Hoov, I totally agree I may not be remembering this rose entirely right, as I was quite young at the time. My memory could be a bit faulty as to the size of the bush. However, after doing research on all the roses mentioned, I happened upon the Hybrid Perpetual "American Beauty" a/k/a "Madame Ferdinand Jamin". Out of all of them, this seems like it might be it. For the one thing, all of the others post-date the time that the prior owners were in the home. The house was built in the late 1960's at the most - it was a new housing development. We were the 2nd owners and I remembered we moved there in March of 1970, when my youngest sister was only 3 months old. So, the rose bush could not have originated in it's inception prior to 1969 at the most and most mentioned were after that time - early 1970's and thereafter. Also - some of the blooms were too light a pink, or too deep and going into red. I do know that the rose was a hot pink, because there were other bushes on the property, including a red one (I'm pretty sure it was a climbing Don Juan thinking back on it now). I guess if the person who lived there was someone who knew more than a little about roses (there were several in the yard), having other bushes than just regular hybrid teas would not be out of the ordinary. There was some thought put into that backyard; as far as the flowering plants in it. Anyway, I still could be wrong but this one fits the bill for what my needs are at the moment too. The house I purchased last year is very old (95 years) and my intention was to fill in some spaces of my new landscaping (just done this year) with as many roses as I can fit in - but not anything common. I'm partial to the David Austins, having had good luck with them previously and, other than replicating a few others from my other home that I had to leave behind that worked well for me (Papa Meilland, French Lace, Tropicana); I was hoping to also find a few "older" varieties so a HP would be a nice addition - and since it matches what I recall from my childhood all the better :D Now I just have a pick out at least two really good climbers and I'm set!

newbie nicole... you will have no problem in moving perennials with a 15 hour drive ahead of you... I moved from a house in town, to our acreage in the spring about 13 years ago. These are some things you could keep in mind... Hopefully you will be able to move after the ground is thawed and as plants start to come up in the spring. This is what happened with me. As the plants started coming up, I divided or removed the whole perennial and placed it into a nursery pot. When I ran out of pots, I used plastic bags in a box, or ice cream pails/margarine containers with holes in them. The people purchasing our place had not seen any pictures of the yard with flowers blooming so, they had no idea what was there before. I took out favorite plants and a rose bush that was given to us as a sympathy gift when my DH's dad passed away. Is your home sold already? Do the people moving in know what your yard looks like with the perennials you do have? Sometimes all you need to take is a corner chunk of the perennial and you will be able to start it again at the new place. If you have access to crates (eg. milk crates) that stack...then you would have an easier time in transporting the perennials. You could also use plastic bags in a milk crate to place a number of perennials in the same crate instead of using nursery pots and lots of soil that would then also take up a lot of room (and weight). If you are moving after the ground would be thawed but before the perennials would be growing, then I would recommend right now for you to start digging and replanting into pots and placing them in a friend's garden for the winter. Because, you don't want anyone who potentially is a purchaser of your yard, to see all these perennials in pots in the garden that you are taking with you. Then in spring, just dig them out of your friend's garden and take them with you. Another thing is that when selling your home, you could place a clause in the agreement, that you will removing favorite perennials (all or some) to take with you. Place the perennials in the shade as soon as you get to your new home and plant them as soon as you can. If you do not know exactly where their permanent home will be then dig the pots into the ground, making a holding garden and then transplant them out of there as the new beds are ready. Have fun moving! It is a lot of work (been there, done that) but it is nice to see the same perennials bloom in their new home. It is like taking some of your old home, your memories, with you. The root system of the plants are usually a lot more mature when you take transplants from your original plants than what you would get by mail order or through a local nursery. You would have mature plants in your new home a lot sooner. Also, you would be saving a pile of money (assuming that you have a lot of perennials) in future landscaping in your new home. I know this is a long reply but...

I gardened over 20 years in zone 4 (I only moved to a "balmy" zone 5 two years ago) and grew hundreds of roses there so here's my list of tall roses that were absolutely cane hardy year after year in zone 4: Alba Semi-plena 7' Canary Bird 8' John Davis 8' Mary Queen of Scots 7' Morning Blush 8' Rosa glauca 10' Rosa villosa pomifera 6' William Baffin 10' Victorian Memory (aka Isabella Skinner) 12' Hattie Burton 10' Applejack 7' Champagne Arches (aka Nancy Parker) 10' Fruhlingsduft 6' Geschwind's Schonste 6' zone 4, now 12' zone 5 Lillian Gibson 8' Sydonie 6' And I could probably add more that would be 5 to 6' tall if I thought about it, but those I've mentioned should give you more to look up. Anne

This is such a great concept Sam. it's wonderful to imagine all these nutrients being added to the soil and through foliar feeding. A single teaspoon (1 gram) of rich garden soil can hold up to one billion bacteria, several yards of fungal filaments, several thousand protozoa, and scores of nematodes, according to Kathy Merrifield, a retired nematologist at Oregon State University. Most of these creatures are exceedingly small; earthworms and millipedes are giants, in comparison. Each has a role in the secret life of soil. http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/secret-life-soil-0