Ya, he's fussy here too and I'm ready to kick him. Mine is no where as dark green as aimee's. It's light green in Miracle-Gro potting soil. He whimpers in the 90's hot sun. I moved him to partial shade, he's bushier now, but produces tiny flowers, and the fragrance is zero when it's cooler. I like Wise Portia (older Austin) a zillion times better than WS, it's bushier, more blooms, and nice baby powder fragrance. I'll get the Squire next year as Kim recommends. Its flower is supposed to be bigger. How's the Squire's fragrance? Thanks.

>Are you certain it was sawflies? The larva eat leaves instead of canes, and the damage appears as skeletonized leaves instead of chew marks on canes. Mature sawflies are very tiny wasps, and I don't believe wasps attack rose foliage. Hi Laura, Sort of certain??? :) That was a best guess based on the medium-sized green larvae I saw everywhere and that were causing much rose damage here in 2009. This was damage that someone who is an expert at the Beales' forum (an employee at the Beales' nursery) suggested looked like sawfly damage. My own guess was also based on looking up sawflies in some rose books. I don't think that I'd read anywhere that sawfly larvae won't attack canes, so that's the way I've been thinking of it for some time now. Last year we had a ton of chew marks on canes, as well as a ton of blackened stems, which I thought I'd read was canker caused by the sawflies laying eggs in the canes, either through openings they create by chewing into the canes or by taking advantage of the exposed cut ends of canes. This happened in an area where the rabbits has no access, so it was some insect that was causing the problem. I don't think I've seen any of those chewed cane areas or blackened stems this year. I'm not going to research all that again now, but if you're certain that sawfly larvae can't do any cane chewing, it's a puzzle that for sure I saw the very same kind of larva insect, whatever it's correct name, chewing on a cane--in the active act of cutting into a cane on one rose plant where it left the entire top of the cane hanging down toward the ground, hanging on by the barest of threads. I remember seeing it as it did that work, and then intending to go into the house to get some stuff to use on the rose... and got busy right away with something once back in the house. By the time I got back out with my gardening stuff, the rose's cane had already been severed! I suppose the damage could have been caused by some other kind of green larva that looks just like the sawfly larvae that were covering the rose the Beales' expert commented on? (He saw the damage, not the actual larvae. After his comment, I looked closer and saw the same kind of green larvae, and also enlarged digital photos to see them all over the rose.) I am certain that these larvae--whatever the proper name that identifies them--do cut into rose stems, though I don't have a good way of knowing that the larvae I've observed are actually the same insect that can be identified easily as sawflies when they reach adult maturity. I have also seen the flying mature sawflies (I'm certain of that, because I recognized the pictures posted online and in books), but mostly I have seen a green insect larvae--seen them climbing on canes everywhere and all over the undersides of leaves too. We do also have caterpillers, but they are much larger than the green larvae I'm referring to, and they have noticeable feet. If the larva that cuts stems off/eats leaves also has some feet, they are nothing very noticeable, because I never noticed any. We had a problem with caterpillers and grasshoppers this year, but last year it was sawflies and Japanese beetles. I consulted a good many rose and gardening books here last year in researching the problem, and what I kept reading seemed to confirm that sawfly diagnosis of what it was, so I'm really surprised now to find that all that is wrong. What would you guess the green cane/leaf eating larvae here are? If you're right, whatever those larvae were, that might explain the lack of a worry this year with those same kinds of larvae. That is, perhaps spraying the yard with the nematodes that can handle many chewing insects--but are ineffective against sawflies--helped this year with what was otherwise a huge problem last year? Thanks for your information, Laura! Best wishes, Mary P.S. I forgot to say, last year we had a problem with plain eaten leaves and with skeletonized eaten leaves, both. This year it's just plainly eaten leaves, which the caterpillers are plenty good at producing. I may have seen some skeletonized leaves this year, but offhand, can't recall any.

That plant is very young and it's been a very stressful summer. I'd get it planted and give it a couple of years before I'd make any kind of decision about it. There are roses that out grow their tendency to get diseased but they need time to do that.

Marlorena - James L Austin looks wonderful! I have wondered if he is the “replacement“ for WS2000. I hope to grow both. Kate - Such beautiful blooms! I loved the strong quartering and rich color. I hesitated purchasing WS2000 in the past d/t concern over being significantly prone to disease but hopefully it will do okay here. I lost Darcey Bussell this past winter and she had an angular/sometimes horizontal growth habit at times as well and was fairly prone to BS but I still hope to grow her again in the future. I decided to try The Squire instead this year.