English Rose, Austin Rose 'Bishop's Castle'

This is a relatively easily rose to take care of. I got a bloom the first yr and not hard, the plant looks healthy so far. The other Au...Read Morestins that I have seems to get a lot of black spots such as Graham Thomas and Jude the Obscure which both got a disease early on in the Spring and pretty much completely naked without blooms which makes you want to yank the whole plant out and replace it with something better.
Bishops Castle has a sweet fragrance, the flower is cupped and open flat. Like most of his cabbage type roses they tend to be a tiny tight bud stage for a very longtime since I'm anxious for the first bloom, and they one day they you see some petals unfolding and at this stage you will want to enjoy it a little bid more but the next day the entire bloom is in full flush flat open. The bloom last about 2 weeks on the plant and it didn't shit petals cleanly so one must dead head to keep the plant looking good. Super great scent, definitely a winner from the David Austin group.

I have 3 of these beautiful plants. Mine are 4 years old.They get full sun and are covered with fragrant pink flowers throughout the summ...Read Moreer and into fall. Their scent is wonderful. When taking a stem to bring inside, it's difficult to pick one because for every rose that has opened, there are 3 to 5 more buds on the stem waiting their turn. to open. I need to spray a fungicide every 6 weeks to keep black spot at bay but that's minor to enjoyment these roses bring.

I have 4 of these lovely looking, lovely smelling roses for about 3 years. They get full sun. I wasn't quite sure how hard to prune these...Read More, so I pruned them back slightly the second year. They gave several nice blooms, but not as many as I had hoped. They remained very compact and get a lot of black spot if we get 2 consecutive days of rain in the summer.
Then, this fall, as I was backing out of my garage, I accidentally ran over a cane, yikes. I felt awful! Within a week this rose put out 3 new basal canes which are currently full of buds! So, as far as pruning goes, the harder the better with this rose...or you can just ride over it and it'll know you are serious about your flowers!

I purchased twenty or so roses from Jackson Perkins in spring of 2008. All different varieties (i.e. floribundas, english roses, climbers...Read More etc). Of all the various roses, the ones that really stood out were Bishops Castle English Rose and Black Cherry Floribunda. The Bishop Castle is a show stopping rose. I planted it in May 2008 and by now it has grown to a stooping 3 ft and bloomed at least 3 times this season. The only problem has been with Japanese Beetles. They seem to be attracted to the fragrance of this rose. So - I end up using Bayers Direct insecticide which seems to provide some protection while the rose is in bloom.
It would be interesting to see if the plant survives this winter season. I plan on giving it some winter protection. If it does survive the winters, I will buy some more of these in 2009 to start a hedge along the fence as the growth appears to be quite vigorous. So far in the season - I love this rose the most. I live in Bartlett, Illinois.