Hi Catsrose: I would love to see your photos & your garden. The camera I use is Olympus that my hubby bought at Sam's club. In my last house of acidic clay, mulched with pine bark (pH of 5.4, if wet goes down to 3.8) .... all my hybrid teas grafted on Dr. Huey were BS-fest. Now I realize that Dr. Huey likes it DRY and alkaline. Here's what I wrote in the thread, "Your most healthy and no-spray roses?" Someone asked if own-root is healthier. My answer is yes, since it's easier to find an own-root suitable for one's soil and climate, than to make Dr. Huey works for all types. Here's why: 1) Tammy in TN with acidic red clay & good rainfall reported GRAFTED on Dr. Huey's decline in her soil. 2) I put a Knock-out grafted on Dr. Huey in a wet alkaline clay. That went downhill. I moved it, and put an own-root Romantica Sweet Promise, always healthy, gave me 70+ blooms in 1st year. 3) I planted an grafted HT Heirloom in a pot. It's clean in that dry pot, until I moved into a wet bed, topped with acidic leaves ... broke out in BS instantly. I dug that up, and Dr. Huey's root shrank. 4) I killed a Knock-out grafted on Dr. Huey in that wet bed ... Dr. Huey gone, and it grew own-root. Compare that to my killing a Knock-out in a DRY SPOT: it has both Dr. Huey and own-root together. However, it broke out in cercospora fungal infestation after week-long rain in the fall. Cercospora is much smaller dots than black spots. See picture below of that Knock-out: I moved plenty of roses in my zone 5a garden. The difference between own-root and grafted-on-Dr.Huey: Own-root spread outs, some horizontally from the main trunk, and can survive wetness better. It's more efficient to transport water from a spreading root. Roses bloom better if trained sideway, rather than upward. Sap and nutrients flow better if it doesn't have to fight gravity. Grafted roots have to go UP through a bud union, it's not an efficient water-transport system of HAVING TO PASS through that knob, esp. when that bud union is damaged by winter or acidity. Grafted-on-Dr. Huey is great for a dry climate like CA. Dr. Huey can go through rock-hard clay better than my shovel. However, Dr. Huey declines if buried deep in a cold zone, or in acidic soil. In my last house of acidic clay, I dug up a dozen BS-fest grafted hybrid teas, all roots shrank. Compare that to my moving own-roots in my alkaline clay, and finding them much bigger with time. Own-roots bloom earlier too. Knock-outs grafted on Dr. Huey are slower to bloom, Dr. Huey is hardy to zone 6b, and not below 5b like some own-roots.

I always thought Mme. Isaac Pereire the strongest old rose scent, then Comte de Chambord, and then I added Yolande D'Aragon which matched Mme. I.P. This year, in his third year, William Shakespeare 2000 finally had a strong scent; and Sidonie is beating out Mme. I.P., with Duchesse de Rohan, which I don't remember being said to be that strong, equalling Sidonie. Mr. Lincoln is one of the few H.T.s that I think has a fairly strong smell, and it is the old damask scent, although my only (non Portland damask) damask, La Ville de Bruxelles, hasn't bloomed yet, so I can't compare her. I don't remember her having a strong damask scent at all. Others say my Enfant de France has a strong scent but not so to me. September Morn, a 1913 HT, from memory has a strong scent but hasn't bloomed yet this year. My sole Alba, Felicite Parmentier, is fragant but doesn't match the others.

Thank you all for your encouraging comments. Your fall bloom really shows the lovely deeper pink veining on each petal, Luanne. I first took an interest in acquiring this rose when Susan Irvine a prolific and well-respected Australian writer on roses named it as one of her great favorites. As you probably know it is quite widely grown in the U.K. Last year I managed to save 18 seeds from a cross between Mme G.S. and Cicely Lascelles one of the prettiest Australian-bred climbers from the Alister Clark stable. I've planted these seeds only in the last week. I'll be interested to see the results. Brenton

That is so odd about DdB, no I don't have any Eucalypts anywhere nearby. I noticed the downward-pointing floppy wilted (yes, also slightly rolled) leaves when it was still in the pot I bought it in and even returned it to the nursery to ask advice. I was sure it must be verticillium wilt or similar. They said it was normal for DdB. I 100% know it had enough water as it was in a pot getting watered everyday! I even watered twice daily to see if I could change the new wilted growth but nothing happened and it wasn't even hot. I had significant misgivings about planting it in the ground, I guess I'll just keep an eye on it!