Well, I just got mine in the spring. It was doing terribly where I sited it; Dropping leaves and looking like it was dying. I've moved it twice since then, and starting about 6 weeks ago, it's done a 180 and is standing up straighter and producing new leaves. Looks very promising. I'm hopeful it'll come up next spring still happy in it's current spot. Don't give up Bernd; You obviously are a good grower of hostas, and know what you're doing. You know how they are at times. I bet you'll have at least 1 or 2 happy, thriving 'Earth Angel' plants next spring. Cheers, Don B.

I recently spoke to K&M roses and he said they got a call from Kordes stating that Earth Angel (and some of the other newly released Kordes roses) were found to have gone vegetative (meaning lots of green growth but not blooms) when grafted onto fortuniana and that he should cease to sell them grafted because of this. I have had this problem with Kordes rose before in my hot South Florida garden. They either go vegetative, or they take years to get going (except for the veranda series, those guys love my garden and bloom like mad). They also tend to form bullheaded flowers in the hot summer which is such a shame as they are one of the few really disease resistant roses that grow and grow in my climate. But dang! No blooms. The ones I've had the most difficulty with were Lion's Fairy Tale, Elegant Fairy Tale (this one finally started blooming after 4 years in the garden, but does produce bullheaded roses in the summer) and Summer Romance. I had the same problem with First Crush that was planted in the ground, but the one in the container did bloom a bit (alas, bullheads all summer long and suffers from tons of die back). I would try growing it own root and see how it does and give it some time because as I said, some just take a while to get going. I'm so sad I have problems with my Kordes roses because I really like them. I just wish they did better in the heat. I'm going to try out some of their Sunbelt series as I was told by Chris, those were bred for the hot south. Savannah is on that list and its on my list as well.

Hi Moses, I just saw your response to my post, thanks for the kind words. I’m not a writer, just always (too) eager too share my opinions on roses. My Earth Angel is own root from Roses Unlimited, and I must say vigor has not been an issue. It went from scrawny band to decent sized shapely bush in one year. The vigor and health on own roots has been very good, the spring flush is wonderful, it’s just the repeat bloom that’s almost non-existent. I’d caution against trying to to bury a fortuniana grafted rose too deep. The fortuniana budded roses are usually budded very high on a long shank (both Nelson’s and K&M do this), so you’d have to dig rather deep. They also recommend you keep the graft well above the soil line because fortuniana has a tendency to produce suckers. (It suckers anyway, but those suckers would be even more prolific if buried). I think your plan of getting from Palatine on multiflora is a good one for starting off a plant with decent size. Noseometer, Earth Angel has a spicy scent to me, similar to Blossomtime, definitely no wet newspaper or dog scent here, lol. Jen, I think Jude has one of the most amazing scents, mixed sugared tropical fruits with rose perfume. Funny how noses are so different. Even it’s first year when I didn’t really like the blooms, I was definitely keeping him just for the scent. Both the blooms and the scent are wonderful this year. It’s La Park that smells like Eau de Damp Basement to me.

@suebelle_neworleans That is SO stunning. Mine throws out theses really tall branches. Do you prune it often? Is it in full sun? Does the grafted bloom more than own root. Mine is an own root, which went from band to 2-3 ft in one year but does not bloom with same profusion as yours..