Bought my Janet rose at my Ace Hardware in early October 2010, planted it immediately, kept it watered and mulched. This spring it sent up many spindly canes with buds at the ends. It proceeded to collapse on the ground still sending out canes. This seems to be an extremely weak climber. Floweres are lovely and full but ther are not too many. I will give it a month to strengthen.

Johny, you might be interested in an article written by Dr. Jerry Parsons in his 'Plant Answers' column, an interesting piece about the search for THE 'San Antonio Rose'. I've quoted a few lines below. "In the fall of 1987, Texas Agriculture Extension Service horticulturists began a search for the oldest ever-blooming roses in San Antonio. The purposes of the search was not necessarily to find the first roses ever in San Antonio, but to identify selections of old roses that are ever-blooming, low-maintenance and not currently (hot) on the market. The official judges were: Ms. Pamela Puryear of Brenham; Dr. William Welch, State Ornamental Specialist from College Station; and Greg Grant, Bexar County Horticulturist for the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. "To stimulate participation and find the "genuine" San Antonio rose, the Miller beer folks . . . posted rewards of $500 for the oldest ever-blooming rose bush that has endured the longest in this area, and $250 for the oldest ever-blooming rose variety identified in this area." Dr. Parsons recounts some interesting stories of old families and their roses and mentions the usual survivors such as Duchesse de Brabant, Lamarque, Louis Philippe, and Mrs. Dudley Cross, among others. The oldest bush found was what appeared "to be a bourbon X China cross, similar to *Louise Odier*". Dr. Parsons closed with these thoughts: "When all is said and done, the rose named Mrs. Dudley Cross, a cream-colored, very hardy, 1907 thornless tea rose, will have to be declared "the genuine San Antonio rose". This rose possesses all of the traits which a tough-enough-for-Texas rose must have. It survives abuse -- both environmental and that which is people-inflicted. It is old and historical. It is thornless (which is not a common trait for a rose!), has large, rose-type blooms, is abundant in San Antonio which indicates its adaptability, and is . . . as close to yellow as most old roses get. Since everyone always thinks of "the yellow rose of Texas", the Mrs. Dudley Cross variety IS the "GENUINE SAN ANTONIO ROSE". " If you'd like to read the entire article, you can see it at http://www.plantanswers.com/garden_column/oct04/3.htm Mrs DC is a favorite of mine. She's in full bloom right now in my front garden and is a show-stopper. No disease even in partial shade. I intend to plant more of her even if I have to remove some others for space. But even more than just my recommendation is that of the three esteemed judges mentioned above. You can't go wrong with Mrs Dudley. Lou

Actually, that is what I planned on doing with my arbor only using the bush version at the foot of the climbing sport, and also using large flowered climbers with their small flowered look alikes. A couple of years ago there were a couple of good posts on the latter. For the prior, I have, for example, the two versions of La France, Crimson Glory, Clotilde Soupert and Belind'a Dream. For Blossomtime I have Archduke Charles and Jean LeJoie as a small flowered version. The Cl. miniatures are very useful for this purpose, such as Red Cascade and Firefall. Even the Kosters have a climbing version. I plan to stagger them slightly. I have many ND, but none for this arbor. Duchesse de Brabant, Quietness and possibly Bloomfield Abundance have the same tones in my yard, but may not all be hardy . Cecile Brunner has a similar shape when opening.I also have shorter climbers to go on trellisses between the main posts to get as many roses in as possible trying to stagger thornier ones with those having smoother canes. I have probably 30 roses for this project, but alas, no arbor yet. : (( I'm planting them against a brick wall this summer since I'm tired of babying them so at least I'll know how they'll look and fare when I finally can get to the arbor.

What a lovely row of JA. I like the lavenders in there too. I just got this rose from our local rose society. So glad it is so beautiful!