I get a bit of B/S on mine in the early spring when we've had a particularly rainy one. It goes away once the warm weather hits. And I don't spray. With the kinds of springs we've been having the last few yrs, and especially THIS spring, I get B/S on almost all of my roses, even the most so-called resistant ones. THE IMPOSTER is a very cool rose. I love it, and I'm not a big fan of the singles. Mainly I like the speckles. It blooms almost all season and it's even in a slightly shady area of my yard, in a big pot. In my garden, it stays fairly compact, like barely 2ft tall and maybe 2.5ft wide. It would make a good rose for the front of a bed, or like I have it as a specimen in a nice pot.

Like Malibu-Rose wrote I did a post about Benjamin Britten on my blog (see link). BB is a beautiful rose - I am however not sure it will like too much heat and sun - since the flowers fade much even here this far north in Europe, it even fries in hot sunny weather (90F is about as hot as it gets here). Like other Austins it seems to take rests in between flushes, where it spends more time growing than producing flowers. I agree that it is healthy, but I saw it get rust, when it grew next a rose that was infected - so if rust is an issue where you live I would consider that. Falstaff has beautiful flowers too - but it is not very productive with flowers either. It is a bit prone to mildew here. It can be grown as stiff upright, low climber here, but the flowers are smaller and not so perfect shaped in the second flush here -(We only get 2 flushes every season here - since the growing season is so short). I love both roses. They are unique and beautiful. As some write they do not bloom continously as some modern roses - and I only grow them in my cutting garden, because their growth habit does not suit my small garden. For a warm and sunny climate I think there are better roses - William Shakespare 2000 is like some mentioned one of the the best Austins. I do not know if it can be trained as climber though?? But tiny Austins like Tradescant (1 foot here) can become huge (6-7 feet trained again a split rail fence -as I have seen in Sacramento and Santa Barbara). William Shakespeare blooms alot most places I have seen it in USA. So I hope the original poster will find another rose - I am sure some living in CA can come up with some good alternatives. Here is a link that might be useful: Benjamin Britten

Nova Zembla is an island off the northernmost part of Russia, in the arctic regions. I think it has a colloquial meaning of "the end of the world" -- like Siberia. So the rose is very hardy. It is a rugosa hybrid and has beautiful blush (whitish pink) flowers, something like New Dawn, and with a heavenly clove-like scent, inherited from its rugosa parent. It is a sport of Conrad F. Meyer which is slightly darker pink. There used to be several specimens of it in the old Brooklyn Botanic Rose Garden, pruned to within an inch of their lives. To say it is a climber is a pleasant fiction. The truth is less attractive, for Nova Zembla and its parent have some severe drawbacks in their manner of growth. I used to grow this rose, so I know. 1) Even with excellent culture at the BBG, it was not all that floriferous. 2) It has tall stout canes, about the diameter of your fist, armed with thickly-set, truly vicious thorns from top to bottom. The foliage (as I grew it) was not especially attractive, profuse, nor healthy. 3) It blooms only at the very tippy tips of those tree-trunk-like canes. The head of the BBG rose garden in the 1980s was a devote of pruning and he kept his plants to five feet, and fairly presentable. Also, if you live in zone 4 it might not grow as tall. The scent is delicious. So why not try it. If you don't like it you can do what I did and get rid of it. I thought it was a hazard in my small city back yard, after accidentally cutting myself on it more than once. Some of the pics. on Helpmefind also reveal its manner of bloom. The attached one shows the thorns. Here is a link that might be useful: Nova Zembla showing thorns

yes, 200 yr old house with old heart pine floors and some 20 yr old wax finish floors. So was looking at reclaimed wood to do a tung oil finish but don't want to go thru the process, or, engineered floors with matte finish (Kahrs products). Have dogs so soft woods and shiny gloss finish do not work for me, nor match the house