Lovely. Oh, for "smella-vision"...

Fantastic blooming in pots. How do you fertilize Abraham Darby in a pot? Is your own-root? Thank you for any info. I admire your pots, what's the pretty-pot with small-purple blooms in front? Growing roses in pots is much harder than in ground, and your roses look great & lots of blooms. I'm sending some rootings for my sister to grow in pots, and I want to give her the best advice possible. Many thanks !!

Thank you, both! My potted AD is own root. For my established potted roses, I fertilize it with a long acting pellet (this year I did Miracle Gro) and then every 2-4 weeks I feed it Algo Plus.

The small pot in front of AD is Sweet Chariot. It was a tiny band last summer and struggled this spring but is finally growing up a bit.

I love growing roses in pots. It does take extra time to water and I have to feed them more often but they are more protected from wildlife where I live and right outside my bedroom door.

Sorry about the filthy deck. I have a squirrel problem currently as they want to fling dirt out of the pots as they bury their nuts.

Thank you for the info. I didn't even notice the dirt on the deck & your roses made that deck beautiful. I have the same problem with squirrels messing up my rootings, so I check the web: "Squirrels detest the scent of cayenne pepper and chili powder, so sprinkling it around the areas that are affected by squirrels will keep them away. Soaking a rag with ammonia and leaving it in these areas or near vents will get the squirrels out of these areas. The ammonia should be mixed in a container with one part ammonia to three parts water. After a week or so remove the rag, soak it in the ammonia again, and put it back in the affected area."

https://www.hunker.com/12536574/what-repels-squirrels

Thank you, strawchicago! I’ll try that. I purchase two squirrel deterrent products (one spray, one granular) but neither have worked.

Dave , what a lovely Abe you have !! It looks like it enjoys its special pot very much. Do you spray yours ? Mine is 80 percent naked now. I am thinking of replacing it and just enjoying people’s photos of it . I don’t keep up on spraying very well .

Thanks, Lilyfinch! I spray a couple of times right before BS “season” begins - which, for me, is generally in August. I do not spray regularly and I don’t want to grow varieties that need it. AD has done fine for me with doing this and, thankfully, BS hasn’t been as bad this year compared with years past due to the drought we’ve had.

It’s frustrating dealing with a diseased, naked rose and so I don’t blame you for wanting to remove him. That’s a tough decision. I just removed Yves Piaget yesterday and Crocus Rose is coming out this fall because of this.

Now that's what Abe should look like! Maybe I should try Abe in a pot. How big is your pot?

Thanks, Noseometer. Abe is in a 20 in pot, I believe. These large ones from Costco are sturdier and have held up better than ones I have purchased at Lowe’s or Home Depot.

Beautiful rose, and GORGEOUS deck!

That is crazy gorgeous!!!

I agree with vaporvac! My Abes are quite faded in comparison.

Those blooms are gorgeous, Dave. Beautiful rose either way!

At its best it's still one of the most beautiful and sublime of the Austin roses.

Thank you all very much! Temps here have returned to normal the past week to week and a half or so and AD’s more recent blooms have gradually become more typical, being lighter. I agree, sara_ann, I enjoy AD in any shade. I appreciate it, Ingrid - I think Evelyn, Eglantyne, and AD are 3 of Austin‘s most beautiful roses, IMO.

Inspired by Dave's potted Abe, I planted two large pots with my tiny cuttings this year. Thanks for the inspiration, Dave! One day, I hope mine might look as nice as yours!

Your Abes are looking so great, noseometer! That’s awesome!

@Dave5bWY and @noseometer...(7A, SZ10, Albuquerque) how are your Abraham Darby roses doing now that a few seasons have past? I struggle yearly with this one, but I'm planning to move my own root AD back to a pot soon after a disappointing performance in the ground this year. I've read AD doesn't like a pot too much, but it looks like you just threw that theory right out the window!

For me, it turned out that growing roses in pots was not as easy as I thought it would be. With the high heat and the dry climate interspersed with monsoon rains, watering became tricky. Once the mix became dry, it became water repellant and the water routed around the rootball and out the drain hole, the top inch or so seeming wet and fooling me. Then with more attentive watering, the bottom half of the deep pots became an anaerobic swamp. The heat then made the potting mix decompose very quickly, and I didn't realize that the mix had degraded by the second season. This I discovered when I unpotted them (a very heavy undertaking) in the second season. So this trial failed, but not related to Abe at all. I then replaced the soil with a mix including bark, and pumice, but replanted the pots with Desdemona (I had extras, and the Abe's were earlier given away while I decided what to do). So far they are doing well, but I've decided to no longer grow roses in pots. The mix degrades too quickly even with the bark and pumice, and I don't have the energy to repot the big roses anymore.

noseometer Agree that peatmoss and bark decompose fast into dry dust. Vermiculite does not decompose fast like peatmoss and holds moisture longer in pots.

I re-used the soil with vermiculite for my rootings for 2+ years, and the soil stays moist, rather than turning into "dry-dust" with bark and peatmoss medium.

I'm growing own-roots in twelve 7-gallon air-pots, plus five 12-gallon air-pots, and the soil on top constantly dries out. I solved the problem by mixing vermiculite with potting soil to put on top. For the bottom of the pot, I use a potting mix with bark mixed in for fast drainage.

Vermiculite holds moisture like my high-magnesium clay, but it's MUCH FLUFFIER to allow water to pass through. If I put my sticky clay on top of pots, they turn into concrete or rocks in hot sun, but Vermiculite stays moist since it attracts water, rather than repels water like peatmoss and bark.

Andrea (floweraremusic) in her dry climate of only 12" of annual rain .. she mixes coarse vermiculite into her clay for the planting hole.

Another solution is using potting soil with rice hulls, that's what Tahir Khan in Pakistan uses in his 200+ pots in a hot climate up to 121 F. Walmart sells BEYOND PEAT potting soil (purple bag) which has rice hulls and compost, and zero peatmoss. That potting soil decomposes much slower than peatmoss potting soil, and it's dense & wet like my sticky clay (exceedingly high in magnesium).

Below is Abraham Darby in a pot, after 2 months growth from a tiny rooting, pic. taken in June 2021.

It had at least 10 buds in a dinky 3-gallon pot and became stingy when I transferred into my wet clay with less sun. I used MG-moisture control potting soil, plus Osmocote PLUS back then, but I had to water it twice a day thanks to MG-moisture control potting soil draining too fast.

I gave away my roses before moving West but I do have a new Abe in a pot that is blooming and growing well. I have have had to modify my potting soil mixture here for a dry climate. In Missouri, Abe continued to grow and bloom well in his large pot and hopefully will do the same here. It is a challenge changing potting mix, though, with the big roses. Let us know how it goes for you @DLEverette_NC_Zone7b

I’m sure it has been a challenge growing in pots @noseometer...(7A, SZ10, Albuquerque) in a dry but warmer climate. You’ll have to post pictures of your Desdemona sometime. I hope to add her back next year.

Dave4bWY I admire the deep colors of your Abe, what potting soil did you use for Abe? THANK YOU.

My Abe's blooms were faded in MG-moisture control potting soil, and even more faded in my rock-hard clay, below was Abe's first bloom back in June 2021:

@strawchicago z5 - I used Black Gold organic soil - it had good drainage and never has issues with compacted or soggy soil like I did with others in the wet, humid climate. I’m using 1/2 Black Gold Moisure Supreme now in the mix.

@noseometer...(7A, SZ10, Albuquerque) yeah I hear you on the watering issue. I think I have that problem with my potted roses too. I've had several that I water abundantly, but they hold so much of the water at the bottom of the barely 15in tall pots they're in (even with adequate drainage), that they don't really grow much after the first year or so. What I didn't realize was that the soil actually decomposes fast. I've noticed the soil level going down over time in my pots. I just thought it was settling, but never thought that it was decomposing!

Definitely feel you on the weight of the pots too. I've moved soooo many this year and it's not an easy task!

@strawchicago z5 it's funny you mention air pots because I plan to transition all of my roses to them! I've seen such good results from people who use them, particularly @Hoang Ton - Zone 9a (he basically single handedly sold me with his youtube channel. Also, sorry to drag you into this, dude haha). I like the Air Pots because they solve all the water table issues I have with my potted roses. I can also alter them to make them taller if needed. I have a 4 year old own root firefighter rose (full sun - regular watering/fertilizer) that basically did nothing until I put it in one of these (19in wide plastic pot to 12in wide 5 gal air pot) and it took off like a champion after just a couple weeks. The only difference was the air pot. It blew my mind!

@Dave5bWY Nice that you were able to move and have a new Abe going. I'm glad it's going well! I'm hoping moving Abe to air pot will help with the issues I've had with it, since it allows for better air flow around the root zone. Another cool thing about them is if it becomes root bound, I don't have to move the plant at all. I can just remove the side cover and trim off any roots that I need to before putting it back on. I'm really excited about trying these pots out with these roses!

Thanks ya'll for your responses, they were very helpful! I'll try to keep ya'll updated on old Abe as things progress :-)

DLEverette_NC_Zone7b Yes, I give credit to @Hoang Ton for introducing me to air-pots. I bought twelve 7-gallon air-pots, and tiny own-roots shot up so big that I WISH I HAD BOUGHT bigger air-pots. I bought five more 12-gallon air-pots, and it's still too small for 1st-year own-root Kiss me Kate. This grew into a giant "tree" and broke the bottom of my air-pot when I transferred into my clay.

From horticultural studies, healthy soil is composed of approximately 45% mineral, 5% organic matter, 20-30% water, and 20-30% air. Hoang Ton told me he DOES NOT use potting soil for his air-pots, he used bagged garden soil, plus his clay, plus compost. So I tested MG-moisture control potting soil in air-pots versus Hoang Ton's mix, and MG-potting soil was a failure: constant watering, and lack of calcium for faster growth.

Roses DO NOT need high nitrogen to be tall, since air is composed of 78.09% nitrogen. This year with 17 newly bought air-pots, I cut out nitrogen fertilizer completely and use alfalfa tea at NPK 2-1-2, very low nitrogen at 2. And roses get so tall in pots, like 3 feet tall Kiss Me Kate after 2 months as gallon size own root. Or Purple Lodge shot up to 2.5' x 2.5' after 2 months as tiny band from LongAgoRoses, see below:

The own-root roses that refuse to grow are the ones in poor drainage clay and roots choke from lack of air in soaking wet dense clay. Like Versigny was 3 feet tall in a 3-gallon pot, then I transferred to my poor drainage clay and it shrank to 1 foot.

@strawchicago z5 that's an interesting analysis. I was absolutely going to use MG potting mix with my air pots, but the dynamics are a bit different with air pots because of the airflow at the bottom of the pot. Something like garden soil wouldn't work in a regular pot because the particles are too fine, and will hold too much water - drowning the roots, but with an air pot, that problem is pretty much eliminated. Though I suppose with more watering you could compensate, but why run up the water bill unnecessarily? Haha

For the own root roses that did poorly because of the clay, were they in the ground or in the air pots?

DLEverette_NC_Zone7b The own root roses that did poorly were in the ground, with dense clay that acidic rain water can't drain, plus rocks at the bottom.

For my 17 air-pots in heavy rain climate (38" of rain per year plus 7 rain-barrels, and I use 100% rain water) .. the pots with MG-Moisture control potting soil (fast drainage) did poorly, and I had to water it TWICE A DAY.

The pots where I put MG-Garden soil at bottom (dense soil mixed with bark chips), then middle is bagged top soil (black clay broken up with pelletized lime), then 100% peat moss potting soil at root-level, then dense compost on top, did best in hot & dry weather. Below is Augusta Luis with 10 buds after 4 months of purchase as band-size own-root from LongAgoRoses. It has zillion of petals so I mixed pelletized lime with dense soil for faster drainage and more minerals in air-pots. Pic. taken 9/6/22. Purple Lodge is behind it, also tiny own-root from LongAgoRoses (constant bloomer now at 3 feet tall) bought mid-May: