Funny, but I think I can smell it just by looking at your photo! Beautiful. I have never grown it, but I do have one once blooming rose, Canary Island. which is very well scented also and never ever gets a spot of any kind of disease on the foliage. It's been said that once bloomers are more healthy foliage wise. Yes, worth the wait. Thank you for the photo.

Joey: Very good questions. Here are what I learn about own-root roses: 1) Where they are bred and the TYPE OF SOIL & weather predicts where they will be successful. Roses bred in acidic & rainy & less sun England will be successful in acidic & high rain East coast. But roses bred in alkaline & hot & sunny Southern France will be successful in alkaline clay & sunny garden. 2) How vigorous the root is? The newly bred roses ARE VERY VIGOROUS as own-roots, and can survive BOTH Pakistan 113 F hot summer and my zone 5a winter of -20 below zero. Vigorous roots are both long (at least 2 feet deep) and spreading wide. Vigorous roots are also THICK to store water in dry summer/winter. Dee-lish can die to the crown, but the root is so deep that it can go for 1 month without watering, either through a cold & dry winter or hot summer. Dee-lish has a climber as a parent (Graham Thomas). If a rose is bred with a climber in its genetics, it will have deeper root. 3) It's the selection of the fittest. In breeding roses, there will be many seeds ... and only the fittest seed sprout up to be the most vigorous root or to be disease-resistant. The other dozen to 100 seeds either don't germinate, or sprout some wimpy plants that black-spot & less petals, or can only bloom once a year. This answer your question directly, breed roses in your cold zone and see which seed can sprout in extreme cold temp., and which seed has the deepest root to survive the winter. English roses, bred in a colder climate than France: most have climber-heritage or Old Garden Roses' genetics, and English roses are actually favored by hot climate folks in Pakistan due to the vigor of their roots. Deeper root = more weather resistant. I hang out in Facebook Fragrant Rose Lovers group, where most Pakistan posters are. English roses are favored in both extreme hot and extreme cold climate due to the toughness of their roots to survive long periods of drought.

Have you got a picture? I can state that my double Knock Out, which I've been growing for several years now, is definitely what I would call cherry red (or perhaps rose red) rather than pure red this time of year. Don't remember if it stays that way all summer, but I did notice just the other day how cherry red they were. Kate

AC: Yes. I have a different critter attacking my roses at the moment, but I've been keeping an eye out for girdlers, too. This area is home to them (Agrilus cuprescens). All the research I've done supports your prevention methods. I've read that the heat of summer is a good time to detect the infestation. The tips of the canes tend to wilt noticibly in the heat. All the university and agricultural sites I've visited suggest pruning off the swollen area as you have been, bagging the canes (burning would work, too) and then continuing each year. I know. Argh! According to Utah State University, this procedure will knock out most of the culprits in your garden over time unless there is a host site nearby. My cane borer bombardment arrived with the antique home and garden upheaval across the street where the ecosystem was wild and wooly and hosting a legion of critters for many years. But to get back to your question regarding rose cane preferences, there was a study conducted in Utah in 1964 and published in an Entomological Society journal which noted that rose stem girdlers on raspberries selected either first year or second year canes depending on the berry variety. That implies that your curiosity about texture, density, thorns etc. could potentially produce practical "rose variety preference" ID results. Utah State University Extension looks like a good place to contact. It seems to be a hot spot for rose cane girdler conversations. Good luck with the girdler prevention! In a garden, it's always something, isn't it? I not only have cane borers, I have Verticillium wilt occupying prime rose real estate in a corner of my garden and murdering my lilacs. Nothing very satisfying is wilt resistant. Junipers? Shudder. Carol