Hi guys and girls :o) Thank you for the advice! I was hoping it would be less complicated... :o/ But it seem that I have to wait the new flowering, then take new detailed pictures to show you. I have seen on HMF the pictures of 'Hugo Roller', but the flower shape is too globular. Flowers on my rose are ever-nodding, as you can easily see in my second picture. The colour in the last picture isn't the rule, I've posted it just to show how much it could be variable. Also, there's no records of 'Hugo Roller' in old italian catalogues, and it seems to be the same now everywhere in Europe. I was wondering about Niles Cochet, seeing the two older pictures of it on HMF, who looks almost identical. But I've never see first hand a labeled plant of a Cochet family (so curious, even Walter Branchi have never had these roses in his very large collection of Teas and Chinas...) Another quality of my rose is in her petals: they are very thin, like 'Mlle Franziska Frueger' or 'Mme Lambard'. That's why, I think, it balls so frequently. I have in my garden since few weeks, start growin', Maman Cochet: in a few more weeks, I'll be able to see if her foliage and flower shape are the same of my rose or not... Ciao!:o) Maurizio

Musaboru, I have 3 Wedding Cake roses on their own root from Burlington. I was warned that they probably wouldn't do as well on their own root as grafted but I wanted the own root anyway. I probably ordered them two years ago, got them 9 months later, potted them up in one gallon (they were very tiny) and had to wait another year before they were big enough to put in the ground. So far, they are doing OK. They still are small (less than 2 feet tall and less than a foot wide) but I think they will do better their second year in the ground. That said, they handle the heat well and have interesting color variations on the flowers depending on how long they have been on the plant. I get lots of compliments on them. If they were bigger, I would send you cuttings. I have had very good luck with cuttings from Ralph Moore roses. Lavendar Crystal is one of my favorites. Just stick a cane in the ground and it will grow. Love that rose. It is a beauty.

Sounds just like my Hugo Roller. If I ever learn how, I will post a picture. Mine is enjoying a lovely autumn flush and your description fits it perfectly. The colours vary a bit in the different seasons (the nicest colours are now in autumn) - very typical of tea roses. Rach

Sorry Adam, I don't have a photo. Ross Roses in S.A. describe it as a medium sized bush, and I see from Margaret Furness's pic on HelpMeFind that it can be kept pruned short. (There are 4 of them planted in a row at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens - I expect you've seen that photo.) I know I've seen it at Ross Roses, before their display gardens were destroyed by the drought, but my only, pretty hazy, memory, is that it wasn't very full and leafy - a bit straggly in fact; although that could've been due to some stress or other - a lot of their roses hadn't seemed too happy, I thought, for some years. I wonder if the reason the ones in the photo were pruned short was to make them branch out/ fuller? That might back up my hazy recollection. Anyway, presumably they didn't resent this treatment. Perhaps someone else will have a picture. Alternatively, you could try the Roses in Oz forum, or perhaps you could contact/post a question for Margaret Furness on HelpMeFind? - I see she grows it in her own garden too. BTW, did you manage to come to any decision on a rose for your kumquat tree? Please tell us on that thread if you did - it's always nice to hear when there's a conclusion to these dilemmas! I know, I should get a life! LOL Comtesse :ì)