I've noticed that there are a few gems lying similarly hidden on the RVR website. It seems as though there are roses which were entered with just enough information for them to be purchased, but missing info on class, color, scent, etc. which prevents them from appearing when searching by any of those criteria. Considering their rather large inventory, if there's something you're seeking, try looking alphabetically. That's how I stumbled upon their "Louis Philippe from Florida" and "Reine des Violettes from Florida" (though I didn't end up buying them). :-) ~Christopher

I've become much more disenchanted with selecting rose varieties than ever before - I'm not sure why, maybe because I'm still limited to my own window ledge and haven't been home to my old garden in a few years, but I don't think I'll be ordering much this season. I'm dismayed at the closing of Sequoia and may try to get a few rare things from them before the end. It always seems that the most promising varieties are quite out of reach, so for now, I think I'll concentrate my efforts on breeding more than acquiring and see if I can't make the rose I'm craving but simply cannot buy. At work, I'll continue adding to the collection of wonderful Chinese rose species and cultivars; this is one of my little pet projects to increase public (and institutional) awareness of these amazing and largely well-adapted plants. Marianne (if you read this), do you really feel that both helenae cultivars are equal in hardiness, and that your zones 4-5 are warmer than ours? From reading which roses do well where in Scandinavia, I was under the impression that a zone 4-5 hardy rose where you live is roughly equivalent to one at my home in Minnesota, also zone 4-5. I was also fairly sure I understood that 'Lykkefund' is less hardy than 'Hybrida', which hopefully is soon on its way to Ashdown from Europe courtesy of a certain GW member! Stefan

I suspect that 'RdV' may have been confused in commerce with 'Triomphe d'Amiens' early on... 'TdA' was introduced in 1859 by Mille-Mallet, and 'RdV' was sent out the next year from the same breeder. Their illustrated plates were both published in the 1860 edition of L'Illustration Horticole, and look somewhat similar... Another HP in that colour family is 'Vulcain'. Perhaps you could order one before Brexit takes whatever toll it will take on ordering from the rest of Europe? It came out in 1861... Honestly, though, who knows how many of the old roses are who they are supposed to be? Some are truly distinctive enough, and have been in commerce steadily since their introduction so that you feel pretty sure that 'Perle d'Or' really IS 'Perle d'Or'. With the HP's, Teas, etc., who can really say for sure? And so we're back to the Bard, asking "What's in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet..." Virginia

The best thing to plant in shade or part shade areas of your house would be plants that like shade, i.e. not roses. Since most of us on this forum stick our hands in our ears and go "lalalala" when any area of our yard is deemed off limits to roses (myself as a prime example of this, of course), I have roses in every possible garden bed in the yard. What you sacrifice when you put a rose in a nonoptimal shady spot is usually the frequency of bloom, and sometimes the overall hardiness or size of the rose. Roses like sun, and they'll usually sulk if they don't get it. There are exceptions to roses that do OK in part sun, starting with the unstoppable Darlow's Enigma. My word, that rose likes to bloom and it can handle anything you can throw at it. Just don't plan on getting within 3 feet of it on a regular basis. In general the hybrid musks will bloom without as much sun as other roses, but they also tend to be borderline zone 5-6 roses and not great for cold spots of zone 5. I have Nur Mahal between the houses and I think it is happy enough, as would other HM roses like Wilhelm that are already extra hardy. Some roses that will survive in this area don't bloom well, which is probably the issue with Baronne Prevost. Most of what I have between the houses on my east side are Canadian Explorers that get big enough to stretch for the sun when available, Easy Elegance roses that will bloom just about anywhere as long as they're hardy, ditto the Morden roses, some Austins and several Buck roses that would bloom more in other locations but do OK in these conditions, or once bloomers that don't rely on year-round sun through the whole summer for their bloom cycles. The best compromise position if you simply must have roses in cold part shade spots is to compromise and mix in other plants that like those conditions, like hydrangeas, hostas, ferns, etc. Daylilies will tolerate some shade but again their bloom cycle is shorter under those conditions. That way the occasional rose blooms become an accent in a pleasant sea of green, rather than a scrawny couple of blooms on barren sticks that are reaching for the distant sun. Ask me how I know about those scrawny barren sticks... Cynthia