I'm just managing to get her to bloom twice (spring and fall with the latter one being much less profuse). It does get more shady where she is during high summer which may be affecting her tendency to bloom (but then her blooms would have quickly fried anyhow, I think). Still, she's a young plant and I hope for some improvement as she matures. The flush I'm expecting to start soon promises to be the best so far, a fact that I attribute both to her being older and to the unusually wet and chilly winter and spring we had this year. My few once blooming OGR's are also promising a good flush this year (if mildew doesn't get the best of them..). I do prune mine (conservatively) in the winter and I also help her defoliate. This latter action has proved very beneficial for her health come spring and summer.

I can't say much about it, since it came as a band only this Spring, but another possible alternative in a similar mold could be 'Mme de Sevigne'. I got mine from Long Ago Roses after my 'Mme Isaac Pereire' bit the dust from freeze damage. I emailed Linda asking if she had an extra MIP available, and she recommended I try MdS. It might not be the original rose, but whatever it is, I like the looks of the (few) pics of it on HelpMeFind. Another long-caned fragrant Bourbon in a similar "look" would be 'Deuil de Dr. Reynaud' (which also might not be the original, and might be the same rose being sold as 'Philemon Cochet'). I've never seen it (nor PC), but I was looking into them when I was trying to pick out a long-caned fragrant Bourbon. I did buy 'Souvenir du President Lincoln' (or, at least, the rose being sold as such), but I gifted it to someone back in Buffalo. This was its second year in the ground. I'll have to find out how it did there. There's also 'Souvenir de Victor Landeau' but I don't think it'll grow to be as big and "climber-ish" as the others mentioned. Vintage Gardens gives it a different growth habit, and the one I have here is doing more of a "sprawling, self-pegging" type of growth habit -- canes grow up, grow long, then bow down from their own weight, and bloom all along their length the following year. It's been very vigorous for me, coming as a band in April 2012. It finally went in the ground this Summer, and also bloomed for the first time this year. I have some pics of it below (taken with an iPhone, so pardon the less-than-stellar quality). August 2012 (four months after receiving it as a band from Vintage Gardens). Those upright canes in the pics below later bowed down on their own: April, 2013...just leafing out, one year after receiving it as a band. That one cane shooting straight up arched down like the others during Summer: Late May, 2013...first wave of blooms weren't fully double, but were fully fragrant: Mid-June, 2013...with more buds about to bloom (this wave was fully-double). Notice the cane that was straight-up is already leaning to the left: Just to the left of center, in front of the stones and behind the log edging, taken August 31, 2013, it's finally planted. It's hard to see against the leaf litter mulch, but SdVL has canes arching out to the sides and forward. In fact, the cane draping over the log-edging is actually the cane that was originally growing straight-up in the earlier pics: Another shot of SdVL, here just to the right of center (look for the white name tag with two blue patches from the cardboard under the mulch sticking up), and you can see the long canes arching out from it. The "white" flowers in the pic belong to 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' behind and to the left of it. There's one cane shooting up on SdVL now, but by next year, it will also (likely) arch down on its own: :-) ~Christopher

Hi Eric, My MEC is not overly vigorous or overly cane hardy for me. From what I've read here over the years is that MIP is still quite vigorous in zone 6. Of course I still love my MEC, but she has never attained the growth that I anticipated. I love the foliage which retains a red coloration for a long time. I remember reading someone describing it as if some of the flower pigmentation of MIP had gone to leaves of MEC. I also love the kind of pink the flowers have, a raspberry pink. She of course smells great. She can get some black spot, but does not become defoliated sticks like a hybrid tea would at least for me. Here is a link that might be useful:

Nice pictures. It looks like you get some fairly large blooms judging by the size of the flower against the size of the leaves and the bee.