Comments regarding David Austin Roses (US)

This spring, I ordered David Austin roses from three sources: David Austin US, Heirloom Roses and Cattail Creek Gardens.

Long story short, if you are ordering for your own garden and would like to receive the correct rose(s) packaged perfectly with great customer service but are on a budget, order bands or established plants in pots from Heirloom Roses. Their bands are good-sized and will grow quickly. Prices are reasonable, they often have specials.

If you need a larger potted Austin for yourself or a gift with incredible presentation (Austin logo pot, tags and all) and amazingly packed with great customer service, order from Cattail Creek Gardens through Amazon. Pricier, but well worth it.

If you are an experienced gardener who isn't freaked out by bare-roots thrown in a bag (roses are actually quite tough), or small starts that arrive looking like they've been dumped upside down with all the soil strewn about and broken canes, by all means order from David Austin's US facility in Tyler, Texas. I must say that outside of the cavalier approach to customer service, the roses are all doing nicely.

I must warn that as an added bonus you also get a chance to play "rose roulette" when you order from David Austin US. Guess which rose they sent you? It sure doesn't look like the one you ordered! But hey, they'll cheerfully tell you how the first blooms often don't look like their supposed to. Gee, I wonder when my apricot rose will magically transform into the clear yellow one that I ordered? Didn't even bother contacting them about this second mis-mark, because I just wasn't in the mood for more nonsense after the line they gave me about the Munstead Wood they sent which actually looks exactly like Sophy's Rose. Perhaps next year it will resemble what I ordered!

All I have to say is that I'm from AZ and this ain't my first rodeo...I'll be ordering my Austin roses from Heirloom or Cattail in the future.

Posted on May 15, 2015, updated May 30, 2015
Received 6 bare-root roses which were fine. The tree-rose however had 3 canker sores. I submitted pictures and emailed them to Angie and to US customer service. Never heard back.

Subsequently I emailed the service center in the UK, received an answer within 24 hours, confirming the canker spots and offering help to resolve this matter.

Until we have received a replacement Tamora tree rose- a healthy one this time- we will block our credit card for this transaction.

I ordered 3 Austin container roses this month, Eglantyne, Sharifa Asma, and Young Lycidas. The packing was great - super big, super sturdy cardboard boxes which were secured strongly, yet easy to unpack. So far, Eglantyne and Sharifa Asthma look pretty good. Young Lycidas, however, is light pink (almost white in the sunlight) as opposed to dark pink with tiny blooms 1 1/2 inch in diameter. I sent a photo to the Austin representative who explained that sometimes roses fade in the heat and I should let it acclimate to my climate and write back. I doubt it is the right rose but we'll see.

I have been buying David Austin roses for 16 years. The original ones seem to have been of better quality than those purchased over the past three years. Colors not true to the catalog, incorrect plants received have plagued recent orders,but Angela Folse has been very good about correcting these issues. Failures have been few,but my main problem is with weak canes that cannot hold up the flowers. I am having to support Silver Jubliee and others.

I cannot fault their willingness to put things right, but I have not been happy at losing a year in my new and very successful rose garden. Part of the problem is that DA has stopped selling through all our local nurseries in Princeton and bare root is my only option. I used to buy the roses in pots from baumley's nursery and can no longer get them. So I have switched to other growers with great success.

"On Aug 16, 2012 1:33 PM, David Austin Roses (US) responded with:

Most of our roses gradually change color as they open and mature. Colors can be lighter in full, strong sunlight and may also vary at different times of the year. We try to make this clear in discussions with customers, in our terms of business online and in our catalog (see p118) but will review this to see if we can make it clearer. Varieties with larger flowers such as Jubilee Celebration often nod gracefully on arching stems, especially when young, but we can recommend varieties with a more upright habit for customers who prefer this look in their garden. We offer free advice on all aspects of growing and selecting roses and are happy to advise customers personally if required.

We continue to offer roses to local nurseries across the US, although we have not had enough stock of many varieties to meet demand in recent seasons. We maintain a list of nurseries who stock our roses on our website and can also advise garden centres where to obtain stock if required."

I recently ordered 4 bare-root roses from David Austin. No problem ordering. I got what I ordered and it arrived when they said it would.

However, the roses had a lot of mechanical damage, split canes, canes torn off, chunks taken out of canes, etc. The roots were ok. Packing was not good. 4 roses put in a bag inside a box. Nothing tied together and nothing to keep the roots hydrated. These were the lowest quality bare-roots I've received out of the 70+ roses I have growing in my garden.

After two weeks of growing indoors in pots (due to 90+ degree weather), one is leafing out. One might leaf out. The two others aren't doing much.

"On Aug 16, 2012 1:31 PM, David Austin Roses (US) responded with:

We are sorry that the roses were supplied with mechanical damage and are currently checking our records and quality procedures to try to make sure this does not happen again. We cannot trace this customer’s order from the details supplied and would be grateful if he/she could contact us directly to resolve the issue."

Posted on December 27, 2011, updated April 3, 2012
It is disappointing to read the most recent reviews given that I plan to order at least 8 to 10 roses from David Austin this winter. It should be noted that most of the complaints center around customer service and shipping and this mirrors my past experience last year.

In late December of 2010 I ordered 9 rose standards and in the order gave specific comments that the plants must arrive on or before February 12 as I would be leaving the country on the 14th. I do not recall the specific chain of events but I repeated my delivery deadline in a follow up email and received a confirmation. Then it came to pass that the shipment was not made in time to insure delivery by standard shipping. In telephone conversation, they agreed to ship by 2nd day air and the plants were indeed received one day before my flight.

The holes were already prepared and the standards went from box to a willow water soak to the ground within hours. Reading the other negative reviews, the plants were indeed bare roots in a plastic bag with no moisturizing media but they were certainly in quite elegant boxes.

They performed beautifully: planted on February 12, they were in full and very glorious bloom by the 2nd week of April and re-bloomed profusely throughout the year. They bloom lightly even as I write and would likely be in far more generous bloom had I not been over a month late when I pruned then in November. Other than a quickly terminated bout with thrips, there have been no diseases or pests and the same thrips infested other non-Austin roses in the same border.

It’s a great gene pool, a fine product. I doubt every product within the range is stellar - I have a friend who says that Wm Shakespeare’s canes are too weak to support it’s heavy blooms and my Winchester Cathedral (as a standard) perhaps produces too long a cane for that form but these standards are by far the most satisfying roses I have in a collection that includes quite a few old roses from other sources.

It’s the worst possible situation when a company has a good product but insufficient means to deliver and service the inquiries of its customers. Provided their US operation’s culturing is up to par, their deficit lies in the steps from order to shipping and customer service communication and I hope they are aware of the comments made on this site and will make steps to improve their service. I will still order from them in the next few days and then be sure to closely monitor the promised delivery dates.

I have/do/will order roses from David Austin because of the type of roses they carry. With that being said, I placed an order this spring. Like others, I had to post a question on their website asking: 1) if they received the order; 2) if I could get an order number; and 3) if they made note that I wanted the plant delivered the fourth week of May. They replied that they had received the order. I wrote back asking that they please give me the order number; I never got a response. My rose arrived in perfect shape...just 2 weeks earlier than I had asked.

Double delight is one of the roses I always want. Last week, I received their email about their half price sale. DD is on the sale list, so I placed my order. I know it was almost the end of the planting season in my zone, but I really wanted to have it and I planned to plant it in a pot. I received the bare roots about five days later. I was so excited until I opened the box. I ordered two totally. One has a big split in the middle among three canes, a break on a major root and some black end canes. Another one has a lot of black spots on two canes. I called right away and could only leave a message. I sent them a email after. Luckily they responded my email right away. They sent out the new roses for replacement right away. Now I only hope they will arrive in an acceptable and better quality condition. Someone already warned me since it is the end of planting season. I may still receive bad roses. I hope not!!

I am very surprised at the quality from such a well-known rose vendor. I thought they were good. This was not my first time order from them, either. I had good experience before. If they think half price sale is equal to cheaper quality, then they should have made it clear. I would not place my order at all.

Now I am hoping I will receive good quality roses and I do not need to fight for refund again.

"On Jun 10, 2009 8:26 AM, David Austin Roses (US) responded with:

All roses bought direct from David Austin Roses are covered by our guarantee. We are proud of our reputation for high quality and have an exceptionally low level of complaints from our customers overall. We monitor the quality of roses very closely and analyse the reasons for any failures to help improve service, but with living plants, some problems do occasionally occur.

As we have explained, we are happy to replace the roses under our guarantee and are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to you. We hope that the replacement roses we are promptly sending (which in this case exceed the value of the roses that were unacceptable) will help to restore your faith in our service.

Best Regards,
David Austin Roses"

Quite frankly I'm not "blown away" by my experience with this company. I expected much, much better. I ordered Port Sunlight. Then, a few weeks later ordered Benjamin Britten. Getting an order confirmation was like pulling teeth. Each time I had to send an email to ask if they had received my order. A company representative has provided an explanation elsewhere in this listing, which I can appreciate.

Now, the roses. I was not overly impressed with the quality of these bareroots. While they were moist upon arrival, many of the roots were badly broken. On Port Sunlight, one of the thicker canes was broken near the crown.

I planted these roses properly by "sweating" them in mulch for about 3 weeks. Benjamin Britten is leafing out nicely, but I fear I could lose Port Sunlight. The new growth that occured during the sweating process is not at all vigorous, and there is evidence of rose canker (may or may not be the fault of DA). I will appy some Neem oil and hope for the best.

Over all, while I love David Austin roses and will continue to grow them in my garden, I will hesitate to order directly from the David Austin Company in the future. I've had better experiences ordering the potted DAs from Chamblees. I'll stick with Witherspoon for the bareroot, as they, too, sell David Austin roses.

I ordered $138 worth of roses, with shipping on 4/16 (Thurs). I received an order confirmation immediately, but no notice of shipping in the ensuing days.

Wanting to ensure they went out by Monday 4/20, I e-mailed on 4/19 asking when they would be shipped.

I received NO REPLY until 4/27, six business days later. No apology, just, "Shipped April 24th. Tracking number UPS: XXXXXXXXXXX(etc.) Many thanks!"

WHAT? They shipped bare root roses on 4/24, a Friday?!? So they can sit in a UPS warehouse over a weekend? What responsible nursery does this?! Not to mention they are in Texas (hot) and we are having a heat wave right now in downstate New York (85+ for four days running).

By the time I receive these on 4/30, the Thursday following shipping (according to tracking info), they will have been in transit for *7 days*. I will receive my order *two weeks* to the day that I placed it, having lost a critical week in the northeast's planting window for bare root roses (as an aside, their policy is to only guarantee the roses if you shipment falls within your region's ideal planting window...cutting it a wee bit close here, I'd say).

Regardless of the condition in which they arrive (which I will post upon receipt), the entire experience has been so poor, I had to report it.

I am incredulous; I guess all their operating money went into the glossy, *amazingly* beautiful catalog with a cover almost equivelant to a paperback book!

"On Apr 28, 2009 1:33 PM, David Austin Roses (US) responded with:

I am indeed sorry for your experience with this order. We do, however, dip our plants in a solution that seals in the moisture for 7-8 days for the shipping process so that no matter what day we ship, they should arrive alive and healthy. We do customarily ship every day of the week as the number of orders we have requires it.

The level of customer service we are able to give is not satisfactory to us, either, believe me. We are on skeleton staff as the home office in England is cutting costs and we are struggling to keep up with hundreds of orders and emails and phone messages and we do apologize.

Your credit card has not yet been charged as we are behind on that as well. We will not charge the card for, as you have noted, less than stellar service.

Again, our apologies.

Best Wishes,

Jo VonBargen
General Manager
800 328 8893

I ordered 12 roses from this company this spring. All the roses I picked were available when I placed my order, at least that's how the website showed. I waited two weeks and didn't receive any notification of shipment, then I e-mailed them several times but never received any response. 3 roses arrived a month after the order was placed. They were in great condition and they looked healthy and definitely much better than the roses I had ordered from Jackson & Perkins two years ago. However, I was very disappointed in DA's customer service. If the roses I ordered were out of stock, they should let me know about it. I was planning to plant a beautiful rose border, but now the plan has to be postponed.
They already charged my credit card for the full amount, but I have no idea when my other roses will arrive. Probably next spring?

"On Feb 3, 2009 10:53 AM, David Austin Roses (US) responded with:

Please phone or email me with your order information so I can investigate what was done. I apologize for the late reply; I only just now saw your comment. Our policy is to send a statement letting the customer know if something is out of stock. If this was not done, I need to follow that trail and get it corrected. My apologies for the lapses on our part.

Best Regards
Jo VonBargen
800 328 8893
us@davidaustinroses.com"

I have ordered 3 times from this company for a total of 12 rose plants. All of the roses arrived in fantastic shape. If there was a substitution, then it was one I specified as acceptable. I have had 1 rose that didn't make it, but I believe it was due to animal damage, so I didn't file a claim.
All of the rest far exceeded my expectations for growth in the first year. My mother has ordered from them over the phone and says that she prefers this because the people are so nice. I will never buy any other kind of rose, and I will never order roses anywhere else!

"

I agree that this appears to be shoddy service and I do apologize. This is not the high level of customer care we have always aspired to. We have a couple of new trainees and it appears I haven't gotten across our standards to one of them for some reason and I will certainly work on that.

We will also pass along the broken root info to the warehouse manager. Something like this should not have gone out as a grade one rose.

If you will contact me personally at 800 328 8893 I will be most happy to make this right for you and for your Mother as well. We would not like to leave this situation hanging as an unappetizing experience for you both. Alternatively, you may email me at us@davidaustinroses.com.

Again, our apologies for the poor service.

Best Regards,
Jo VonBargen
General Manager
David Austin roses"

After pouring over my David Austin catalog for several months, in April, I finally decided to purchase 3 Tradescant roses, to plant by my deck. The roses arrived in fairly good condition, although the box was a little damaged -- the carrier's fault, obviously -- and a few of the roots on one plant were broken as a result.

The plants looked to be in fairly good shape. Due to heavy rains in Tennessee in April, it took me two or three days after their arrival to get them into the ground. They started leafing out and looked very good, initially, but then I noticed some black growth on the canes of each of the three plants. After getting on rose forums on gardenweb.com, I determined that the roses had cankar and set about cutting off the diseased parts of the canes and applying Daconil and then sealing the cuts with Elmer's glue (suggested by many of the rose forum members).

It seemed to take care of most of the problem, however, there are still black spots down low next to the crowns on all of the plants. There is still one strong cane on each of the plants and I have beautiful growth on them and the first flush is coming on strong. The buds are pretty and they're opening up well. Although, the color is not as crimson as it looks in the catalog, it's more of a light red...I don't know if it's really Tradescant or not? They plants are in full sun until about 2:00pm every afternoon and then they're in shade, so I don't know if the blooms fade in direct sunlight or not. The catalog said that this cultivar does not readily burn in the sun...we'll see if they get deeper crimson as it ages.

The first flowers are beautiful and the fragrance is lovely. I shall have to wait and see if the cankar continues to grow now that the daytime temps are consistently above 80 degrees here in Nashville. I did email DA customer service and got a response back in a day or two, but they didn't mention anything about cankar. They just suggested that I deep water more often (every 4 days) in hot weather.

All in all, I am fairly satisfied with the roses, but am concerned for their long-term success. Even so, I am determined that I will purchase more DA roses for next year.

This is a great site and I appreciate the feedback from everyone. Thanks!

Sheri

I ordered 2 roses this spring. When they arrived, they looked to be dehydrated. After a few weeks, one was leafing out heartily and the other was just as it was when it arrived, and I was certain it was dead/dying. I emailed the company and they promptly send me a replacment without question. Now, the rose I thought dead has begun to leaf and is catching up to the other. I simply was not patient enough, but because I wasnt completely happy, they sent me another. Very pleased with the customer service, and the roses Ive received are all healthy and showing the promise of buds. Excellent vendor.

"

We do apologize profusely for the email slipups! Due to a server problem we lost several days worth of emails and also lost phone messages when the system got zapped by a lightning storm. As recovery was impossible on these, we can only wait til someone contacts us again. We have also been experiencing a very high volume of calls the past couple of weeks and people are finding it hard to get through. We do appreciate your patience and are working to remedy the staffing issue for next season, so this will not recur. Once again, we appreciate all our customers and thank you very much for your business.

Best Regards,
Jo VonBargen
General Manager
us@davidaustinroses.com"

I am not 100 % sure that I can state that I dealt directly with this company since my roses arrived from Wayside but all had David Austin tags on them. I will also post these remarks on the pages dealing with Wayside.
I received 8 plant grown and harvested by David Austin LTD, Texas. I had never seen or received roses so substandard and with so severe infestation all over. 3 of the 8 plants were tiny twigs that would not qualify to be called grade 1.5 and as far as I know it is not customary to sell lower grades in the USA. But I am sure it is unheard of calling them garde 1. They would not make the cut even a 'dollar' store.
Neverthleless receiving some substandard twigs was the minor problem. All plants had crown borer tunnels all over in every single plant and when we cut back the canes to save the plants it turned out that the tunnles were deep down in the crown, and that means that they would disintegrate and die in 1-2 months.
Not only these plants are unacceptable but to plant them in a bed with other healthy roses would mean to infect the rest of those plants in the garden. These Austin plants should have been destroyed, burnt, and under no circumctances should have been forwarded to vendors/distributors and later to customers.
I simply do not understand how a company bearing the name of David Austin could and would risk its reputation by selling plants that are close to death and would endanger a whole rose garden if th purchaser does not notice the brown tunnels and decay inside the canes.

I assumed 'noblesse oblige' means something for a company bearing the name of David Austin. After seeing this wretched plants, I came to the conclusion that it does not mean anything.

"I'm afraid those plants were not grown by David Austin's in Tyler, but were propagated by the licensee. Unfortunately, we only have strict control over the plants we sell here, but I will make sure the home office in England hears of this.

Does Wayside have any sort of guarantee? I would think some sort of recompense would be in order here.

I'm very sorry for your experience. It's certainly not something the company wants to see at any time. The roses we sell here are two-year, healthy plants that are subjected to the strictest virus indexing program available. We only ship grade 1 plants and those such as you describe would definitely have gone on the burn pile. We try very hard not to ship anything out of here that we would not have in our own gardens.

Thank you for your feedback, however. We respect all customer opinions and experiences and hope that all of it can help us to improve service and licensee issues in the future.

Best Regards,
Jo VonBargen
General Manager, US Office

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