Hi Jeri, Mind reader that I am, here's my guess as to what Susan is responding to: "I happened to see your canes/thorns picture of White Maman Cochet, Cl. I know that Rose Rosette Disease isn't common in California, and it might well be completely normal behavior for that variety (that I don't have), but my Cornelia did the same thing in the fall enroute to coming down with a full-blown case of RRD the following spring. I'd suggest that you just start paying attention to details if you haven't already: www.rosegeek.com." and "Susan, I was potentially bearing bad news. You are totally forgiven if you didn't want to hear it; it's a perfectly normal reaction. I did go to the Antique Roses Emporium and noticed that they say that their Mamam Cochet (the regular pink one) has few thorns, and I felt a little thud in my stomach for you, but I hope I'm totally wrong here. "If you've lived for long with this rose, you might pay attention to your own instincts. That is, has it rather suddenly _changed_? My Cornelia did, though I'd only lived with it for about six months at that point, and I was a relative newbie to roses than. Still, I have a good bit of gardening experience generally, and my gut told me to worry; I almost took the rose out at the point that, in retrospect, I should have taken it out. If only I had, it might have saved me the grief of eventually losing 46 more roses (no kidding). The thing that dissuaded me: the poo-poohs of those far more experienced than I was who said the rose wasn't (yet) showing (the full-blown kind of) RRD symptoms. By the time it did show unmistakeable symptoms, it was too late, and the disease had spread to another rose in a pot... which my husband managed to take and sit right in the middle of all the new rose arrivals in another section of the yard, from which it spread like wildfire over several months' time. "Other early symptoms I found (from different varieties): unusually wonderfully strong scent on a rose that previously had reasonably good and sometimes almost no scent, luscious-looking abundant growth that was so thick you had trouble finding the cane, black thorns that don't necessarily remain black (by the time Cornelia was showing the full-blown symptoms, the black thorns were no longer black), leaves and leaflets that aren't symmetrical, a propensity to come out with Rose Mosaic Virus symptoms when previously the rose was healthy enough to skip showing the RMV symptoms, stipules that are longer on certain canes than on others, clusters of areas of orange-colored canes and stems, flower petal crowding and lack of symmetry on previously symmetrical flowers, and finally, red thorns on a rose that normally has no red thorns. "I hope you _don't_ have this problem, Susan, but I personally suspect that you do, and I'm just thinking that it might turn out better if you're on the lookout now. The best person to address RRD questions to is Ann Peck (email address), the author of the rosegeek.com website." To be clear here: Jeri, I'm not _certain_ of anything. How could I be? I've never seen this rose and I've never grown this variety. But I personally suspect that yes or no on RRD might well be on the way to becoming more clear, by, say, April. I do hope the luck there is hugely better than my own with my Cornellia showing two of these same fall symptoms. Actually, I didn't see the third symptom Susan's rose appears to already have--red thorns--until the following spring. It's important to note that my experience is with Cornelia, not a Mamam Cochet of any version, and someone who knows about thorniness on Mamam Cochet could offer the best insight. I'm figuring that the low-thorns note at Antique Rose Emporium isn't a good sign, but perhaps the clone Susan has might have come from thornier stock than ARE's? The most important point is probably the length of Susan's own experience with the rose and what she knows as normal for that particular clone over the years. No one else has knowledge of that; Susan is the expert on her own rose. It's hard to see the black thorns in my poorly angled and lit picture (look upper middle-right near some yellowed leaflets), but at Garden Web you can see three pictures of my Cornelia at the point I first began to notice a sudden change (symptom 1) from a low-thorned to a high-thorned rose, and was wondering about (symptom 2) the black thorns that were suddenly visible only on a few canes. (The picture of a growth tip wasn't a worry to me, but in referring others to the condition of my rose at that point, I thought I ought to post a picture of a growth tip too.) Best wishes, Mary Here is a link that might be useful: Cornelia with the very earliest of RRD symptoms

"I was re-reading some of the old articles on your blog last night. there is one dated August 2, 2009 titled, "Inheriting Doubleness". The photo in that article is of a very lovely, fully double seedling, from L83. At the end of the post you state that you are assessing it for potential commercial release. My first question is do you have any new roses bred for repeat flowering and cold hardiness that you are planning to release in the future yet?" I have plans for all kinds of things, certainly, but the timeline for commercial release for many of these roses is still at least two years out and in many cases, four to five. "Second question, how do you assess cold hardiness in your roses, do you have someone in a northern climate zone who is trialing roses for you?" Yes. Thanks for your interest in my work. I hope your RVR purchases do well for you. You might be very pleasantly surprised by how hardy 'Hettie' turns out to be. The same might be true for 'Siren's Keep', which has a big dose of Gallica in its pedigree. The other two are very likely to need extra protection from severe freezing. Too bad you didn't include 'Marianne', which would undoubtedly be extraordinary in your climate. Regards, Paul

AVOID ROGUE VALLEY ROSES, NEW MANAGEMENT DISHONEST. I've had excellent experiences with Rogue Valley Roses in the past. However, they are under new management and they just stole $32 of my money. To be precise, I ordered two roses this spring, they were healthy and grew well, but when they bloomed, it became obvious that one of them had been mislabelled - they accidentally sent the wrong rose. No big deal, just send me the right rose or refund my money. I sent three emails, got no response whatsoever, so I went to phone calls. Got a man who never gave me his name and wasn't particularly polite, made it clear he didn't really want to be bothered. He told me the company was under new management, they'd been backlogged and were struggling to catch up and would get to my issues as soon as they could. I waited a week, nothing, so I called back. Same again. Last week, after three emails and three phone calls, I told the guy I wanted my money and I wanted it within three days, no more postponements. He said, "Okay, I'll use PayPal and send you an instantaneous transfer so you can have it right this minute." I said fine. But, it's been three days and the money isn't in my account. So I called back and he said, very self righteous, "I refunded your money last week." But he didn't. I don't have the money. I even logged into PayPal to see if anything was being held in PayPal rather than put in my bank account. Looks like Rogue Valley Roses has stolen $32 of my money.

Aaron, congratulations on your DH! I am waitlisted. Ann, I’m not too far from you, in Portland, and just got a young Jeri Jennings from a local rose friend who received a spare with his order. JJ looks like she is going to be a wonderful Hybrid Musk for my arch. Her clusters of blooms are buttery golden-yellow with peach edges and what I’d call a sweet licorice fragrance. GORGEOUS! Joyce B looks like a fantastic rose, too. If only I could grow them all! I’d love to see pics if you get JB. Carol Jeri Jennings