Tess is such a good rose. It was on the bush 6 days and just kept getting poofier and poofier but held together. Its been a dry heat and in the 90's this past week plus uber smoky from the wildfires and literally 'raining' ash some days. Gotta love Tess! Some others doing well in the wicked heat TIMF Litchfield Angel Jude the Obscure...I swear I couldnt get enough pics of him the other day!! He is sooo ~Dreamy~ I'm obsessed with the way the buds look half open. I could get lost in those buds for hours!

Well I placed my first order of the season and it was with Everwilde Farms last night. However, I did hold back though and only ordered 15 seed varieties. They too, are basically the ones that need cold stratification and I plan to winter sow them as soon as they arrive. Will also be able to share some of them with others in the seed swap I'm currently hosting/in. Then when Everwilde's updates the site at the end of the month, I'll check the new arrivals out and do a final order (have 6 things already bookmarked for that order). Can't go wrong with $2 or $3 shipping. Sandy

Urgs, I just saw how huge the image was, sorry for that! @lily: I have no idea. Haweha commented my pictures on the german forum and wrote that he too had no idea who the ancestors could have been, the broad stakes are a trade of an big flowering cultivar. So perhaps they crossed a trumpet shaped specie with dutch cultivar? You might be able to find who crossed it. @Alana: Yes, I received seeds from Amputo x Sydney and Sydney x Amputo. I had so many flowers, there where 2 stakes with 3 blooms and 2 from one bulb with 4 each! I used this one for my crosses (even though it might just be a stronger clone from tissue cultivation), but I should have pollinated the other ones just to check what workes. I think I'll try to save pollen and try as much as possible. Ok, any suggestions ... finally: Amputo seems to be a Tetraploid regardless of it's fragrant looks. So it's a perfect candidate for a cross with a big-flowerig dutch hybrid. You should be able to preserve some of the colour scemes of the other parent. White flowers are often connected to a genetic defect where the plant's gene that transcribes pigments can't be read. So the other parent should be able to bring in some colours. What I'd like to try would be Grandeur, if anyone has pollen of these ... perhaps I should ask in another thread. ;)

I have Pretty Jessica and love that rose. I also love Brother Cadfael. HUGE blooms on that one with a scent to die for Also have Princess Alexandra of Kent. Big blooms on that one as well. Old rose with fairly big blooms (heat will shrink them a bit) is Vick's Caprice. Yes, he is a mild stripey. Munstead Wood is also good. It will change colors in the heat. It becomes much more fuchsia in warm weather.