Take it back unless you want leaflessness or to spray with real fungicides. Safer ain't gonna cut it on any roses in the South. The most effective organic fungicide (40% in my personal trial) is sulpher. Contrast that with propiconazole at 95%. Please do research all of your spray options if you love this rose though, because many modern choices are not as toxic as you may think they are, and require much less spraying.

Research tea roses (NOT hybrid teas) noisettes, chinas, polyanthas, and hybrid musks if you want a profusion of healthy scented roses that are far more disease resistant than either the hybrid teas or Austins. You can grow no spray roses in the SOuth, but they won't be many modern roses included in the bunch.

I grow Abe with regular use of sulfur spray (Safer is one brand). Usually he is OK, with just a moderate amount of blackspot, but this month he has lost a lot of leaves. (It has been a particularly bad year for blackspot here.) I think you would need to use the Safer product nearly every week to keep him looking halfway decent.

You could make a trip to Roses Unlimited near GSP and see some old tea roses in bloom.

Thanks for the advice. The safer spray I have is sulfur. Is there a stronger spray, HollySprings? The package on this one says Sulfur 0.40%. I think I like this rose enough to spray weekly with a sulfur product. It's going to be in a large container on my patio for a while, so it shoudn't be too hard to remember. And I definitely want to go to RU, but I haven't been able to get a day off when they are open : ( I would LOVE to try some teas...can you grow them where you're at MichaelG? I'm still really new to Roses and I'm waiting to really get started until I can pick out some older, reliably disease -resistant ones, but I couldn't resist this beauty!

Summer, Asheville isn't a very good climate for teas. A few are grown here, but they need spraying and don't get as big. I don't have any myself.

Thanks, Hilary...glad to hear someone has luck! What other Austins do well for you?

Scepter d'Isle, Graham Thomas,Jude the Obscure, Buff Beauty,Heritage. I just planted Tamora and am hoping for good success there, too. All my Austins are my most fragrant and they really pump those blooms out. Mine, like I said, are in containers except buff beauty and Graham Thomas. They are huge after 1 yr. and have to have structure to climb on. Good luck and try anything. I look at it as the price of a dinner out. If it doesn't work, then you haven't lost a lot. If you love roses, you'll feed them and enjoy them. I won't spray, though as I'm totally organic and refuse to start that madness. If it can't be happy being loved to death, then I don't want it.
Hilary

Hi Summer,

We are in exactly the same zone although your area maybe a tad more humid in summer but probably with less rain than mine (I know it sounds contradictory...but it seems to be true). Abraham is one of the more beautiful and vigorous of the Austins. It also gets large (it has climbing tendencies and will do so if you let it). If Abe end up doing well for you, you can even venture out and try other kinds of Austins too.

I use sulfur for my roses mainly, but I have to be remember whenever I use oil-based products on my roses because it causes leaf burn and deformity. So far with Sulfur every week, the roses were relatively clean. Right now in fall, with our good helping of nonstop rain, I have to spray a little more often becuase the sulfur gets washed off (sulfur has no residual effect so once it's washed off, it has to be reapplied to work).

BTW. Since you spray your roses anyway, HT's ought to be given another chance no? There are some very beautiful HT's out there. I find that Austins are not necessarily more resistant to disease than regular HT's so with spraying both types will be able to perform well and look lush.

I grow Abe without spraying most years, and though he may get a little leggy from blackspot, he generally retains about a third to half of his top leaves and stays vigorous. With a sulfur spray program you can keep him much cleaner than that and less leggy.

My Abraham Darbys blackspot pretty badly but are always blooming, even in a very shady location. Paul Barden (he posts on this board sometimes) has released a hybrid of Abraham Darby called Oshun. I have not grown it personally, but it is on my wish list for next year. From what I hear, it is more disease resistant than Abe and holds its color better. The only place I know where you can purchase it is at www.uncommonrose.com. It may be worth a shot.

I live in Montgomery Co., MD (6b) and my 2 yr old Abe is trying desperately to climb (so's Teasing Georgia). I don't want this to happen!! Wouldn't have bought either if I'd know.

So, question: how much pruning can they take throughout the summer, to keep them a maneagable size, before stress sets in? How much and how hard?

I'm fairly new to roses, but most of mine are happy, even with bs attacks.

Many thanks!

I prune my AD every spring to sturdy wood and it grows like a strong bush.
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Olga

Here is my experience with Abe in Central Florida.

It is a lovely rose, but unfortunately, the insects share my opinion. On the other hand, it is a fighter. I just started growing roses last year and then six months ago my mom bought a house and inherited an antique rose garden (Abe was in it, the only rose that wasn't an antique!).
Anyways, in her garden, they were all neglected for the last two years because of emotional turmoil the previous owners had gone through culminating in divorce. Abe didn't get the best air circulation and suffered the worst blackspot of all the roses, even worse than Autumn Damask (this is in Lakeland, Florida). He has two blooms on him even though it is January and his leaves are black with green spots.
In my yard minutes away (Plant City, FL), I put him against a chain link fence and I've never seen blackspot. From the moment I brought him home, though, the bugs have just loved him. NONE of my other roses have the problems he does. Perhaps he is such candy to them they forsake chewing on my other roses and go straight to him? I have no problem with spraying, but I suddenly faced a debilitating pregnancy and literally cried at times because I couldn't tend the roses I had just lovingly planted (Summer '05) and was so excited about as it was a brand new venture for me. So it was survival of the fittest in my garden.

The pregancy will be over any day now and I got my energy back recently and have been in the garden since. I was pruning my roses just the other day when one was found to have cane borers (disgusting!!). Which one? Yep, Abe Darby.
But he is still green as ever and ready to put out blooms!