Hi Mike, Deb likes Summer Sunshine so I tolerate it. The faults I see are typical of most yellows here. Blooms open way too fast, color fades fast and not enough fragrance. A bloom that opens that fast needs to smell like Sunsprite for me to 'like' it. The bush is a bit lanky for my taste too. I don't want to be able to see through the bush. Picky sonuvagun ain't I?
On the pro side: SS gets through winter fine. It has decent flushes (3 dozen or a bit more). Turnaround time is decent. It attracts a lot of attention when in bloom. The lady across the street almost slapped me when I mentioned I wanted to put another rose in its place. SS is in the center of the front yard under the windmill. She said she loves standing at the sink doing her dishes and gazing at SS. She would be very displeased if I moved it :) Wonder just when I lost control of the roses in the yard? Deb definitely took control but now the neighbor lady has joined forces with her??? Come to think of it... I was probably fooling myself thinking I was ever in control.
Another thing to consider with my opinion, yellow is one of my least favorite rose colors :) SS is a decent garden rose that will never make the favorite list.

Mike did you buy it? How pretty. I love it.

So Dave you don't really care for it because it is yellow? Otherwise it sounds like a great rose and it sure is lovely.
And here I thought you were an equal opportunity rose enthusiast and now I find out you are prejudiced against yellows. Even though you grow that one so well:)

Have to keep my eye out for Summer Sunshine. I like it.

Kate

LOL, you and Deb would get along fine. PreDebbie roses in my gardens were fragrant reds. I would have multiple Crimsom Glory, Mirandy, Chrysler Imperial, Oklahoma, Don Juan and Climbing CG. The only non reds were a Charlotte Armstrong (for Mom) and a Tropicana (for Aunt Ann). I could usually hide them pretty well. I wasn't interested in other roses. My pals did fine for me. Didn't want any of those hideous other colored roses. As recently as 15 years ago I would have laughed myself silly if you said I would have a mauve/lavender thang in the yard. Blends? What a joke :) The things I do for Deb's smiles....
If SS smelled like Sunsprite or if blooms lasted as long as Helmut Schmidt it would have a better chance of getting higher on the favorite list. Deb's #1 favorite rose, Rio Samba , has made to my top 10 list. Oh, the horror.... the depths a red rose snob can sink to.

I understand. My husband is very keen on reds also. I'm trying to incorporate more deep reds to suit his taste.

You did say 'hideous'? You are more hooked on certain rose colors than I thought mister! I can respect that though.

Yes what we do for our significant others don't we? I will check out your other yellow suggestions though. Thanks Dave.

Kate

Digger, I thought of your gorgeous Lucille Ball today when I was planting mine. It arrived from Palatine, lovely healthy bareroot, I soaked it for 24 hours and put it in a hole fit for royalty.....in prime location, and covered the canes in mulched leaves. I will be so excited to see this coveted apricot bloom - thats my favorite color, and your glorious photos kept reminding me that I needed to be patient and hope to acquire it someday. Now.....if it will just grow and bloom for me!
Judith

Judith, I am with you. In the future, hopefully, I don't have to salivate over the teasing photos Digger kept posting about Lucille. And my favorite colors are also apricots and reds, mostly very dark and out of the world fragrant reds (like Papa Meilland). I do not plant them in the same bed though.

Thanks Digger! I'm not a real big fan of yellows either, but I knew it was not readily available, and that sparks interest for me.

Kate - yep, I sure did buy it! It's in the basement now soaking until I can figure out what to do with a bareroot with 15 inches of snow on the ground.

My pleasure Mike :) Everyone else that sees SS in the yard likes the rascal. I try to mention that if I comment about a rose I'm not very fond of. Stan has or had SS too. I was wondering if he would read this and reply.

Kate, hideous may be a little carried away, LOL. I liked other roses... in someone else's yard. You should have seen me when Deb had Rio Samba and Blue Girl waiting to be planted here. Deb couldn't stop laughing at me when I saw them. All she had to do was bat those baby blues. Don't tell anyone but my favorite 10 HTs now includes Lucy, Double Delight, Rio Samba, Granada, Sterling Silver and Brigadoon. Secret is going to be on the list soon.

That is great Judith! Hope she does as well or better for you, seriously :)

ceterum, LOL, no apologies for keeping Lucy in the public eye. Been hoping she would be available to others for 9 years now :) Don't want to think of all the emails I sent to J&P over that time.

I cannot wait to get my Lucille Ball also. Judith I'm glad it was a nice fat, happy bare root. Mine won't arrive for another couple of weeks and with any luck I'll have my new rose bed ready by that time.

Kate

Hmmmm... not readily available? That must be something that happened recently. I remember back in the mid-late 90's it was the standard for yellows, and everybody had it in the bagged bareroots. I never liked it myself. Gave mine to my mom yrs ago. And a friend had one and she didn't particularly care for it, but it did perform really well for her. Got about 6-7ft tall, straight upright, bloomed a lot. I seem to remember it gets reddish colored canes which were interesting.

Beth,
When saying that, I am going by who sells it as reported by HMFR. Only Vintage and Hortico have it as a mail order, and Vintage only as a custom root.

Yeah, but now that you brought it up, I haven't seen it as a bagged bareroot for quite awhile either! It used to be as common as QE and MR LINCOLN, etc.

Should I tell you that it was a Canadian Body Bag? I am finding more and more around my area that are from wholesale nurseries in SW Ontario. Maybe because they are only about 3 hours away from where I live. I do not remember the nursery, but it was in Port Burwell, ON, Canada.

Same here, I used to see it all the time at local nurseries. Don't recall seeing it this century.... geez, shouldn't have said that. I feel old now :)

Hey, my 11 year old commented this past weekend on how she was old because she was born in the last century if that makes you feel any better!

Thanks for trying Mike :) That just reminded me that my granddaughter graduated from high school last year, LOL.