Celeste, I love my 'Basye's Blueberry' It's one of the very, very few totally thornless roses, and since it's also healthy and nicely fragrant, I consider it to be a "break-through" rose. The bright yellow stamens contrast so well with its shade of pink. Its blooms are typically a lot smaller than my Thomas Affleck's blooms. I prune mine in the spring, and it reacts very well to it. Without pruning, I found it to be a little awkward growing. It's a fairly upright and open grower when left unpruned, but with some spring pruning, mine looks a lot more compact and bushy.
Its blooms vary in size, depending upon the weather. If not deadheaded in the fall, it will have lots of hips.

Of course, Basye's Blueberry is one of the parents of 'Thomas Affleck'. Sometimes I can see traits of Basye's Blueberry in my 'Thomas Affleck', but it also has many very good traits of its own. For example, I never have to prune my 'Thomas Affleck', yet it maintains a perfect, bushy, even habit all on its own. I could not possibly ask a rose to do more than what 'Thomas Affleck' has done in my garden. Thomas is top notch, high quality, in my opinion. If it weren't for the fact that Basye's Blueberry is so darn smooth & nicely fragrant, I probably would like Thomas Affleck even better than BB.

Randy

Celeste, I have two of the 'Pioneer Series' roses in addition to Thomas Affleck. They are FJLindheimer & Republic of Texas. I just added them last year.

FJL is a tall, stately bush with luscious, pink-orange blend blooms. Makes a great specimen shrub, but suffered lots of cane dieback, so it's got a lot of growing to do to get back to its former 4' tall glory.

Republic is more of a small, groundcover rose which would be good for a container. What I've seen so far is that mine is more white with yellow centers....very different than the pics on the website. It suffered very little winter dieback; only the tips had to be pruned.

I like the Pioneers so much I'll be getting 'Sam Houston' & 'Anson Jones' next week. I'm also thinking about ordering 'Mae Dean'...I like the HT bloom look.
-terry

Thanks for responding, Randy and Terry.

Randy, I am wondering about the repeat on Basye's Blueberry. Does it repeat fairly well? (Of course, here my growing season is shorter so you can't answer about how it would repeat here.) I like the fact that it makes hips but hope I get some repeat blooms before it sets hips.
And is the fragrance fairly strong that most people can pick it up? I am planting it in a spot where it will get a lot of traffic and want a nice-smelling rose there.

Terry, I also grow Republic of Texas. My experience is the same as yours, in that it is quite winter-hardy and the blooms are a very pale yellow. I grow mine on an embankment as a low groundcover w/ other groundcover roses. I will be interested in hearing from you in the future about how Sam Houston and Anson Jones do for you.

Celeste

Celeste, you will love Coles Settlement! Mine is blooming, I need to cut blooms to put by my computer to sniff. It is a tall stately rose and is very healthy. I cant imagine why it isnt more widely grown. I went to the Houston Rose Society garden tour this week and was delighted to see a tall well grown specimen in a large bed of beautifully grown roses. This is the only other one I have seen grown besides mine. You will love it, I am sure! I love the Pioneer roses. Just got Joe Woodard and Deanna Krause [pink white striped] and cant wait to get them in the ground to see what they will do. I also have Miss Lillian, a lovely rose with a nice scent. Adore Tom Affleck, have 2 of them. FJ Lindheimer is great! Star of the Republic is nice too, it has a weeping shape that is very attractive. Let us know what you think of these roses when they start growing. Plant some pretty annuals at the feet of Coles Settlement - I think I need another one when I go to ARE next week.........
Judith

Celeste, yes, my BB reblooms pretty well, but not as much as 'Thomas Affleck'. My BB does kind of slow down in the fall, when some of the other roses begin to kick in again.

BB's scent is fairly strong to me, but the blooms don't last long at all, so you have to sniff 'em while they're there.

Randy