Yes Michael - the 'soft' Irish climate can be a bit a problem with fungus attacks. In the South West in particular where it seems to rain every five seconds. However, in my garden, rust seems to be only an occasional problem with PM a bit more common but blackspot is a constant battle. I find I have to give - at a minimum - a monthly spray with myclobutanil or some other fungicide from May or many of my roses will be reduced to near bare canes by mid July. I am also a bit surprised that Tess doesn't seem to warrant the attention that other Austins get given its overall vigour and profusion of vibrant crimson blooms.

it is really hard to find a true red that has enough vigor to do well in a cool climate. I keep coming back to Chevy Chase but cannot remember hardiness off the top of my head. Climbing Ena Harkness is pretty with good scent and slightly nodding heads. Thanks for the info on Altissimo - saw a pic of it in the Huntingdon Library and lusted. good to know its defects as it is painful to make a mistake as replant syndrome means less space tp replace disasters. If only I had taken advice before buying potential duffers.

I saw it too. I did not know it was being aired, so missed the first fifteen minutes of the first half. I read the book last spring, but I do not remember every detail of it. Over all I think the film was fairly true to the book. It was okay, but not really amazing. I would have liked it to been different in terms of the cinematography. I have to say that the area in which they filmed was BEAUTIFUL. Every part of the scenery was just as I had imagined it from reading the book. The landscape, the D'Urberville estate, and the dairy farm were exactly how I had envisioned them. The characters were not what I had imagined at all. The actors that played Tess and Angel did not awe me; they were not particularly passionate in thier acting. The actor that played Angel was scrawney. I almost thought he would collapse when he carried the three dairy maids across the flooded road. There were a couple of things that bothered me. The first was the rape scene. It was not graphic or anything, just strange. The fog seemed to have had a life of its own. As soon as Tess is sleeping it gently crawles up, and then starts rolling in when Alec comes back. As soon as the rape is over the fog suddenly slinks back from whence it came. It reminded me of some horror movie fog that comes to steal your breath away or something. I also thought they could have extended the part where Angel and Tess talk together at the farm. They didn't include the general exchange of ideas. But these are just minor complaints. I do have a question, it is about hair. Did females of that time have bangs? I always thought they wore it 'off the face'. And were men usually clean-shaven? CMK

You might want to try pegging- Mine tends to just try shoot out arms and flower at the ends- they're also quite stiff tho, ( I managed to actually snap one off while trying to see how much "give" it had..not much evidently!) so not sure how successful a trellis would be. I have heard it recommended as a pillar rose, and seen a lovely sort of arboured version at our state garden, and one other suggestion is to fan it out over a trellis in a triangular style, keeping some canes at the front shorter for blooms at different levels. I saw that idea in a David Austin catalogue and it looked gorgeous (but then dont all the catalogue pics... :) when I was trying to work out what to do with mine.. taken last Summer at Victoria State Rose Garden Still not sure actually- I had almost settled on pillaring until most of her canes got badly burnt last summer and looked awful and ratty all autumn so I pruned rather brutally this spring in the hopes of fresh new canes. I hope it works, because Tess is pretty good (in spite of her awkwardness) for me.. blooms regularly, and fairly profusely and up until last summer dealt with the heat very well.