Lovely babies Aimee! How is your Sombreuil doing, I believe yours and mine are of the same age. :D I like your La France, it is so lovely when the petal sides differ in color! Mme. Berard looks lovely too, I am slowly getting convinced to get her after all. :D About Penelope's fragrance, some of my musks are sneaky and produce fragrance during the night/morning - today I went out early in the morning and my Paul's Himalayan Musk was secretly scenting all parking lot! And now in the end of the day he had almost no fragrance at all.

KS, I love my duplex; it is in its first year. My shots of it are blooms down low; I can tell yours is "up high" - how large is it, if you don't mind my asking? I was so amazed at the sweet fragrance of the buds. I am really enjoying seeing everyone's shots. Windeaux, frankly, I am staying out of the brouhaha because I don't really care what the rose is. I wish they'd get some of those free-use pics of Redoute's drawings and use those. I hate this to turn into some kind of a competition; I just like to see the fruit of everyone's gardens. But that's just me, I'm sure and others think differently. And, Windeaux, I've only heard Tamara say kind things about you. Gean This post was edited by harborrose on Thu, Jun 6, 13 at 21:28

I think generally Pemberton's musks like some bits of sun, they just do not seem to be very happy with being fried (and do not like being in too wet clay, but I don't think it is your problem, over here though I have a new mini pool in a place where we dug a hole for a new tree...). Felicia and other Pemberton's were not very fast growers for me, they grew quite a bit, but nothing like huge canes all directions kind of thing. What does help though is alfalfa tea. The stinky stuff is really magic, I gave it to all non-growers and went away for a week on a holiday trip - came back home and ta-daaa, good 30 inches of new growth on plants that did nothing the whole summer. Banana peels seem to be good thing too for the canes, especially for the spindly ones (only the peel, not a whole fruit).

Trolley Molly wrote-"I also don't spray for black spot or anything else, preferring to take the same tough love approach with my roses as I do with all my other plants. "Get over your black spot or die, it's all the same to me." They mostly get over it." My thoughts exactly. I don't pay any attention foliage problems, as long as the plant grows and blooms. Souvenir de la Malmaison has turned out to be a good bloomer, it has blooms right now when most don't. My Just Joey was either a poor plant ($1 clearance at Fred Meyer) or planted in a bad spot because it has not grown much. I was going to buy Tamora but went to the nursery and it had such terrible thorns I ended up getting Evelyn, Heritage, and Apricot Nectar instead. I kind of wish I had gotten Tamora anyway though because I like peachy colors. I got Westerland bareroot this year but it suffered dieback in the hot spells and is very small. I planted it in the ground anyway so I hope it makes it. I may dig up Edith Schurr again as she looks like she is declining, no leaves and only 5" of stem left. My Buck rose Distant Drums is a really good rose for cutting, usually covered with blooms, and fairly long stems. I like the buff centers on magenta flowers, and the peculiar scent, but some don't- my MIL. The rosesant forum has great Buck rose photos now, especially Carefree Beauty, loaded with blooms for an extended bloom time. My Knockout rose also blooms like that, in a neglected area of the yard where it doesn't even get watered in summer.