Thanks to all who responded; since it is too hot here to mail order anything I can only look at my little Belle de Crecy and plan for next year and talk. Thanks for giving me the chance to learn. Ann- I forgot to say how much I liked your comment "none of this screaming magenta that sellers want to call purple." There is a lot of wishful thinking out there when it comes to colors - almost as much as with fragrance. Lynn- I hope they do well for you, but please let us know regardless. This is "zone pushing" from the other side. Melva- Thanks for the information. What is "Rush Family?" I couldn't find it on HMF - is it a found rose? Olga- I see now why Michael made the comment he did. Wow! (Perhaps it is best that I can't order right now after seeing that list.) I hope some of you will post full bush shots when your roses are in bloom. Elizabeth

Olga, I think we have to give our roses a 'by' for this year, by that I mean that I think the very cold spell over Easter weekend may have destroyed buds that were just beginning. My large back yard roxbergii has tiney, dark brown nibs that under the microscope are the stage the buds were at Easter. All dead, now. Not all of my gallicas are making buds this year and I think the damask bloom isn't going to happen this year, likewise albas. Centifolias have a chance because they are younger and closer to the relatively warm ground. I think the rose growing on the other side of Clinch Mountain in three different front yards spread five miles along the rainroad track is Ipsilante. If it is, Ipsilante is a keeper. The one here has great value for extending the bloom season by two weeks for once bloomers and the color is a refined lightest lavender. The other thing about the gallica over Clinch is that one of the plants had been allowed to sucker (the other two are lawnmover restricted to being bushes) and the one with suckers got RRD, but they removed the part with RRD and the rest survives. So the root structure can be used to effectively isolates problems within itself...

This one isn't quite as tough for me as the modern list, since fewer categories of OGRs thrive in zone 5 that have individually lovely blooms (as opposed to say the Hybrid musks), except ramblers and Albas/Gallicas and the like that are too much the large once-bloomer for my garden space. I'll throw in some pictures to state my case more effectively than my words. Apricot: Carding Mill - a lovely dark to light apricot even in the sun. Bicolor: I'll go for subtlety here rather than the more garish stripes of things like Variegata di Bolognia, not to mention the much better rebloom of this Vick's Caprice. Mauve: A rose that introduced me to the Austins with a bang and is still among the more "purple" of his roses for me, William Shakespeare 2000. Orange: Hmm, not a color that abounds in OGRs outside of apricots, but I'll go with Gertrude Jekyll, who's at least on the coral side of the color scheme. Light/warm Pink: The Austins have all the fun among OGRs in this category for me, but they also get plenty of glory, so I'll go with the unsung hero of a tea who's brave enough to bloom and survive for years in zone 5, in this case Mrs. BR Cant: Dark/cool pinks: Both for scent and sheer exuberance of bloom, I'm going with Madame Isaac Periere. Red: Another winner in the scent department, but the blooms are much lovelier than this poor picture shows, even though Frances Dubreuil is only an honorary OGR with a secret identity as mild-mannered cub reporter Barcelona. White: Definitely Mme Alfred Carriere, for exuberance as well as beauty. Yellow: I would never presume to come between Patrick and Kate in their equally convincing arguments for the loveliness of Molineux and GC, so I'll side step it with a lighter yellow and go with Teasing Georgia. Other: Most beautiful hybrid Musk - Francesca. I said these hybrid musks aren't usually beautiful individual flowers but better en masse, but I think Francesca can hold her own on the flower side of things too. Cynthia

Sure, will look into, probably next week when it is hopefully cooler! It was 104 here today.:( Anything shipped now might turn into steamed lettuce. Also, I will see about removing the soil, just in case it has something you don't! Maybe I can bareroot it as soon as temps dip???? No, it is unlikely that I'll attend because my four-legged menagerie makes arrangements complicated. The day with the presentations is kind of pricey too, and I'm retired so cost is a consideration. I wonder if they could webcast it? Local colleges/universities are sometimes sources of webcast capabilities at very moderate costs (especially if it is part of a student project where they can earn credit for supporting an event) or even free (if you know who and how to ask). Many online webcasts that I view on horses are free (but an organization that doesn't have the budget to do that might be able to charge a small fee). As to President Dutailly, his is the picture featured on the hybrid perpetual page at Vintage. Gorgeous!!!! I don't know about the heat requirement however, as I've only seen him in my garden and Eurodesert's. Maybe you could ask Gregg Lowery? But as to the shade, well I have 2 PD's (it's that suckering habit dontcha know!), and one gets early morning sun, then dappled shade/sun the rest of the day. It looks perfectly happy. Whether it would like that amount of shade in a cooler location I don't know. Melissa