This subject interests me, too,since here in Italy we have serious problems with the heat.I just got Climbing Crimson Glory (I dislike shrub HT's with their awkward, graceless growth habit, but am hoping that in the climbing form this won't be such a problem). My experience with Austin's Falstaff is that this beautiful rose does NOT crisp in hot sun, and it's colour-a very deep purple-red-is so unique. Likewise Tradescant seems promising.But, Daisy, why not take a look at Becky and John Hook's roses ?(La Roseraie Du Désert is the name of their nursery). They have an excellent selection of roses adapted to our hot climates:chiefly teas, chinas and noisettes. My experience with them has been so excellent, I can't recommend them highly enough. I bet they could ship to Crete. Their roses are own-root, so they may appear a bit small to you if in the past you've only had experience with grafted bare-roots, but these are top quality plants IMHO. I just grow the smaller plants along in a vase for their first season,so they get nice and big,though I think this is a matter of personal preference. regards, bart

Shots of the flower in all stages from bud to spent, leaves, canes and whole plant shots are always helpful. Yes, for the most part all roses require the same care. 6, preferably 8 hours of sunlight, about an inch of water per week, some fertilizer monthly and some pruning as needed to take out dead wood and keep the shape is pretty basic to all roses. In your zone you don't need to worry about things like winterizing. There are some exceptions in the pruning category but those are for very specific types of roses and yours does not appear to be any of those types. Keep it watered but do not let it get soggy or stay very wet for a long time because roses don't like soggy roots. Feed it any type of well balanced fertilizer. What ever you use on the rest of your garden will work just fine as long as you feed them regularly. In your zone I think most people do a hard "spring" pruning in February but I'm not in your zone so you may want to check that with a local nursery or better yet, contact a local rose society. They will be able to give you very good accurate information for your area. You can locate a local society by going to the American Rose Societies web site. They have a list of them on there. Really, roses aren't any harder to care for or require any thing more than what any perennial plant needs. So if you grow perennials you can grow roses! Here is a link that might be useful: American Rose Society

Hi, Brandon. Thank you for writing from my region! I have also grown roses here since the mid 1990s, and I've never had rose borer problems either until recently. I checked my neighbors' roses today and notice that many also have borers. The buggers seem to have moved in during the last couple of years or so. I can identify old holes from (at least) last year in my rose canes. Things have been rather hectic at my house, so I haven't been paying a lot of attention to my garden over the last two years. This year, the critters seem to be legion! They even bored through the Elmer's Glue and nail polish I just pasted on my Penelope. I really should prune my OGRs after bloom, anyway, so I think that's what I'll start doing. Due to time constraints, I've always pruned all my roses except ramblers in late winter. If my HTs and floribundas survive this spring, I'll seal them with something more durable each year and do what you suggest, prune them a little later in the springtime. Do you know when rose borers are done with the egg laying stage? I'm researching that topic. I'll be curious to hear if my neighborhood is an anomaly or if rose borers are becoming more plentiful in the Willamette Valley. Raspberries have grown in popularity in my area, so I'm checking out raspberry borer sites as well. Thank you again for your local feedback and any new info you discover. Carol

Thank you very much for the welcome and for the suggestions. I just read up on Dr. Huey as rootstock and he certainly is persistent. That's a quality I just might need, being a novice, and his color is truly gorgeous. I think I read that he blooms once and since I have such a prominent place in mind, I'd like to find a rose that repeats well. Maggie is also a beautiful color and I see that she does repeat, so I will do a bit more reading to see if she would like the spot I have picked out--she is listed as zone 5, so that is encouraging. And I am embarrassed to add that I am actually zone 5b, instead of 5a. I just checked the map again--but honestly, we have had such crazy extremes of weather these last few years, I'm not sure the a or b designation will really make a lot of difference. We tend to have cold, snowy winters and hot, humid periods during the summer here in northern Illinois. Any other ideas?