We must have been writing at the same time, Ingrid. Actually it must not be quite as hot a spot as I’ve made it sound. There is no hardscaping to reflect heat, and I have a few other happy roses there already. ‘Queen of Sweden’ just can’t handle it. The blooms are small and blow within a day during the summer. I had hoped that QoS would be wonderful during this time of year, but I’m not impressed. There are very few blooms, and they’re still small and blah. They do hold together for a couple of days on the bush now, but I’m not crazy about the bush either. The leaves have an almost gray cast to the green, if that makes sense. I don’t give up on a rose easily, but my QoS is about to be dethroned. ‘October Moon’, another Paul Barden rose, is next to QoS, and doesn’t mind the shade until 10 or 11 and then full hot sun. I even have the HT ‘Princess Charlene de Monaco’ on the other side of ‘October Moon’. Her blooms do fade in the summertime, but otherwise she definitely does just fine, thriving. All I have to do is provide enough water. My soil is rich clay, and it retains the water very well. Even though Ingrid’s home is only about 10 miles from mine, my “scorching hot” isn’t quite the Hades that hers is in summer. It’s my lower altitude and closer proximity to the ocean, I think. About the only thing I liked about QoS was her tall and narrow form. I don’t expect that from Siren’s Keep, but I really do need to be sure it won’t get wide and sprawling before planting it there. Otherwise, here I come ‘La France’! Lisa

Sorry for the late reply to your query Joe. I haven't been on the forum much over winter, busy with other things. I did go up to the Summerland Ornamental Gardens yesterday to do a quick check on the roses. We had a very difficult winter with a warm November and December, and in early January a sudden flash freeze with temperatures as low as -27 C for a week or so. It is still late winter here and the soil is yet frozen to a degree. Summerland is rated as zone 6b, but we had 5a temeratures with strong arctic catabatic winds and wind chill during the cold snap. So, on to the roses. Most of them will be going into their 3rd growing season this summer, and so are still immature plants. I am happy to report that all of them survived. Many have quite a bit of cane damage, but they all have live cane close to the ground and some have swelling buds already. The collection at the Gardens consists of the following: Marianne, Gallicandy, Oshun, Jerry Jennings and Treasure Trail. We also have Allegra, Janet Inada, Mel's Heritage and Won Fang Yon in the greenhouse at Fraser Valley Rose Farm in Deroche. I will continue to look for viable opportunities to acquire more varieties if feasible, but won't be actively seeking them out. We imported six cuttings of each, along with many more early Austin varieties and a few other hard to find varieties last spring. Jason stuck the cuttings and has been growing them on over winter. I have not spoken with Jason for a month or so, but he is doing an inventory and I will know in a few weeks what took. As well as putting Paul's Plants into the collection at Summerland, Jason will be growing Barden varieties as well and will no doubt have some for sale in Canada in a few years. We too will propagate from the plants in the Summerland collection when the mother plants are mature enough. We will sell our resulting plants at our spring plant sale and our annual Rose Tour held in June. The proceeds will go to help support the Ornamental Gardens. So by my count, we have nine of Paul's varieties in the two Canadian collections. They should be secure for a long time in our Public Garden, which is now 110 years old. We of course were unable to get all of the varieties that we might have liked, but we did pretty well in my books. Because the whole idea of the project was to secure and currate some of Paul's varieties in a safe place, I guess we have a success. An additional intent was to allow us to propagate and share these lovely plants with others. Jason will be able to do that better than we can at the Gardens in the next few years and may in fact eventually begin shipping to the US as his new nursery grows. But again, that will be a few years down the road. Even propagating plants for sale here in Canada is still a year or two away. But then this project started in 2019 and we are now entering year six, but we are on the road to reaching our long term goals. I know many on the forums are familiar with Jason through his You Tube Videos and website. he is young, energetic and a cutting edge nurseryman and Rosarian who shares my passion for preserving rare, garden worthy varieties. For those of you in Canada, check out his website and support him if you can.

Thank you everyone. I don’t know if Paul is online much anymore, but if he happens to stumble upon this post at some point- I want him to know how much this beautiful rose (and the entire bed of his roses) has given me in the midst of an incredibly difficult year.

Darn you two--Mme Hardy is one of the few once-bloomers I'm hemming and hawwing about. I was thinking Boule de Neige might be similar with the button eye, which is why I sprang for that instead. David Austin loved the flower shape of BdN. I've also got Commandant Beaurepaire somewhere--maybe a dead twig--which is or isn't remontant depending on whom you ask. I'll find a place for a once-bloomer someplace, but it has to be absolutely spectacular.