Frances, I 100% agree with you about Mel’s Heritage. Even though I have no other rambling roses to compare him to, I cannot imagine a more floriferous rose. Granted, I am in So CA , but Mel’s Heritage has been blooming since Spring for me. The Spring flush was absolutely astounding. I could hardly see the foliage for all the blooms. I wasn’t able to deadhead all those blooms, but as soon as they dropped, Mel’s Heritage started up again in earnest. Even during that brief period after the Spring flush, there were still scattered new clusters blooming. Mel’s Heritage has been blooming constantly since the Spring flush. There’s never been a time that I haven’t been able to cut some clusters to bring someone. He’s my “sure thing” nearly year round. Even this morning, I can see well over a hundred blooms on him. My Mel’s Heritage outblooms every single rose I grow, from all classes of roses. Our warm Fall days and cool nights have brought powdery mildew back to many of my roses, but not Mel’s Heritage. He’s never shown a speck of it, or any other disease. I do have to keep cutting back his stealthy, long, thin canes, or he will ramble over, under, and through everything in his path. He has become thornier with age, as well. That’s ok with me. Mel’s Heritage is my favorite rose of all. There’s really no other rose, (that I grow) that even comes close to this rose in terms of health and floriferousness. I know I’ve said it many times over past couple of years, but Mel’s Heritage is truly an amazing rose. He’s my very best performer, hands down. I’m going to climb the hill to take some pictures. Lots of buds still coming here in November! So many different shades of pink and apricot..... Lisa

Wow - after dealing with one rambler, I can hardly imagine dealing with several at once. "Stabby" is a good word - the thorns on ours were not huge, but curved and very very sharp, and of course the canes are flexible and love to whip around. They kept grabbing my hat off of my head, and even though I was wearing extra heavy gardening denim, they ripped holes in it. After some consideration, I am not surprised that your roses rebounded quickly - that is not something I am worried about. Rootstock is another matter - every single rose in my garden is on its own roots, except perhaps for some ancient ones planted by my DH's ancestors. I really think all of those have gone own root by now, as I have not seen a root sucker coming up anywhere for decades. I won't plant a rose unless I can get it own root, and anyway most of the roses I plant are cuttings I rooted myself. Life is way too short to keep having to deal with (here anyway) zillions of Dr. Huey plants, which in our climate tend to be way more energetic than the scions. I do remember some places where the scion was gone, it took us 2-3 tries to dig up Dr. Huey until it stopped coming up again. Of course, when an emerging rootstock turned out NOT to be Dr. Huey, I aways waited for it to bloom to see if I liked it - Here is my favorite, 'de la Grifferaie (1845) - the rose tree it killed was yellow, and boring, so I was fascinated when dlG came up, a mystery to me, but I could tell by the leaves it was something special. So much that I waited through 4 Springs with no blooms, until it did this on the Fifth one, and continues to do that every Spring ever since. Fabulous strong fragrance, too, and no disease whatever. Jackie

@heather RR, we seem to have had similar experiences. I had a zephirine drouhin that I babied for 4 years. Just too much black spot. I have seen it look amazing elsewhere. I finally gave up and replaced it with crepuscule. Now, crepuscule has had very little growth since I planted in March this year. I don't know what to think of it. My David Austins are going nuts this year. Lady of shalott, boscobel, princess anne, etc. Even my earth angel is doing fine. I too have a madame alfred carriere! it is supposed to grown over the arch leading to our backyard. I have had it for 3 years in that spot. It had 10 flowers in May and nothing after that... So glad to hear you have had great success. @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) and @erasmus_gw, westerland looks lovely!! @erasmus_gw, amazing photos. Thanks for sharing and the great list of options. I absolutely love hot pink and would to plant a hot pink one as I have a couple in my front yard. (gertrude jekyll et el). The other neighbor has a westerland type so I am running out of colors :( I am not particularly fond of deep red roses and I have a few white and blush pink ones. I need permission to plant a pink or a orange climber. @Vaporvac Z6-OhioRiverValley, it is a very large golden chain tree. I think it is now at its full mature size. Just compared it to the ones we have in the arboretum.

I don't know where you live, but if sitting outside under the shade of that lovely tree is an option, I'd remove the columns and wrought iron, replace the one column that is load bearing with a wood column, then make a patio/terrace in the area that is now behind the fence. Can't really see it well, but perhaps replace the fountain with a lower, less ornate one (a water feature would be nice if you're spending time out there, as well as beneficial to birds and pollinators. You might be able to leave the border and have the patio raised a few inches in that area, if removing the columns doesn't ruin it. If the tree roots would make having a stone or poured patio a problem, I would look into wood or composite decking that could be built off the ground a bit and around the tree in a way that the tree could still get moisture and not interfere with the decking.