Ben, Sorry Olivia didn’t bloom a lot by 1 1/2 years. I think the 3rd year is considered the mature year, at least for own-roots. 3rd year is tge charm! Lol! My Moonlight in Paris does bloom non-stop huge flushes all the time!!!! MIP may be my best bloomer next to Walking on Sunshine. MIP has blooms all over all the time-she’s a floribunda. Plum Perfect & Kimberlina are blooming all the time all over, too! And a few bush roses like The Fairy are blooming all the time, too. @CeresMer Zone 7a NJ , I am excited to hear that your Olivia bloomed non-stop 2nd year. I think next year will be my Olivias full 2nd year-hoping for lots of blooms!!! Our weather is similar. If I have her in a sunny enough spot she will perform well! We will see! I may get another & put her in a sunnier spot! She has no BS-so she is a super winner for me! Out of my 120 roses, Olivia is one of the few with zero BS ever…. pouring rains damp soil in fall ongoing. Ok, I think Olivia is gorgeous! I have one similar that blooms kinda like Olivia, called Vicontesse Decaux, (a cross of Earth Angel & Winchester Cathedral), but Vicontesse doesn’t have as beautiful a foliage or bloom as much as Olivia.

Diane, I wonder, since Olivia is supposed to be small, if you couldn't move her to the shade where you wouldn't ordinarily plant a rose, like under a tree and see if her color isn't any better. The shade might also keep her smaller. You would have her spot for RR, and you wouldn't really have lost anything whether she lives or dies. The VS Hydrangeas are just blossoming. They're white and chartreuse right now. When I have a progression of the color change, I will post pics. I thought they would be the first to go in this heat. My big leafs are totally cooked, but these paniculatas are fine. I will probably have to move the Blue Enchantresses to total shade. The Endless Summer Originals are doing ok. My grandson cut them back to the lowest node because they fried, but they're coming back beautifully as long as I keep them floating in an over watered bed. I wish we knew if this year is typical of what to expect from now on, or if it is an anomaly. I'm still planting and feeding. I don't want a bunch of baby roses to keep over winter in the garage. Only about half of the rose garden got fed before the heat started, so I waited, but it's been steadily hot, so I'm giving them a light feeding before it's too late this year.

rbains5, They did VERY well!! I also think using great potting soil helped me out. Very airy potting soil and the addition of air-pruning via grow bags had fantastic results. I used Happy Frog soil. It has mychorrizal fungi in the soil and helps roots to develop. I highly recommend putting them on top of STURDY pot caddies or rollers (whatever they are called). I had them sitting on concrete and not only did mold to grow pretty quickly on the bags, but water seems to just sit around the bottom of the bags. You need sturdy ones since a 20gal grow bag plus a rose is gonna be HEAVY. That being said, I don’t think it’s possible to completely prevent mold from growing on your bags. You have to consider replacing them about once a year if you don’t like the mold. I personally don’t know how it affects the plants (if it affects them at all). If you don’t care about mold and just don’t want to see it, maybe consider black grow bags? Grow bags are not going to last as long as actual planters, though. Be careful if your rose is not winter hardy, their roots will be exposed to temperature changes more than a rose in the ground or in a thick planter. My DAs are hardy to zone 5 and they did fine in grow bags over the winter in zone 7a. Don’t know if that would have been the same had I actually been in zone 5. Sorry for bombarding you with all of these things! I do think growing in grow bags- especially if it is a young rose, is fantastic!

munstead does well here but never has a profusion of blooms (only had mine for 2 years and a had 3 or 4 blooms at a time). Darcey Bussell on the other makes more blooms than you can count but it does get more BS than MW. The only red rose I have that blooms A LOT and is BS free is Bordeaux cityscape. Dark desire is also BS free but it is huge and slower repeat. darcey blooms a lot and recovers well after defoliating with proper care but it can't match Olivia's health. MW is healthier than Darcey but if what you want is blooming power similar to Olivia this isn't it. Here is Darcey B edit: I should have specfied I also do not grow many reds so I am hopping others have more options for you or mybe bette experience with munstead wood. The blooms are amazing and it has a wonderful scent, maybe in a pot with lots of good fertilizer it would do better