Thanks. I looked up Radiance on the web, too, and didn't find Climbing Radiance either. The reason I had ruled out Radiance was because the description I saw of it said it was a repeat bloomer and this one is not. It has one flush of flowers in mid to late spring and that's it. In the past seven years I've never seen it produce even one flower later in the season. I did not mention thorns in my description above. It does have thorns, but if you look closely at the photos above, you can see it is not partcularly thorny. Thorns, except on old canes, are small, recurved, and spaced about an inch apart.

Cecelia - We need to hook up! : ) Have you tried to find any other John Cook roses? Of his 24 or so roses it seems like Radiance and her sports and Enchantress(e) at ARE are the only ones not "extinct". I made DH drive while I peered in yards and weeds where John Cook lived and where he supposedly landscaped the yards of some of the big, old homes in Baltimore hoping to discover some of his roses, but all I got was depressed. : ) Linked below is a bit of info about a garden planted with John Cook's roses in 1941 which was later moved to Druid Hill, Balt. in 1989. There are gardens planted by the zoo in Druid Hill but the woman I spoke with said all the Cook roses died and they just have a few OGR's there now. Sad. Regarding fragrance... Lady Mary Fitzwilliam, Mrs. Wakefield Christie-Miller and Betty Uprichard all are supposedly fragrant. I smelled my rose the other day and there is a fragrance, but it is light and perhaps a bit sweet, but most often it smells of black pepper. My nose is used to smelling roses known for their fragrance so perhaps I'm expecting too much. Good luck getting cuttings from the old rose, I'd love to see some pics of it. Here is a link that might be useful: John Cook info

Uhhh-ohhhh ...it seems another Oklahoma-or-Mirandy discussion is about to happen. ;-) As I and others have stated in previous discussions, Oklahoma and Mirandy blooms can be VERY difficult to tell apart. So, in this thread, I'll just mention differences between them rather than list all their similarities. I grow both of them ...and I planted them in the same row so I could compare them more easily. In my opinion, Mirandy's blooms age to several simultaneous shades of "grapejuice" red ...and Oklahoma's do not age to multihued grapejuice. Oklahoma's oldest (fully-mature) leaves are ARS-described as "matte" (non-glossy). Also, Mirandy's bloom-form is ARS-described as Globular ...and in my yard, it is somewhat "looser-petaled" when open than Oklahoma's (which tend to remain comparatively "well-ordered"). The "looser" form I'm speaking of refers mainly to the outer petals - but please also notice the mish-mash of petals at the center of Angelsmell's blooms. Mirandy is known for its tendency to produce thin-stemmed buds, which result in "nodding" when the bloom has become well-open. So, with consideration of the factors of bloom-color, bloom-form, and "nodding," AngelSmell's photos look to me more like Mirandy than Oklahoma. Angelsmell, please check your rose's blooms with those three factors in mind and let me know whether or not my description of Mirandy's blooms fits yours. Regarding my theory about petal ATTACHMENT-tip color (and size) for identifying red roses... it can't "identify" a red, it can only tell you what a red rose is NOT. For example, Mr. Lincoln's petal attachment-tips are "electric" deep-yellow, and that color is ona large area of the petal's base. So if a red mystery-rose's opening bloom's attachment-tip area color is white, it cannot be Mr. Lincoln. But please note: The petal base-tip color of many rose-varieties tends to lighten SIGNIFICANTLY as the bloom gets old. Therefore I recommend checking the tip-color while the bloom is still opening up. As of today, I've only got unopened buds and old blooms on my yard's (two) Oklahomas and (two) Mirandy bushes. As soon as the buds open I will check & compare their base-tip colors and get back to you. As always, I could be wrong. In this case I'm guessing based on what I can observe in the photos, without other desciptive info like bush-height & habit. Speaking of which... my yard's Mirandy(s) tend to produce significantly more buds per SPRAY (not per flush) than my Oklahoma(s). Regards, JohnReb

Some bouquets of fragrant roses bought from Roses Unlimited. My all-time favorites from RU are: Sonia Rykiel (a dozen blooms per flush in 1st year as own-root), Versigny (the scent is worth buying), Poseidon (going to frost with 30+ buds), Summer Sun (compact & small for a Kordes rose), Savannah (non-stop blooming), Pink Peace (great for the vase), Sweet Mademoiselle and Firefighter (both last 5 days in the vase), Betty White, Twilight Zone, About Face, Liv Tyler, and many Austins that RU sold before 2021. Below upper pink is Sonia Rykiel, dark red is the Dark Lady (from RU): Below dark red is Munstead Wood, and and orange About Face, red is Firefighter. Below orange is America, light pinks are Gene Boerner (thornless), and blue is Poseidon. Big red is Peter Mayle (survives 5+ years in my zone 5a winter): Below yellows are Moonlight Romantica (smells just as good as Golden Cel). Upper light pinks are Princess Charlene de Monaco (now 10' x 3') needs space. Blue is Poseidon lasts 5 days. Below deep oranges are Sweet Mademoiselle, light left pink is Savannah, and reds are the Dark Lady (going into Nov. frost with many buds): Below bouquet is picked Oct. 29, 2023 before frost. Red is Veteran's Honor. Pink is Radio Times, white is Bolero, dark pink is Dee-lish, and dark red is the Dark Lady. All are from Roses Unlimited. Below large dark pink is Peter Mayle (eucalytus rose scent, so unique), light pinks are Evelyn, deep pink is Comte de Chambord, gaudy orange is Solitude (worth having for hot summer). Liv Tyler (right deep pink) never ball like Sweet Mademoiselle, Liv Tyler gives twice more blooms than Sweet M. Left dark pink is Pink Peace (worth buying with its buttercream frosting scent). Right light pink is Frederic Mistral (petals get spoiled often in rainy climate, worse than Betty White) Below was Liv Tyler in my garden at above 90 F, it's best for hot climate.