Note that the rose shown in the piece is NOT 'Souv. de Wooten.' It is 'Radiance.' It has been said of 'Radiance' and her sports that they can be grown successfully anywhere people can live, and if that is an exaggeration, well, it's ALMOST true. :-) Doesn't 'Radiance' look to you to be the color of cotton candy? There is also 'Red Radiance' (which I love), 'Mrs. Charles Bell' (which I like less than 'Radiance') and 'Careless Love,' a striped rose of considerably less vigor than the other three of the "Radiance Clan." (There were also climbing sports, but they seem to be extinct.) 'Souv. de Wooten' was a RED rose. I have seen a contemporary illustration of it, and Bill Grant grows the Climbing version. The version Cliff has was found growing at a deserted homesite near Tehachapi, CA (which no longer exists) by Bert and Kay Grant. Jeri

I'm beginning to agree with you guys thinking C might be the graft... basically, I'm seeing the theory of the Dr. Huey being everything that does not come from C. So let's test this out. I dug the rose out and went and transplanted it to one of my houses where work is being down for a couple of weeks. It will be watered daily by the guys so it will do well despite the hot weather. I pruned it all the way down to C. I left B in tact but will go back and cut it off. We'll see how this roles. A question I forgot to address earlier: no, I didn't quite notice different leaves, all I can say is that the lower leaves looked much smaller than the upper ones, I think that it is possible the HT is gone but it was definitely there last year, no doubts on that. true-blue, I already have the rose bug. I grew up on a mansion with over 200 beautiful roses in a much warmer part of the world. No winter protection needed lol. Got me hooked. Alas, I am here now. Ken, I planted all 15 roses in much higher temps last year. They all actually put on a good show last year and are doing well now. You can plant anytime right? Just need to water when hot. Following Jackie's suggestion earlier in this discussion, I contacted an expert rosarian that's local. He suggested indeed to plant HTs deep and still cover them up with lots of dirt and mulch for winter. Sounds good, well, I planted 15 already without doing that. I'm not in the mood to disturb those plants and I did pretty good with 14 out of 15 of the HTs making it. So I just don't know...

I would say that Ascot, Dainty Bess, Augusta Luise, Abbaye de Cluny, Rouge Royale, and Twilight Zone, among others, don't fit the bloom shape or growth habit of a classic hybrid tea. Frederic Mistral has a more HT bloom look, but the big bushy growth habit doesn't look like a typical HT, either. Sara Ann what a luscious group you have posted above. I think Crazy Love and Twilight Zone are my favorites. Your CL looks better than any on HMF. Diane

I consider a rose A-OK that gets some black spot on the oldest (lowest), foliage on its bush. That is as long as the black spot only appears from September on, no sooner, and does not loose those black spotted leaves, still staying green in spite of the black spots. It passes mustard. Any black spot starting earlier, particularly starting before The Fourth Of July , in June, and its a no-go. Bushes so affected, will usually be pretty much defoliated by August. Late season, lowest on the bush, black spotted leaves, as described above, really cause no or very little weakening of the bush. Those spotted leaves did their job all season long in building up the bush's resources to enlarge it, if a young bush, and survive winter in great shape to start off the next spring in prime shape. Also, those spotted leaves are going to be shed very soon, anyway. Unfortunately, its a trial and error process to know for sure how a new bush will perform regarding its black spot susceptibility. Although I start by doing my homework, learning all that I can about a candidate, and going by the best information available, it still needs to be trialed in ground, in my garden. Boy, how I wish I could just plant any rose bush I desired, and did not have to deal with whether or not it was black spot prone. I really want to get away from spraying because as we all know, toxic chemicals are, in the end, a losing proposition. I have tried practically all the natural/organic fungus control methods, and none of them worked effectively. I still prefer the classic, large bloomed, exhibition, hybrid tea type flower form, over the trend among contemporary rose gardeners of growing English (Austin), or Old Garden Rose flower form roses, with their quartered and often flat blooms. In spite of my preference for classic HT form, I grow and am enamoured with a number of these new trend flower form types. Fortunately, many of the modern OGR bloom style roses are highly black spot resistant or even black spot proof, especially those introduced by Kordes' ADR winners. Moses