I haven't heard of rose midge being reported in SC or in the Southeast. Some rose varieties will periodically abort some of the flower buds, but I don't think DJ is one of them. This is an unusual symptom with no obvious explanation. I would just wait and see if it continues after the rose is well established. Soils of mostly clay are fine for roses unless there is a drainage problem. Raising the planting area several inches above the surround can help a lot. Clay should be amended with a few inches of manure or other organic matter. Piedmont clays are poor in nutrients and often can use additions of dolomite lime and phosphate. However, it's a good idea to get a soil test from the county extension service before adding stuff. I'm not saying the above considerations have anything to do with the aborted flower buds, though.

I seem to recall that Climbing Crimson Glory has weak stems and "hangs its head" -- not a disadvantage in a climbing rose, which is observed from below. The flowers are enormous and age to a deeper crimson. Old garden books used to rave about climbing Crimson Glory, deeming it better than the bush form. But one seldom sees it now. I don't think yours is it. Don Juan is very nice, too, however. It doesn't age to a darker, more purpley color like Crimson Glory, but keeps its ruby red. My husband adored our specimen of Don Juan, bought on a whim, but it succumbed to a particularly hard winter one year in our garden. Here is a link that might be useful: crimson glory showing nodding flowers

I have a new Don Juan I bought at walmart a few days ago (I know bad, bad!) in a 3 gallon pot on a trellis. It was a good size for the price and full of little velvety buds. I tried to walk on by but the fragrance called out to me ...buy me buy me. I said," no Sir, I've heard about your reputation and I'm not that kind of girl!" Then proceeded to push my cart around to the other side of the table to see what else there was. Oh no! More Don Juan's on the other side with even more seductively red fragrant flowers. Geez, what's a girl to do when Don Juan is calling your name and then he jumped right into my cart? Well that's what I told my dh anyways. I put this guy into a 7.5 gallon for now. I am sure I will have to pot up to a larger size once I figure out where he will go permanently. Just make sure you have good drainage holes and work in some extra perlite and compost into your potting soil. The flowers are a darker red but my camera didn't capture it.

To add to Sheila's excellent point about zone ratings, much of the description of a rose is also colored by marketing of the distributor. That's how all John Clements roses are "perpetually blooming" and all hybrid teas that Jackson & Perkins sells are "hardy to zone 5" (righhhhhhtttt on both accounts). Another good resource beyond the lovely helpful folks here on GardenWeb is helpmefind roses, which has descriptive entries for every rose you could ever imagine. Sometimes the information on the summary screen is inexact, since they have to rely on input from contributors, but if you check the comments sections, or look where the pictures are from, or check out the Gardens tab to see who's growing it, you can get a better sense of a rose's actual potential. Ahh Vaporvac, it sounds like you're tempting me to show photos of the exquisite AC Navy Lady (not that it takes much temptation). Here's a cluster in its typical profusion, a bit brighter red than it is in real life: Here's a better shot of the lovely black-red most of the blooms are: And here's an attempt to capture how large and wide the bush gets. I had thought this would be a short 3' bush for some reason, so it's in my mailbox bed and gets every wayward cane tucked into the expanse of canes toward the center. Wish I'd seen your lovely 5' plant in Columbus, VaporVac! Navy Lady stretches from the red blooms at left of center all the way to upper right - I'm guessing 6-8' wide, and it's only her second year. She was blooming straight out of the box even last year though. And did I mention that she blooms like this all season? This was from August in 100+ temperatures, and I can't believe she stays this dark burgundy in full sun and heat. Available from High Country Roses here in the US, as well as somewhere else I saw recently (maybe Northland?). To give full credit to other terrific hardy red climbers, here's a shot of Florentina: The Prince's Trust (not usually that hot pink color): And just the top half of Quadra, recovering from a bit of shaping pruning in May. He's a thorny monster so I might hesitate to back into him in a vegetable garden, but he absolutely laughs off the cold and blooms throughout the season. He tends toward crimson rather than the true red of Florentina or Navy Lady: Suffice to say that there are plenty of red climbers that will do better than Don Juan, so enjoy him while he lasts and don't kick yourself if he doesn't. And do come back and tell us about what you end up with. Cynthia