Muscovyduckling, I did get a Souvenir de la Malmaison climber, and have great hope it'll be a beautiful rose. I got it bare root at the same time I got my bare root Austins, but it hasn't started blooming yet. If it does well, it should be the perfect color for the fountain trellis. Rosefolly, you're absolutely right. I'm judging a rose -- Crepuscule -- that I've never seen except in pictures. I'm excited to have it, and hope I fall head over heels once I see it blooming. Ingrid, you were the one who inspired me to get Duchesse de Brabant, and I'm so grateful. Will you be getting your new one now or in autumn? Mine is doing well so far, and I hope yours does too. Molineux, this little Duchesse has been blooming continuously since I received it, and the blooms are elegant deep cups -- just lovely. All the roses in this new garden are being trialed, and those that do best will get a permanent spot, with multiples of each of the few selected. Duchesse is certainly in the running, and your description of the shrub is a big help. Mendocino rose, I feel so fortunate to be engulfed in such incredible beauty. I would never even have known about many of these roses, except for the great help I got on this forum. Do you think Heritage will do well in a hot climate? I don't need the trellis to be smothered in roses. A simple tracery with a few roses would be quite lovely. Some people say heritage blows quickly; do you find that to be the case? People also say that about Claire Austin, but mine almost always has blooms, and they last long enough to keep me happy. Michaelg, I wish I was still in the rust belt, enjoying the ocean breezes and dozing off to the hypnotic repetitive crashing waves. No, the issue will be whether Heritage performs in dry heat if given good soil and water. jannike

I had never heard the theory that roses live shorter lives in warm climates - interesting. Perhaps they were talking about grafted HTs? (For some reason, I have noticed that some folks in the last 50-60 years said things about "roses" when what they were really talking about were HT roses.) The really old roses I have are chinas or teas (or hybrids thereof like LV), or polyanthas. They are all on their own roots, or at least they are by now. I have never seen a "sucker" on any of them. Maybe they are closer genetically to the roses that are native to warm climates than whatever ones that theory applies to, and so of course they are happier in warm climates. Just guessing... Re shedding leaves, I have not paid much attention, but I have the vague idea that the old beat up leaves do fall off as the new growth emerges, whether that is in the Fall/Winter or especially the Spring. When I said 12 month growing season I did not mean to imply that the roses bloom as much in the Winter, it's just that they never altogether stop (I can remember one winter 20 years ago when they did stop - it was below 20 degrees F here for 2 weeks, day and night, without stopping. Lost several plants, but none of the roses, even the chinas or teas.) I love discovering rose "conventional wisdom" that turns out to be wrong-does anyone remember a source for the "roses do not live as long in warm climates" theory? Jackie

I googled DdB, and evidently there was a historic person by that name - she was married to the Duke de Brabant, which was a Belgian title. There is even a "Place de la Duchesse de Brabant" in Brussels, so it seems unlikely to me that the name DdB was just randomly "given by some nurseries for marketing in the US", as it now says in HMF. We all know that roses' names were frequently changed for marketing in the US, but this seems like a strange choice (more likely is the name "shell rose", which has also disappeared from HMF as another common name for this rose). Has HMF instituted some new policy to NOT list other, or common, names for all roses? Other roses which I have looked up still have their "aka" lists. I agree with you that even if this rose was originally named CdlB, trying to wipe out references to it as DdB is just silly, and will create nothing but confusion. Not to mention being inconsistent. HMF still lists Madame Joseph Schwartz as 'white Duchesse de Brabant', and the climbing sport as 'Cl Duchesse de Brabant' Jackie

Sorry - pls ignore this - my original post with pictures is above. I did contact Houzz, so maybe they fixed the problem! Jackie