I got 2 from Edmunds when I was able. Planted both plants about 20" apart where they get mid afternoon shade. 1st summer they grew and bloomed OK but this year they went crazy. 5' tall, covered in good foliage with tons of beautiful blooms. The blooms aren't big but in the spring and fall they get some good size to them. If you order this beauty, order 2 and plant fairly close together for a great effect. It blends fairly well with oranges or whites.

I guess it's only fair to share the lurid details, so here goes. Pickering: Speelwark, George Burns, Ebb Tide, Munstead Woods, Distant Drums. Palatine: Magenta, Outta the Blue, Summer Song, Strike It Rich, Belle Epoche, Kordes Moonlight Climber, Out of Africa, South Africa, and Marvelle. RU (Plan): Halloween, Yankee Doodle, Robelais, Southern Sunset. Regans (Plan): Julio Ingelias, Modern Magic, Purple Tiger, Rainbow Niagara, and whatever else I might see. Whew! Does that add up to 12? I think I'm in trouble...I only think I have spaces for 12. Oh well..something will turn up. It always does.

Helen, no use trying to convince us you're a rose newbie - with those exquisite photos and lovely range of roses you're prize winning in our world. As for how many roses I grow, I "only" have 1000, give or take a few each year. I plant about 300 roses each year and stay around 1000, so that equates to anywhere from 25-30% rose loss each year. It sounds like I'm really stupid (though that's arguably true with that many roses) and planting things that I know won't survive, but each year as many as half of the losses are roses that have done fine for years and just didn't come back, or have otherwise failed. This past winter for instance I had at least 40 or so mature grafted roses that seem like the graft just failed- in cold zones as I understand it some roses start losing new places to put out canes every spring if they die to the ground every spring like most HTs do around here. This means that as many as half of the 300 new roses that aren't "supposed" to grow in my zone can do fine, and some take two or three tries to find a place where they settle in happily. I do have some common sense even where roses are concerned, and plant plenty of shrubs and once-bloomers that actually like my zone. Flowers, I haven't grown either Marc Chagall or Paul Cezanne, so I can't compare them to Edgar Degas. In my book, they would have to be truly extraordinary roses to even come close to Edgar Degas. He's absolutely in the top 10 out of my 1000 roses, and he is a hot contender for #1. He blooms all summer, is totally cane hardy, bushes out tremendously well, has intriguing variability in his blooms, is totally clean and keeps his foliage, and is basically trouble free. In contrast among the other painters, Alfred Sisely is definitely in the top 10% for me but not as hardy or bushy, and he rests a bit between bloom cycles. Henri Matisse doesn't even make the top 50% and he's mostly a one-cane wonder with surprisingly little color variation on his blooms. In fact I don't think I've seen a bloom from him all season. No telling how MC and PC will do but I can't wait to try. Pictures you say? You only have to ask. Here's Edgar loving to show off Yes, the above shot is all Edgar. He's at least 6' wide at this point, and maybe 4' tall. Cold zoners in particular really need this rose IMHO. Cynthia

Regan’s called me last week to tell me they couldn’t ship to Mississippi. I’m so bummed! I hate losing all those roses that were on my list. A local nursery has Sweet Spirit sothats a plus. This was just unexpected. Honestly I was most excited about Easy Does It. This one had been on my wishlist for years. Also, another local nursery has some Brindabellas but they lost the tags so won’t know the colors for another few weeks. I’ll probably pick up a few sweet spirits and a few brindabellas to cover what I would have received from regan’s. Has this happened to anyone else? Just don’t know why they waited so long to contact me when I ordered first thing in Sept.