'Colossus' is one of those obscure roses from Texas growers that show up in the spring as potted grafted roses at some nurseries. I bought 'Colossus' early in '07, but shovel-pruned it this year.

For me, it grew quite tall and had a peculiar growth habit: It grew long sturdy canes, along which it threw a few very short, bloom-bearing 'laterals' (for lack of a better term). These weren't grandiflora-like candelabra, but widely spaced, stubby-stemmed roses. Perhaps if I had invested more time in disbudding this rose, that characteristic wouldn't have been such an irritant. It had moderate fragrance, faded rather quickly in my heat and, if my memory is correct, it didn't last long on the bush.

Bear in mind that I'm one gardener who grew a single bush of 'Colossus' for a relatively short period of time (2 seasons). Perhaps your experience will be more favorable. I hope so.

I agree with jaxondel. My Colossus is in its second year. I haven't given up on it yet. It has produced some pretty orange sherbet colored blooms but it's stems are kind of week.

COLOSSUS is one of Astor Perry's roses. I love his roses. I've had mine for quite awhile. It stays around 3ft high and 2-3ft wide. The blooms can be quite large and very beautiful. Only problem is it doesn't repeat all that well.

It is so funny about how roses do so different for people. I have 3. Two of them get full sun til about 3 pm. I gave them fertilome about 2 weeks ago and they have taken offagain . They each have about a dozen or so buds on them. The blooms are very fragrant for me, very spicy. They are in their first year. I do think they are water hogs. We had a really good rain 3 days ago and this morning they were nodding.