Another fascinating and beautiful collection. I was glad to see William R. Smith looking so beautiful since I have it. I've only allowed it to have one or two of its gorgeous blooms since I'm trying to get the bush to grow quickly. Marjorie Palmer is exquisite; love those stamens. Ingrid

Carrie, I have a few of these. Chrysler Imperial was one of my first roses and it really does have fairly good blackpot resistance in my garden. Keeps most of it's leaves. Huge blooms that are very fragrant. I love it. William R. Smith is a favorite. The blooms are large for a Tea and beautiful. The bush is huge. Seriously. He doesn't seem to mind some pruning. I try to keep him at about 6-7 feet. He would easily be 8-10 feet if I let him go. Gets some BS here but keeps most of his foliage and regrows the leaves he loses. Mme. Jules Bouche is new to me so I can't really give you an assessment yet. So far, the blooms are very pretty, a few blackspot leaves. Mrs. Charles Bell takes a while to get established on her own roots but she really took off last year and has formed a beautiful bush that was over 5 ft tall this year. The rebloom and number of blooms increases as she gets established. Blooms are a pretty peachy pink color and of course she is fragrant. Again, some blackspot but keeps most of her foliage. CdB is only 3 years in my garden from a small band and she is over 5 ft and blooms a lot. She was fairly clean all year but started dropping leaves and having blackspot problems this fall. Still has a fair amount of foliage and has a really nice fragrance. Gloire won't keep a leaf here. I have two plants, one grafted and one ownroot. I'm glad she does well for you. I've seen BdO but not grown it, and it is beautiful! Carol

Jasper, if you look at the entries in HMF about a Climber, you'll see that there are roses with two parents ... which produced a climber. A good example of that would be 'Fourth of July.' (Note that it's not, officially, 'Cl. Fourth of July.' -- Just 'Fourth of July.' It does not exist in a bush form) Its parents are 'Roller Coaster' X 'Altissimo.' =========== Now, look, by contrast, at your 'Cl. Snowbird.' It has only ONE parent! It is a Climbing sport of the Bush form of 'Snowbird.' 'Snowbird' (The BUSH form, Int. in 1936) has two parents: 'Chastity' X 'Louise Crette.' 'CL. Snowbird', OTOH, was int. in 1949. It has only ONE parent! It is listed as a "Sport of 'Snowbird.'" I went with your example of 'Cl. Snowbird' because I know 'Snowbird' reasonably well. It is a tall-growing, upright rose, which repeats in SoCal like a house-afire. In its day, it was a top Exhibition rose. Our 'Snowbird' was collected as "Louise Avenue," at a very old home in the San Fernando Valley -- where a friend collected literally armloads of blooms, in mid-January. So, I don't know if you will EVER get generous bloom from your 'Cl. Snowbird,' but I wouldn't bet the farm on it. OTOH, I KNOW you can get generous bloom from the original bush form. And, BTW, we had the same experience years ago, when we planted 'Cl. Peace.' I am VERY patient with roses, but 'Cl. Peace' gave us one bloom in 3-4 years, AND committed the additional sin of rusting. (And that's when we sprayed!) SO before you buy a modern Climbing Rose, check the parentage, to see if it had two parents. :-) Jeri

oh, white roses - my favourites. How to choose though. Would have to start with the fabulous Nevada - like a stately galleon, sailing across the grass/weed patch. Like Mariannese, i must put in a vote for the charming double white. As a rule, single roses have always stole my heart but these dainty cupped blossoms, alomg with the delicious ferny leaves, fit brilliantly amongst the untidy vegetable profusion of the allotment. Because I have many timber supports in the raised beds (there are currently 23 of these beds) I grow more climbers and ramblers than shrubs or bushes. Much as I would like great swathes of Wedding Day, Seagull et al, I have to be content with just a couple of large white roses so have chosen R.soulieana, R.helenae and the gorgeously fragrant, if a tad touchy in the famously nippy easterly winds, Nastarana. Finally, another vote for a Pemberton classic, Moonlight. One of his earliest and imo, one of his best hybrid musks. It is still throwing out bloom clusters, arching out and up, entangling with an unruly Snowgoose (a surprise Austin addition to the list) Red......hmmm, not my fave colour although a 10 year old moyesii is truly fabulous, underplanted with stooled purple filberts and an equally vivid tanacetum - yay. I do not have Souv.de Dr.Jamain although I have planted several for customers. A lovely rose but Etoile d'Hollande is still my favourite velvet red. Lastly, a simple 'cottagey' rose I do have is Paul's Scarlet climber - always fresh, bright and easier to site in a rambling allotment, than most reds (which always seem more formal and 'grown up' for my garden style).