I couldn't find any pics of laguna. Quadra and Blaze look very nice but I'm leaning towards a pink one. Any other suggestions? Also, I have kids and I work and I need something that will be easy to care for and not need to be babied or protected over winter. thanks again!

I have had a good experience so far with a Laura Ford (aka King Tut) that I planted last November, but it is just starting to bloom now so I can't answer as to repeat bloom ability. Disease resistance seems good--no blackspot, mildew or rust although 2 other minis--Sweet Chariot and Sequoia Gold-- have had problems with one or all of these during the same period that I have had the Laura Ford. The helpmefind.com site has a few photos of Laura Ford on it that would help you decide if you like its appearance. I would recommend calling a few of the online mini rose vendors, describing the characteristics of your planting site and the rose characteristics which are important to you to get their recommendations. Here is a link that might be useful: helpmefind/roses

I'd definitely agree, go with Illusion among those two choices, particularly in zone 6. I haven't been able to get Crimson Sky to overwinter in zone 5 and even if it survives in zone 6 it's not likely to be a climber. Also, $59 is an insanely expensive price to pay for a rose - we could do better than that. For instance, Regan's sells Crimson Sky for under $20, though they're done with bareroot sales for this year. An alternative to Illusion that blooms a lot more often for me is Quadra, and it would be rock solid hardy for you and pretty trouble free. Both Quadra and Illusion are available from Hortico for $17.99 plus shipping, and those are bareroot grafted roses that give the rose a little head start toward settling in to be a climber. Roses Unlimited also carries Illusion, and a gallon sized plant is a bit bigger than a band-sized plant, though both will grow fine. Those would be own-root plants, where there isn't a graft and the same rose would regrow if you have to cut it back to the ground (shouldn't be necessary with both of these latter two roses). Here is Illusion on one side of my front yard in a good year - the trouble is it only does this about 3 times a year at best so there are times it's just green. A more reliable bloomer most of the season for me is Quadra, which is at the other end of my house in similar conditions. Quadra will have some rest periods, but it looks like this off and on all summer. Both of these roses are healthy and hardy, though any rose takes some pruning out of dead wood periodically. Both are also toward the crimson side of red rather than "fire engine red", which applies to a whole lot of red roses frankly. Do remember that any climber takes about 3-4 years to fully settle in, so don't expect either one to look like this in its first couple of years. You want a climber to put on growth and build cane structure in the first few years, and blooms are secondary considerations at first. Also be sure to use something to tie the canes to a climbing structure (they don't hang on themselves like clematis does) and do your best to train as many of the biggest canes to bend sideways or horizontally, so that the blooming canes or "laterals" stretch upward from those initial sideways canes. Otherwise you can get blooms just at the tips of those main canes and not all along the way. You can see a cane bending sideways for Quadra in the photo above toward the right side of the arch, and that cane itself isn't blooming until the laterals that branch off it are growing. Hope this helps! Cynthia

I am not sure what zone I am in but live in Ontario, Canada about 45 km from Toronto. I fell head over heels at seeing pictures of the drop dead coral dawn pink rose online and knew as soon as I saw it had to get one of these. Sooooo figured my best bet was to go to our garden center near me. I wasn't really looking for it but another rose and saw the climbing roses and half heartedly looked at the id tags on them and like WOW!!! There was a coral dawn rose. Hahahah forget getting that other rose grabbed one of them instead. It is a move I have never regretted. When ravaged by the gypsy moth caterpillars this year I managed to stop their attack on it. Would go out every day and pick them off it. It looked like the wreck of the hesperus but realized just how tenacious it is. Has bounced back and even managed to get 2 blooms on it despite its setback. The flowers on these are drop dead gorgeous!!!!!!! And huge !!!!! Wow. Got 15 blooms on it. Said in some cases can grow up to 12 feet high!!!! Mine has shot up since I last bought it. And like oh wow I am so amazed and happy as I was out there yesterday and counted 15 buds on it!!!! Lots of new shoots on it too!!!! Think I have won the war on them. I also according to Darlene spread in a circle around the base of it crushed egg shells as they don't like crawling over them. Gets 3 HUGE blooms on each stem and one ends up having to tie them to the trellis due to being so top heavy with them!!! Here is one of it when I first planted it in 2020.