Thank you, York Rose, You are right. A neighbor's tree shaded my rose, but the tree was taken down recently and the rose bloomed like crazy this month. I hope it will be happier now. Thanks, Sherry! Rebar-good idea. I certainly need something strong. I may try that. Hopefully I can do it in a fairly unobtrusive way. Another option is to attempt to transplant the rose in the fall to the other side of the wall so that it will drape on the wall (instead of away from the wall) and have the support of the wall. That's where it should have been planted in the first place. I'd hate to kill it in the process, though. It's large!

The classifications are just a manifestation of the human desire to organize things into groups, and as this involves living things which can crossbreed and/or be selected according to human desires, static groups will continue to find "messiness" as new roses continue to arise through time. Right now, the popular designation starts with three main divisions -- species, garden variety groups created before the hybrid tea class was named (i.e. "old garden roses") and garden variety groups created after that point (i.e. "modern roses"). If this designation was determined a few hundred years ago, perhaps the introduction of the damasks would have heralded in the "modern roses" grouping to distinguish them from the others that were grown previously. And as roses continue to be interbred and selected for new desires, perhaps a new group will be named that is as different from what we now see as hybrid teas were felt to be different from the groups that existed before. It's really arbitrary. On this forum, there is a marked preference for growing roses that have "withstood the test of time" and the general plant characteristics that accompany them. Ironically, when new roses are bred which capture similar characteristics as those (i.e. David Austin's roses), they are also cherished. What is an antique? Well, outside of roses, a common denominator is that it is something of a minimum age, say 100 years. That would include many early hybrid teas, as well as many polyanthas and hybrid musks. What makes a rose something that is cherished by members here? There are several things (from what I've gathered by reading old posts). One might be a nostalgia for the past -- growing something that was passed down for generations in a family, or finding a rose they remember from their childhood in their grandmother's garden. Many people see photographs of old gardens or paintings by the old Dutch masters and seek to emulate that look, choosing plants with similar habits -- this could be done with the same cultivars, or modern reproductions. There is also a preservationist feeling -- we should not let cultivars which were once cherished be lost forever, so we should continue to grow and promote them. Many become so enamored of the process of gardening as an art form that they seek to divert from the bare-bones landscaping with a few token flowers by planting things not commonly seen, and so become attracted to the uncommon old roses. The fact that they require seeking out gives them the allure of precious gems. :-) ~Christopher

While not at all specific to California, the Australian Tea Roses book would also make a great gift. Well...except that it sells new for about double your limit. So I found some other options that could also work. Empress of the Garden Noisette Roses: Nineteenth-Century Charleston's Gift to the World In Search of Lost Roses Landscaping with Antique Roses If you don't mind getting used books, you could put together quite a bargain package of several together. For someone crafty, if you can find a used copy of Redoute's Roses cheap enough to warrant "destroying" the book, you can remove and frame the pages to hang as art around the home. Every so often I spot one on Amazon or one of the other book sellers for less than $10 and I'm tempted. :-) ~Christopher

Yes, your location makes a huge difference when considering advice from an author. Quite the opposite of those in zone 9, I first started growing roses while living in zone 4; so I started growing OGRs because they are mostly hardy and robust. I devoured the three Graham Stuart Thomas books, but I didn't take into account that the climate in England is very different from upstate NY. It is not only warmer, but wetter. Moving to the Eastern US coastline in zone 6 was a very different matter. I no longer needed the extremely cold hardy roses, but the amount of rain was now diminished compared to PA, NY, Western MA and the Boston area. All that said, I now understand my climactic conditions and will happily read any rose book for the pleasure of learning about different roses while being aware of my own climatic requirements. If I were to start with those most close to hand, I would recommend the two astonishingly complete masterpieces by Brent Dickerson: 'The Old Rose Adventurer' and 'The Old Rose Advisor.' 'The Old Rose Adventurer' is a 600 page compendium of every once blooming OGR that was every mentioned in any print publication along with that description and image if there was one. The 'Old Rose Advisor' covers all the re-blooming, mostly European, OGRs with 274 images included with the contemporary description. I see that he now has several other books published about roses, but I haven't seen them. These are true reference quality books for the serious rose enthusiast. OK, I can't press "submit" without mentioning GST again and his three books, 'The Old Shrub Roses', ' Shrub Roses of Today ' and 'Climbing Roses Old and New.' All three books were combined into 'The Graham Stuart Thomas Rose Book' that includes a little new information. No other author has so profoundly affected my enthusiasm for OGRs and modern shrub roses. I have read his books over and over and even though I know most of them by heart, I still enjoy reading them. I suppose there is something appealing about his enthusiasm and knowledge. Again, I can't take all his recommendations literally as my climatic conditions are different, but for the most part his observations have been trenchant and his recommendations accurate.