read several comments elsewhere that suggest many others have the same issues.

I love this rose very much! Its nice large blooms and the vivid color are exactly what I expected from an English rose. The flowers are f...Read Moreirst in peach tones and then turn to medium pink. This is its first year and the plant is very prolific. I indeed noticed the "drooping" problem people mentioned before. I just used a couple of U-shaped stalks to hold some stems.

This has been my favorite rose ever since I discovered it about ten years ago, but I'm having a terrible time with it. My first plant gre...Read Morew well in Salem, Oregon, where most roses do well, though I transplanted it and it never quite bloomed as well as on first planting. Now I live on the Oregon coast (I know, I know, we aren't supposed to be able to grow roses here) and though I get nice blooms, I have lots of trouble with black spot and weak stems. I keep trying though, because the flowers and scent are so lovely.

A wonderful old fashioned-looking rose. I have two that I grow as climbers. They are part of the backdrop for my cottage garden and nev...Read Moreer fail to please. Great smell, large, lush blooms. Yes, they're gangly which makes them good for climbers and the flower heads are heavy so they droop a bit. But they can't be beat for the soft apricot-pink color. Mine have been in almost tweny years and the yard has become shadier over time and they still thrive. Nevada Gardener is right, they're almost rampant here in northern Nevada. Highly recommend these.

I grew three Abraham Darby roses over a period of time, starting in 1995. I removed one after nine years and the other two a couple of y...Read Moreears later because of their ungainly appearance. Their bloom was sporadic. Granted, I'm an organic gardener so they were never sprayed or coddled. The roses were also grown on their own roots in my Houston-area garden. I tried three different sun/shade locations. They were fed well twice a year. Nevertheless, they were, frankly, extremely ugly plants whose gorgeous blooms couldn't make up for their overall appearance. I really loved the blooms; but didn't like the plant. No amount of pruning could create a "bushier" plant. Perhaps the only way to enjoy them is as a climber with something planted to cover up the first four feet of the plant. I tried this in a flower bed, but still found the plant unattractive.
Leslie

This is the first of 11 rose bushes to bloom in my garden, all of which I planted last fall. It's getting big already, and the blossoms a...Read Morere a lovely pale pink with peach tones. It's got a moderate case of black spot, which is responding well to my ministrations with garlic spray and trimming infected leaves off the plant. The flowers are drooping to the ground because the stems are so thin and weak. I've learned that young Abraham Darby plants do have thin stems, and that if I'm patient, and stake it this year, it will have stronger stems in a year or two. I talked to a rosarian from the local rose society who said young roses sometimes need staking, and I found information on the David Austin website that mentioned that Abraham Darby is among the plants that have drooping blooms, but not so bad once it matures. I will wait to see how it develops before pronouncing it either a success or a failure.

Absolutely stunning! My plants are covered in huge fragrant blossoms and the perfume drifts all over the yard. Strong plants and no evide...Read Morence of any of the rose diseases that seem to plague this hot humid climate. I'm thrilled with this plant and am enjoying everything about it.

Our favorite from David Austin!!!!! Gorgeous blooms continuously until the frost. This one got us hooked on English roses.

According to David Austin's 2009 Handbook of Roses, they named this rose after Abraham Darby of Shropshire, and was one of the founding ...Read Morefigures of the Industrial Revolution.