I don't know your climate: can anyone comment on the Hybrid Musks for your situation? I don't know how healthy they would be in your climate--they're very healthy in my different situation. The Hybrid Musks are like moderate-sized ramblers or large lax shrubs: they're hardy in your zone, reblooming, fragrant, generally with small or medium-sized flowers, and with very good foliage and habit. I'm thinking of the Pemberton roses here, as I don't know the Lens and Lambert varieties, for example. Examples of Pemberton Hybrid Musks are 'Cornelia', 'Francesca', 'Moonlight', 'Felicia' (superb fragrance, but more disease prone than others in this group), 'Buff Beauty', 'Kathleen'. When conditions suit them these make lovely plants. I agree that your list of desired qualities is close to impossible, and that's fine: it's good to know what you want! Like some others who have posted here, the first thing I'd throw out the window is rebloom--well, perhaps double flowers first of all: there are some lovely singles out there. When I began growing roses I wanted reflowering roses myself, but the more I grew once-flowering roses, the more I loved them. Of course, this also depends on your growing conditions: if the single season of flower coincides with the Japanese beetle season, or if it's hot by then and the roses last a week, you might not want to have a lot of once-flowering varieties. These things have to be taken into consideration. You can add spring bulbs, flowering perennials and shrubs, clematis, etc., and have flowers and other ornamental features (fall foliage, berries and hips, evergreen plants) most of the year even if the roses are once-flowering. It sounds to me like you have the potential to have a wonderful garden! Good luck! Melissa

I was recently at Edelmans Peonies near Salem, Oregon. While we were there there was wind blowing icy blasts so hard that it defeted some people who would have walked the fields. However, It did not defeat me and what I saw led me to buy or order several of them. In particular, Pink Pom Pom, a single pink stood upright as though the day was perfectly calm, and was covered in gorgeous rose pink flowers. I also bought a second Coral Charm, Garden Lace and Rozella. Garden Lace has beautiful shell pink single flowers with a golden puff in the middle on rigid stems and Rozella is a double candy (DEEP ROSE?)pink. Red CHARM is another that looked great. Mr Ed was very floriforous but bent down with the icy blast. However, with that one you get two for the price of one as the flowers come out either white or pink at the same time so you get both. Some of the yellow intersectional hybrids were magnificant but I don't buy $100 Plants for my cutting garden,LOL. Visiting a peony garden in bloom is to be highly recommended! You can see that some of the flowers that look dull in the catalog are gorgeous and some caught at their fleeting moment of beauty by photographers were flattened and their centers were browning, so I wouldn't want my customers to see them at that ugly stage! Another question to check out is what the vase life of each is. Last week I used a lovely wine red one (The one peony I have lost identification of!) and even though I picked it in the marshmallow stage and kept it refrigerated, it opened fully and dropped its petals within 3 days in one of my commercial accounts. This is not good in a Drs office. Only my old red one and the wine dark one are open yet here for me...oh yes, Paula Fay and Coral Charm are also. I check the other buds often. I put in 13 different ones 3 years ago and they are blooming nicely this year for the first time. I had just a few blooms of Paula and Coral Charm last year.

Thanks for the help, ladies. I KNEW I should have posted here, first! I had ruled out botrytis because our spring has been warm and dry, and there was no blackening anywhere on the plant, even at the base of the stems. However, that might only be one indication of the disease, or maybe that symptom will show up later. In any case, I'll treat it for botrytis and cross my fingers. If I can keep the one stem alive, then, perhaps the roots will build up sufficient energy to make it through next winter. (Sheesh--do prairie gardeners ever stop thinking of winter survival??? It's June, for pity sakes!) Systemic fungicides are not in stores, any more, Sharon, but I've got a litttle bit of Benomyl left from an earlier purchase that I've been saving for when I really need it. I'll try that. Thanks for the encouraging words, Gil. I hope you're right in this case. I know that botrytis isn't necessarily fatal to mature plants, but this one's just a baby. Thanks, again. I knew I could count on the great people in this forum. I don't know why I'd go anywhere else, first. :-) Look at the photos on this web site to see why I want, so much, for this plant to live! Here is a link that might be useful: Photos of P. anemoniflora

As far as what cultivars do best in full sun I won't make any suggestions except try and find out the parentage of the ones you want. Tenifolia parentage likes more shade. My suggestion is on you day off, go to the spot you think you want to plant in several times of that day to see exactly where the sun is. Tell your family you need time away get a book you have been wanting to read, a good drink, and a comfortable chair. Sit in the shade and watch. Depending on the season what you see will give you a good idea of sun strength in a particular spot. Early blooming flowers benefit from the sunlight and build energy before the leaves are on the trees and then go dorment until next season. Think of the sun as a large hose. Sunlight as water. Depending on the distance and angle if you spray straight down at an orange(think plant)you get everything wet except right under the overhang. From an angle part will be in bright sun, part in light spray (non-yellow light rays) and the part directly around the orange receives no water except for runoff. Perhaps someone can explain why some plants need more of the yellow spectrum than others. At the distance from the sun to earth unless directly under something all the other light waves should hit the shady side of anything.