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Summer Song is a really special rose in a rare colour. That said, I really hate these secretive "seedling x seedling" statements. Mr Austin did not invent roses, he built upon the works of others, who themselves have been building upon the works of others for generations. Nobody can make me believe Mr Austin got Summer Song as a chance seedling with unknown parentage. By not disclosing the parentage, he wants to prevent others from going down the same road in hybridising.
Of course it's not only an Austin phenomenon, and part of my argument is vain because I can use Summer Song itself in hybridising, but I still find this kind of non-disclosure irritating to say the least.
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It would be fun to guess the parentage. I grow two own-root Pat Austin with shiny & glossy foliage, and I can see some Pat Austin in pictures of Summer Song's leaves. Pat is a water-hog and can't take full-sun & best in 4 hours of morning sun. Pat Austin has a mango scent (like Summer Song). Another rose that might be in Summer Song's parentage is Geranium Red (amazing scent & many petals, but wimpy).
The glossy-foliage like Summer Song and Pat Austin need alkaline minerals & shade and constant wetness more than others, in my experience of growing 110+ OWN-ROOT roses.
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#3 of 3 posted
17 DEC by
 jmile
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I got my first Summer Song this year. We get very hot in the Summer in Zone 9B so I put it where it only got sun half day. It grew very listlessly. It produced some flowers but not much----so I moved it into full sun and heat----It loved it. It perked up and sent out new growth. I didn't water it a lot either---- it was adapt or die and it chose to adapt and it is looking a lot better. I am hoping that next year will be even a better year in full sun and hot weather. I got two more young plants this Fall so I will experiment. Maybe graft it onto Fortuniana to see how that goes.
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The habit of not disclosing parentage is particularly annoying for us who garden in difficult climates because it prevents us from studying lineages to help us determine whether a cultivar can thrive in our climate and soil conditions. It does help a little to know in which of his five categories Austin places his roses, but even that information is not always or often included in nursery descriptions.
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New Dawn has been a success story for me.
Planted in a corner where she doesn't get much sun (well, nothing in my garden gets much sun!), she had to climb up the garage which she achieved in her first year. Once up, she now spreads vertically on top of the wall and the garage roof.
There is a huge hazel tree growing in the park next to the garage, and in the autumn the garage roof gets sprayed with both hazel nut clusters and leaves. When I don't sweep them off meticulously, they decompose quickly into some sort of topsoil, allowing both grass to grow and - more importantly - New Dawn's branches to form roots.
In spring, when pruning, I climb onto the garage, pull at New Dawn's branches, see where the roots have formed, cut the branch off and plant it into a pot. The loose nature of the "topsoil" makes removing the rooted branches super easy.
This way, I have been multiplying my New Dawn without any effort on my part, and clones of her are now growing relatively happily as part of a (future) rose hedge in my Eifel orchard - I say relatively happy because they are constantly threatened by voles, deer and harsh conditions. But they do establish themselves where lots of other roses fail.
If you want a robust and beautiful rose, have the space but not the time (with New Dawn, I only prune what's in the way and never dead-head) AND don't mind the vicious thorniness then New Dawn is for you.
PS: Veilchenblau which spreads on the same garage roof never forms roots.
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'New Dawn' is a great rose and a real survivor. Driving around town today, I noticed a big old bush of 'New Dawn' sort of abandoned at one end of a fence line. It was vigorous and flowering beautifully.
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I have been sticking cuttings in the ground when pruning, and Climbing Alberich is one that roots readily and blooms in its second year while still in the "wobbly stick" phase.
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I have been sticking cuttings in the ground when pruning, and Christine Hélène is one that roots readily and blooms in its second year while still in the "wobbly stick" phase.
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