Sherry - I think your words are appropriate for growers of modern roses as well. And please excuse my response here on the Antique Forum from someone who doesn't have any Antiques (do DA's or Romantica's count?) - but I like lurking here as often the posts are depthier. My oldest roses are 3 years (perhaps 5 as a few of the first roses I purchased were already 2). My gardening experience is still so young - but even this soon, each year, I see each rose iterate into new renditions of themselves. Most get stronger and more beautiful over time. For the few that are tending in the other direction, I try to pamper them more, and determine what they are missing. There have been a handful that I have thought about removing, but I have yet to do that to one rose (but don't ask me about the Gardenias - yanked my 2nd one today, ugh...) I'm still watching a few, and keeping a mental possible removal list, but my gut tells me to watch them and see how they do over time. Medallion, Europeana and Grand Masterpiece are watched with a skeptical eye, but all three this year have given me periods of time of complete surprise (and joy). So, I've been happy I haven't removed them. Then Proud Land has been moved, and still looks lousy, but this year I've had 2 blooms that have been stunning. So I'm glad I moved "less than Proud" Land to a background place where her overall homeliness isn't noticeable. I'm noticing the DA's are slower growing than my HT's and Floribundas. I really watch daily with a quiet excitement, as they change and mature before me. Young Lycidas whose first canes dragged the ground, has canes that are now trying to poke up into the air. Mary Rose who spent her first year napping exploded this year. There are roses like Purple Tiger and Barbara Streisand that are new this year, both with pretty poor reputations. PT has been doing really well for me, very small blooms, but with color combinations nothing short of brilliant. Roses like this embody hope for me, one of the most marvelous sensations of gardening. Bolero is in her 2nd year. Her few blooms in her first year were stunning, in her diminutive year end size of about 1' x 1'. She stayed quite humble this year until a few weeks ago, and now she has gone crazy in our first heat wave of the year - cane's leaping into the air, covered in the most magnificant blooms. I completely get the growing child analogy, as I look upon my rose children with such pride and glee. And those that are troubled bring parallel emotions to that experience as well - as I feel saddened, and exert extra effort to mend. I notice same with many of the companion plants in the garden. The Dahlias, Mums, Lilies and many more, get stronger and more beautiful over time. I yanked the 2 gardenias because it was clear they were dying and all my attempts to remedy their issues were failures. I can't help it - I see what I plant, as lives to be cherished. They are gifts of nature, and I feel unfit to be judge of their fate if their only issue is that they do not aesthetically please me.

When I was very little, my mother was struggling with keeping two climbing Peace roses in good health in the desert of west Texas, in Odessa. They grew on a trellis surrounding the window of my older brother's bedroom. I used to climb up the iron trellis and sit on the shelf under the window to read comic books and swat at the bumble bees that would amble past. Those roses were the size of the dinner plates Mother served us with! Later we moved back to east Texas, near my grandparents home, and I saw other types of roses. My grandmother always had a couple of old "Sweetheart Roses" (Cecile Brunner), and she would point out other old roses, and other heritage plants as well when I or a cousin would show an interest. She was NOT an avid hobby gardener- she had 13 children, (my mother was her middle 7th child), and needless to say, her hands were very full with children, grandchildren, my grandfather, being active in her church, and the Eastern Stars, among other things. She always had a neat, tidy yard, and they grew an enormous vegetable garden to feed the family, kept chickens for eggs and meat, had a couple of cows for milk and butter, etc. Their life style was one of a simpler day, and with very little "cash money", she wasn't about to spend it on flowers for her yard! When she was an old lady, she would smile at the efforts people would go to in order to maintain a St. Augustine lawn, and a bunch of landscaper designed plantings. In her day, passalong plants were about all she and her cronies had, and she loved all of them for the ease of care: plant, water during droughts, and let them fend for themselves! Anyone who lives in the south can recognize what I call the "Granny Yard": a couple of OGRs, some honeysuckle that has to be beaten back every few years to keep it from taking over the world, a wisteria of the same ambitious nature, a magnolia, a pecan, a couple of oaks or ashes, a warty looking "toothache tree", maybe a willow if there is a pond nearby, a bunch of volunteer onions and garlics here and there, oh, and of course the easter lilies of yesteryear in a bed at the back corner of the house... 'Fess up. You have all visited this house! I know you have! In my twenties as a young mother I played at gardening, and suffered disappointment after disappointment when my hybrid teas and grandifloras would croak for lack of high culture. I just could not make myself get too excited about anything that was that high maintenance. One year my mother in law mentioned that one of my sister's in law wanted a "start" of her old "Sweetheart Rose", and asked if I would like one too. That sparked the memory, and soon I had my own little Cecile growing in my yard. I have moved away, and didn't know about cuttings back then, so I didn't preserve that plant through the years. But luckily it is one that is widely available. I filed away for future reference the note that those old garden roses really are tough as an old boot. We bought this home in 1999, and when I was ready to finally start a real garden, I was introduced to the Antique Rose Emporium here in Texas. From there I learned about rose rustling, about all the classes of old roses and the modern shrubs that seem superior to hybrid teas. That was at least 300 roses ago. And counting. ~Allison

Carrie, that was my old post, 11 years ago. I used to have the name Jaspermplants but had to change it at some point, don't remember why. In the time since that post I have gotten busy with some other stuff and don't have as many roses as I used to. At that time (I think Vintage was still around), I was experimenting a lot and had a lot of successes and failures. Also, it has gotten hotter here since then and we have had ongoing drought so some roses haven't done as well as they used to, especially in the past 2-3 years. It is very worrisome. Looking back at that post, I still have Mme Bravy which is probably fairly hard to find now; I probably got it (and many others) at Vintage, which was like heaven because they had so many varieties of roses. The others that still do well for me are Duchess de Brabant and Mme Joseph Swartz, Maman Cochet and the climbers, Souv de la Malmaison (which is full of blooms now) and a couple of her sports which I also have. I don't think you could go wrong with having Souv de la Malmaison here; it is truly wonderful. Romaggi Plot Boubon is great but I had to take the one I had out and I can't remember why. I've had a new one for about 2 years but it has been slow to develop. Mrs BR Cant also had to come out and I have a new one (a couple years old) but it has not done as well. She gets huge though. But she bloomed constantly. Also, I don't worry about what does or doesn't bloom in the summer; it is survival time for roses here then. But, they bloom most of the rest of the year here. So, conversations about what should bloom in our awful summer heat are not applicable to my rose-growing. I also have some moderns I like, I think I mentioned in another thread: Firefighter. Fragrant Cloud, St Patrick, Marmelade Skies. I don't have a lot of them, but I enjoy brighter colors too, at times. There are many more that do well here; besides the heat, the climate is pretty good for roses here, I think. I just experiment and try try again. Good luck

Sandra, give Bernstein-Rose another look. I've grown three for at least 10 years and they are an outstanding rose. B-R also goes beautifully with Julia Child. As far as Julia is concerned, mine have grown to 6X6 feet in a good year, but you really need to grow JC. You will never be without lovely yellow blooms. I also have grown Golden Celebration for many years. I think you can prune it back to the size you want. Whatever you do, keep on with GC somewhere, he is a great rose, too. Diane Bernstein-Rose--all three plants never grow over three feet tall here. Julia Child