Scepter'd Ilse

Classification: Shrub, also English Rose, Austin
Hybridizer: David Austin
Year Intro'd 1997
Color: Pink
Bloom Form: 2", double, open cupped
Repeat Bloom: Very good
Fragrance: Strong Myrrh
Growth Habit: Throws five to seven foot arching canes regularly.. Can be trained as a climber. Responds well to cutting back large canes by 2/3 to promote full bushy growth.
Size: 4'-10' depending on pruning or growing as climber.
Rootstock: Grafted, Dr. Huey
Foliage: Medium green, small leaves.
Specific to plant reviewed:
Age: Beginning 3rd growing season
Rootstock: Grafted, Dr. Huey
Source: Target

I have to admit, I bought this rose fairly late in the season, potted at Target simply because it was an Austin and I kept hearing in the web community about how great Austins are. I had no knowledge of this rose in particular, any real knowledge of Austins in general, nor had I yet heard those magic words 'octopus growth' or 'gets much bigger in warm climates'. I also didn't know about researching a variety in books or on the web to try to learn about them before buying them, or, at the very least, before planting them. Needless to say, the realities of this rose came as something of a surprise.

I planted it in my first circle bed. A bed about five foot in diameter that I then planted six roses evenly spaced around the circumference. Had I known then what I know now, I'd have scrapped the other five entirely and plopped Scepter'd Isle in the middle and grown her nice and big, letting her arch in a lovely mounding shrub for the full circumference. Instead, she's sort of at one end and I have removed the two roses that originally flanked her. Fortunately, the neighbors next door like roses and don't get put out when she crosses the invisible line between our properties or I'd be in real trouble. The remaining roses in the bed ended up a mix of heights and other roses have been culled and replaced accordingly. Scepter'd Isle is now the large queen in an otherwise short bed (3' roses).

When Scepter'd Isle threw its first six foot cane, I was astonished and based more on desperation than informed decision, I cut it back to three feet at an outward facing bud after it had finished blooming out on the end of that cane. It immediately sent out several canes from that point in more directions than just where the bud was. I don't believe I've otherwise experienced a rose that does it quite like that. These new canes were shorter, a bit more lateral and sent out blooms at multiple points along the canes, a sign it will do well trained as a climber with lots of canes stretched out laterally, or pegged for the same effect.

My experience is that Scepter'd Isle's resistence to Powdery Mildew is pretty strong as I went many months through cool and hot weather both, two or three times in her short little life without spraying owing to family issues and work time constraints and she remained clean. Spider mites love her, but she doesn't appear to be a thrip magnet.

I entered my first rose shows this season and I entered two very full bouquets from this bush. Overall, I must have cut off over 100 clusters from this rose over three weekends and there were still a couple dozen clusters the following weekend. Of course, now I'm waiting for her next big flush, but she still has a number of clusters blooming in between.I find the cupped shape with an open middle to be quite charming, and if the first year's blooms were only semi double, the blooms since, and especially this year in the start of her third growing season, are fuller and just stunning in an old fashioned, victorian sort of way.

I have a number of other Austin's now, Tess Of the D'Ubervilles, The Prince, Falstaff, Glamis Castle, Pat Austin, Golden Celebration, Graham Thomas, to name a few. Scepter'd Isle was first and I will always have one.