Jeff, I grow CPM grafted here in Zone 5 in central Illinois. Be prepared....this rose needs alot of real estate. It has those long Austin octupus arms, and plenty of them. I think every year it just continues to put out new canes plus lots of laterals...and it's easily one of the best bloom machines in the garden. I sometimes just give CPM a summer haircut to contain it so it doesn't eat its neighbors...it's that vigorous.

I spray for BS, so I can't comment about disease resistance. The only winter protection CPM gets is the wood chips around its feet and the few stray leaves that blow in, and I can say it's fairly cane hardy even below 0F. Just give it plenty of room!

My Crown Prin Mar is in her third year and doing rather well. She is about 6' tall and 3' wide. She blooms almost continually.
Early November 2010 when she was a bit younger we had a miserable coldsnap in November. As in 4-6 degrees for 5 days. I thought for sure this would do her in. I had not yet put any mulch around her feet. The following spring was way cold and chillie. She did just fine. Since you are in a colder zone than I usually am thought you might want to know.
She is one of my dependable roses. I do not spray and she gets a tad bit of BS but nothing that slows her down in the least.
Enjoy
Jeannie

I find the Austins--and I have around a dozen of them--mostly take their time settling in. Remain a bit on the spindly side for several years sometimes. Then about their 3rd or 4th year, they suddenly take off, exhibiting a new-found vigor and eagerness to grow and bloom.

I guess they need the extra time to let their roots fully develop.

So my advice with Austins is: Patience. They are sooooooo beautiful once they finally make up their minds to get with the program.

Kate

I am in Louisville,KY and grow CPM. Love this rose. Tall..6 ft. and wide 4 ft. A bloom machine here. I have the clematis Prince Charles growing with her and they make such a pretty statement to my eye. I noticed today that she is my first rose of 2012! This is very exciting! I do spray so I can`t say anything to that, but this rose is a keeper for me. I do not winter protect. If I knew how to post pictures , I would show her! Lesley

Thanks for the info guys. For a newly planted rose and only being in the ground for 2 weeks, CPM is taking off pretty nicely for being so young...already throwing out some decent canes and showing good vigor despite getting less sun than the others. I contemplated growing purple or blue clematis with CPM as well, but for now, I'm just going to let her grow out. Hopefully, I can get her to the 5ft mark by the end of the year. I'm growing her as a short climber. If she can grow anything like Graham Thomas does, I will be delighted. Graham Thomas as 8+ft tall in it's 2nd year in Columbus and only growing more, until I dug it up and transplanted it 2 hours away in NW Ohio which is heavy clay soil. Graham is only about 4ft tall right now, but much more vigorous this year in year 2 of it's transplant, so I expect the "boom" to be occurring this year with the big canes that I want.

Jeff, I was out pruning 'The Beast' yesterday and she's full of buds. I'll get a shot and post when she's burst into bloom. I have a clematis on order from Silver Star Vinery to plant on CPM also; she can handle it easily.

I also grow in heavy clay; the roses love it.

All true. My CPM is in it's 4th year and she is really getting big!

Kate's advice is spot-on for me, as far as CPM goes. For four years in my yard, CPM put out 12-15' lanky flexible arms in every possible direction, but it wouldn't bloom for love or money. I tried leaving all the branches fully horizontal on the ground, thinking it would put up laterals that bloomed, but not a one. Then I got tired of stepping on all those lanky arms everywhere else as it wound around neighboring roses, so I got a short obelisk and made it wind all those octopus arms around and around and around it. Last year it was leafing up a storm around the obelisk, but still not a bloom.

This year was going to be its last year, since it was taking up too much space with annoying green whips with nary a bloom. Of course the threat worked, since she put out a really impressive spring bloom all up and down that obelisk, and I was really glad I'd wound it. No rebloom to speak of yet this year, but I think she's kept her spot for the time being.

As for hardiness, she's mostly tip hardy for me in zone 5, as good as Teasing Georgia with less tendency to canker out on the older branches. I do winter protect all my roses up to about 12".

Cynthia