BIG. It can go well above the top of my head. An old one I wish I still had photos of (I've got it on a slide, somewhere) was 6 ft. or greater, and easily 5 ft. across.

This one in the Sacramento City Cemetery was a good 5 ft. tall, and wider by a good bit.

My own plant was close to 7 ft. tall, though narrower, until gophers got its roots, early this year. Now it is a lusty, rapidly-growing 3.5 ft. or so.

This is, beyond any doubt, one of my favorite roses. It's right up there with "Grandmother's Hat," in my mind. I can't tell you how relieved I am that mine has made a come-back, as the mother plant from which we collected it is gone.

Jeri

Jeri, many thanks for your reply and for the gorgeous picture. Great colour combination. I also combine my GdRs with all sorts of purple.

I tried many kinds of roses but they all ended up bothering me so I got rid of them. In the end I was left with only 1 GdR which I just couldn't bring myself to give away. Then I started buying more GdRs and now I have 5! This rose really grows on you. I think I'll squeeze 3 GdR into this vacant space.

The more the merrier!

We find "Ragged Robin" in all sorts of places, where it was used as rootstock, and survived to show itself off. It is as tough as it is beautiful.

Jeri, you NEED to post that photo of GdR from Rancho Camulos. You know, the escaped root stock from under the Red Radiance. The one several of us "walked in to" on that visit.
There is one down hill from here which is used beside a gate into a yard. It's whacked regularly to maintain it at less than five feet tall. It's about four to five feet wide and flowers repeatedly. Who knows where they found that, as doesn't appear to have been there more than a decade or so. In this neighborhood, when something sells, most of the landscaping goes with old paint, and many of the plants installed, are left up to the "gardeners". Kim

You're right, Kim. This really is the greatest.

When this was taken, half the plant was still Red Radiance, so the thing was a complete mix.

I think it truly was two plants.

I had always suspected that to be the case -- one planted on either side of a concrete pathway. Now, sadly, I am sure of it.

The plant to the right of the path is gone entirely, and the plant on the left is about 2.5 ft. tall, and perhaps 18 inches across. I didn't have the heart to photograph it.

The temperature was in the 90's. I was losing my temper at that point, and heartsick at what I had seen.

Jeri

I should add that I am fairly sure this was planted prior to 1925. Perhaps around 1920, when the "Small Adobe" was built.

I expect it probably had water until the late 1950's, by which time it was firmly established. It was a thing of beauty.

Yes ma'am, that is a great shot. Just as illustrative would be the one with us all standing virtually inside the plant mass, giving it some perspective. That was a great get together! Kim

Kim, I can't find one with any of us standing there. I wish I could.

I look at this image, now, and shake my head, and wish I could forget what is there now.

Kim -- I want to go back out there, on the QT, on a weekend when it's open to the public, and get cuttings of a few things (whatever is left, after this summer). It's too hot right now.

You would be as shocked as I, to see what they have killed.

Nothing like posting a "secret mission" to an international forum! LOL! Was it really a matter of them "killing" them, or more drought and heat? If you could see my roses right now, you would swear I'm running a rose concentration camp. Kim

Welllll . . . Neglect and ignorance, more like.

When I tell you that I walked around that garden, and even Scott Klittich (who was there) told them re. that formerly giant R. eglantaria:

"Tell them to stop trimming and start watering."

They WANT the roses to be showy. Yet, they don't get water to them.
They WANT some of the roses to date back to the original family -- the del Valle's ... But when roses that did date back, and which were in terrible condition, were pointed out to them, they were unimpressed.

The suggestion that: "If you pour a gallon or so of water on their roots every week or so, they might survive." met with NO interest at all.

That's when I left. I have not come so close to completely losing my temper for a good 50 years.

Not even when the Rancho wouldn't wait for the historically accurate rose and chose to go with something modern for the immediate effect? hehehe Kim

Nope. Even that didn't make me this mad.

Of course, the temps were in the 90's, and it was close to 2 p.m., and we'd had no lunch because they insisted that we arrive by 11 a.m.

Then, when I started around, and saw everything that was GONE, I darn near started to cry.