Beautiful, Campanula! I'm a big fan of heps and the off-season charms of roses. With 'Golden Wings', you not only get large numbers of big orange heps but unusually colored/textured brown wood. "Darlow's Enigma" has that huge multitude of little red heps that are almost, I think, a better deal than its flowers. My small plant of 'Lilac Charm' set some humongous yellow ones last fall that give me great hope for additional decorations for winter there. The wildlife and, strangely, my current contingent of cats, also enjoy heps, frequently eating or chewing on them.

Annabeth, scent detection varies tremendously from person to person. The way I understand it is that we each start out with a set chemical receptors and we don't all have the same ones. (That's what the sense of smell is, the detection of chemicals.) In addition, experiences such as smoking, illness, or plain old age can decrease the strength of the receptors we have. That is apparently why some people can detect scents that others cannot. A person with a superior sense of smell might end up as a perfume expert or wine expert. I would never be able to do either job. As for me, I simply cannot detect much of the tea scent in true tea roses. On the other hand, I pick up distinctly unpleasant notes in some beloved fragrant flowers when they are brought indoors and the concentration builds up. Paperwhites are one such flower. I love them outdoors and in the house find them unendurable. Roses said to have powerful scents are presumably pumping out lots of chemicals that lots of people are able to detect. It may well be this is simply a scent that doesn't work for you. Rosefolly

Krista sent me some lovely photos of her Sydonie - Krista, maybe you could post them here? They were great and I didn't have any of my own to post (shame on me - I intend to rectify that situation this season!) Thanks, Riku - two more to add to the perpetual 'must have' list: Mme Boll, and Enfant de France! ;-) Nickelsmum, I'm not sure what is going on with the two Sydonie listings at HMF, one by Dorisy and the other by Vibert, released within a year of each other. The descriptions are the same, but I go with the Dorisy because that's the one Great Lakes Roses is listed under and that's where I purchased my plant. Maybe someone knows the story behind these two? Berndoodle, reduce its size? Oh, perish the thought!! Anything that comes through winter with green canes is to be cherished intact as much as possible! (It's a northern thing.) I did get a central cane with that "poodle top" late last year, but the rest of the plant was full and blooming right down to the ground so it did not look out of place. We'll see what happens this year...and I will be sure to post a picture when it comes into bloom. AC

We had to get rid of our "Mme. Isaac Pereire" because it defoliated from disease in Richmond, Ca along with its pink sport "Mme. Ernst Calvat" grown in Oakland, ca which I had bought for its' intense fragrance. M.I.P is one of the most fragrant roses on earth, but there are others equally as fragrant and much healthier when grown in the East Bay. I've been documenting roses that bloom well in no-spray and organic method gardens in the san francisco east bay in both public and private gardens for the last 10 years. Healthiest red roses out of dozens of Old Red roses evaluated in the s.f. east bay: Francis Dubruiel" FFFF out of five F's for fragrance. several old rose nurseries sell this rose which has an intense damask rose type scent, the type of scent which one expects from a red rose. "Crimson GLory" FFFFF out of five F's. shapely red roses that are deeply fragrant. I found this on the property I bought last year and have never needed to spray it with anything. Slightly less fragrant but still very fragrant, and just as healthy in this area, is "Etoille de Hollande" a red rose that appears to enjoy a large fan and enthusiastic fan base. a modern H.T. from the 1960's: "Papa Meilland" huge goblet shaped crimson roses that fade with purple on the edges. I find myself singing that old Joni Mitchell song to it..."I could drink a case of you" for its perfume is so very intoxicating. A must for collectors of fragrant red H.T.s.. if vintagegardens.com and roguevalleyroses.com doesn't have these roses in stock, I'd try hortico.com or pickeringnurseries.com in the winter for bare root plants. Caveat Rosa: "Gruss an Teplitz" became defoliated in two local gardens in Richmond and Emeryville and both rosebushes were destroyed. "Chyrsler Imperial" was destroyed after becoming defoliated from disease in my neighbors garden. two other roses I had to get rid of because they were coated with disease, were "Monsieur Boncenne" a red H.P., and "Rose des Rescht" both of these roses were coated with rust and defoliated. Both were unsightly and sadly useless because a rosebush cannot bloom without foliage to allow photosynthesis. Hope this is of help. Lux.