I am in a bit warmer and probably much more humid area but south it is. I have two Eden roses and I grow them as large shrubs without any problem. They have stiff canes and quite wide, so I think it is easier to grow them this way. Except for a few taller canes it is a 6-7 ' shrub here but I prune it back to 5 in spring and it gets a haircut in mid-season.

There must be several clones out there because a lot of rosarians complain about the lack of repeat with Eden; for me it does pretty well.

Foliage is better than average but not by any means clean all the time.

My 2 Edens flower well and I get decent repeat - if I water regularly and fertilize more often than I do in case of shrub roses (climbers, IMO, do need more food than regular shrubs).

There are two major problems with this rose in my climate: thrips and botrytis. I hope the calcium-botrytis thread is available by search because that thread started by MichaleG provides easy and inexpensive tools to prevent botrytis.

Thrips are far more difficult to control - whichever insecticide I decide to use I mist only the buds and don't spray the entire plant to avoid if possible to bring about spider mite infestation. Time-to-time I decide not to do anything but then the flowers are ruined. If you do not have thrips in great number you can just ignore this issue (I could until I collected too many roses and had to plant them too close to each other- by doing this I created a paradise for these horrid insects).

Thanks ceterum! I just love the blooms on Eden and thought i'd give her a whirl. I'm hoping she'll grow fairly tall since I'm putting her on a pergola. Thanks for the info. April

I'm a bit north of you, but close enough, perhaps, to be of some help.

I grow Eden wrapped around a tower-structure (why can't I think of the name of that thing!). By three years, it was trying to put out some 10-12 ft. canes. If you are going to train Eden, do it while the canes are young and flexible. They get rather thick and rigid with age.

Everything Ceterum said is true for my Edens also. And let me add that the blooms are heart-breakingly beautiful.

Kate

Hi kate...do you have a problem with thrips and botrytis too? I would like this rose to get fairly tall so thanks for the heads up. I will train her young. April

I don't remember any botrytis, but my region may be drier than some other places. I complain about humidity here, but I suspect it is a much bigger problem in the southeast than it is here.

However, I did have a bit of a thrips problem in the spring--not too bad, but definitely annoying. I treated it as ceterum explained. That seemed to solve it for the rest of the summer.

Don't crowd your roses--air flow helps reduce some of those problems.

Kate

Thanks again Kate! Yes, humidity is terrible here in Ga. I am just getting started with hybrid teas and some english this year. How far apart do you recommend planting? I've heard 3 to 4 ft. is good. Also what do you use for companion plants? I'm gonna mix in some clematis for sure and probably some lillies and phlox. I just love love phlox! Thanks a bunch. April

I'm not the best advisor for Georgia rose growing since I've never even been there, but going by the posts I often see here, I would say that you better be prepared to spray for blackspot if you intend to grow hybrid teas and Austins. Do you have your Bayer Advanced Garden Disease Control spray ready? That is a fungicide only, so don't confuse it with the other Bayer products which are various combos.

You might want to hang out at the Antique Roses forum for a while. Many southern rose growers swear they got much better results when they gave up hybrid teas and started growing old roses of various kinds. Again, I can't tell you much about them, although I grow a handful that fall in that category.

I also love phlox and lilies somewhere in a rose bed. Salvia and daylilies also make great companions. And hardy geraniums also. And I add clematis anywhere I can find a place to grow it. Have some kind of dark purple clematis growing on my Eden, but I can't remember the name now. You do know that it might take about 3 years for the clematis to really bloom profusely, don't you?

Sounds like you have the start of a good garden. Just keep on hanging around the forums, and you'll be surprised how many new ideas you start picking up. It's great fun!

Kate

yes i've bought and actually already sprayed some of the bayer. I read stuff on here about how good it is. I figured i'd go ahead and get started spraying to try to ward off anything before it gets a chance to rear its ugly head! I sure hope I can grow the teas and austins cause I LOVE the pictures I see on here. I know it will be more work to keep them healthy but I'm gonna give it a shot. I have about 4 clematis now so I am aware of how they do. I'd like to get some more of them for sure. I have tons of ko's and other roses as well. I went shopping for furniture today and came out of the FURNITURE store with a hanging basket and a flower planter. My husband just shakes his head! LOL!

Yup--you got it. Chronic Rose-itis. That's what happens when you hang out on these forums too much. It's severely contagious too. LOL

Kate