Wellrounded, Early on you asked about Noisettes. FWIW my experiences in a zone6-7 growing environment is that the simpler noisettes (as opposed to the tea noisettes) are stronger through winter than HTs. I grow Chinas and Rosa moschata. The chinas have little winter damage; R. moschata likes the warmer area (up by the house) and tolerates with slow growth the bottom of the hill which I've measured as five to seven degrees colder in difficult winters. The smaller blooming single and semidouble and double noisettes put on good size in my gardens. They keep their older canes through winter although they will loose canes put out in late fall. In a warmer area downstream, down the river in Knoxville, with some kind of heat island from the city plus many, many cars going by each day, a tea noisette (Duch. de Auerstadt) had great growth and bloom. Mine from the same source struggles. If you grow Chinas easily, it's worth trying the simpler noisettes as well as R. moschata (for its fragrance and elegance). If you're in an area with great heat (for your zone) and most of your HT canes make it through almostall winters, try a tea noisette or two. Much luck, they are worth the effort.

Ingrid, sorry if I wasnt clear, Sophy's Rose was Frank's favorite - not sure what Mark Chamblee's favorite Austin is. Frank was a valued and long time employee of Chamblees - he was always there to give advice, propogate and what he didnt know about roses probably wasnt worth knowing. He passed away several years ago [maybe 8-10, I will have to ask his niece Maria when I go on Wednesday] from complications of diabetes. I would always ask him what he thought about this or that rose and he would tell me honestly. I have found his advice about Sophy's Rose right on - I have 2 of them and they are healthy, well shaped and bloom lots. I sure miss Frank - but Maria was his protege and learned so much from him and now with her experience at Chamblees is filling his shoes with great capability. Judith

That's kind of sad to see Louis Phillipe has not been selling well for them. Mrs. Oakley Fisher is a fantastic old hybrid tea. I like Softee too; smooth as a baby's rump, which is rare in the rose world. Thanks for the heads up. Would be worth a drive to Tyler. I like Chamblee's, but as they go more and more "modern" with each passing year, I am thankful we have The Antique Rose Emporium to help us keep the old roses available in Texas. Randy

It is definitely a very pretty yellow rose, but it looks best when the temperatures are cooler. Also, as a heads up, the plant wants to throw very long canes. Repeat bloom has not been particularly good for me, but I am thinking that it, along with just about everything else in my garden, gets set back when we have late freezes after everything is up and going. It probably would do better where late, hard freezes are not a big problem. This freeze problem is not limited to the roses. I am seeing that it adversely affects a number of my usually fairly sturdy tree peonies. Some of them are either not even going to bloom this year or maybe just have 1 flower after that hard freeze we had last May.