Thanks - I thought about both The Fawn and Bonica. There is a Bonica growing in the demo garden in town, I will have to get a closer look at it. The Fawn seems like a reasonable fit, too. Nancy, if you want one of these, I may have an extra rooted copy (the other trades you sent me are doing really well). I will try to get pics of the mother plant. It's in full bloom right now and just a stunner. How is your Abe doing? Mine is growing like crazy and has a handful of buds about to open. It's actually growing better than the grafted parent I bought last year at the nursery. It seems to like being ownroot. Cheers, Michelle

The more I read, the more confused I am. I'm in the northern part of zone 5, almost 4. My rose is planted on the north side of the house/full sun and may be somewhat sheltered. I never have any die back from harsh winters -have gotten to -20 several times. It sounds like Eden can suffer in cold climates so maybe I don't have Eden. It blooms all summer starting late spring - way before my floribundas. It never has less than 50 blooms on it and continues all summer until frost(end of October). It never gets BS or any other problems. The flowers are not huge - only 3" and do have a green tint in bud stage. I'm pretty sure it is not a climber as the canes never get that long or arching. Any other ideas?

Lol, well I'm sorry, Joe, but I can't feel too sorry for you! I'm sitting here waiting for my first bloom! I usually get something open by Memorial Day and there is NOTHING open out there. At least you've seen some blooms already. The weather has been wonky here too. Nothing severe like in other parts but not normal either. One day it's 80 and the next 5 it's 50. the roses aren't growing much at all. Our averages should be low 70s in the daytime and mid 60s at night. We've had frost warnings twice in the last week. NOT FAIR! Our frost date is May 15th for Pete's sake. I put my tomatoes and peppers in just last week ( I did wait until after the frost date) and then promptly had to cover them all or lose them. Arrrrgh! I'd move it. It's having to compete too much with the Jasmine and that's probably slowing down it's progress. Bonica is a repeater so it should have bloomed by now. Usually only once bloomers take more than a couple of years to have their first bloom. If you'd like to have them grow together, which would be pretty, you need to grow the seedling up bigger first and then replant it with the Jasmine.

Hi Patty I have both Carefree Celebration and Bonica, and they're reliably clean and consistent bloomers for me in zone 5, with tendencies to survive even in zone 4 conditions. You can see from the whole bush shot below that CC has absolutely clean foliage - even in July blackspot pressure. The bloom isn't all that profuse in this shot, but it's consistent blooming even if pruned to the ground. I really like this rose. Jim is right that the blooms fade to an interesting parchment color, but I really like that variation too. If you don't, then just keep it deadheaded. Bonica is one of my top 20 roses that I would take with me to a limited space environment. It blooms under harsh conditions without complaint, blooms consistently throughout the year, and retains a majority of its canes in an average winter. Mine stays pretty blackspot free, and it's planted in part sun conditions. Here's a full bush shot from June 2014 after a particularly harsh winter when I had to prune off most of the canes. The blooms get a little scruffy looking if not deadheaded, as is true of virtually all light pink roses, but it only looks bad if you get behind in deadheading, as it's such a prolific bloomer. As MG reminds us, your blackspot pressures may differ particularly on the East Coast, but Chicago is pretty similar conditions to us here in NE (with somewhat more humidity). Bottom line for me is I recommend both of these. Cynthia