Retiring a rose isn’t by any means an unusual thing to do, and nor am I saying that it isn’t a good thing, by any means. David Austin Roses pride themselves on the health, reliability and outstanding performance of the roses they spend years (sometimes decades) breeding and trialling. Any rose that suffers a bit from blackspot, say, or which doesn’t flower enough, or is in some other way a bit temperamental and generally too high-maintenance for gardeners in the 21st century, gets removed from sale.
