Straw, Carol, thanks. Casino is a good one and with temps cooling down (around 85*F since past few days), Casino blooms are getting a more deep yellow shade instead of cream that it was in hot summers... This blooms doesn't have those zillion pom pom petals but is a much darker yellow with strong fragrance early morning. Fragrance is fruity honey mixed. It is the same bush with a cream zillion petal bloom in the previous post. Please compare the two blooms and they look so different..... time difference is 4 days. I planted my Alan Titchmarsh in the ground. It was in a 12" pot previously. It has started growing like wild....blooms size is huge for an Austin roses (around 4") and there are so many buds coming up. Alan Titchmarsh had the strongest fragrance today morning, better than PAOK, Double Delight, Casino and Golden Celebration. Smells like old rose with a tinge of spices. Nice fragrance. Will post a bush shot soon. Love the shade and bush shape of L.D.B. It forms a perfect medium sized bush, sending shoots in all directions. It may not be clearly visible in the photo but there are shoots in all directions, though the blooms are only on right side. LD is quite thorny. Size is getting bigger. This one is around 4" across though the other blooms on the bush are still 2.5 to 3 inch. Fragrance is still moderate.... fruity and tea mixed. Bloom size is still very small, more like a patio rose and fragrance is still just mild. Lot of blooms though. I love the shade of this rose. Looks like something close to a perfect bloom. Just a mild fragrance that is quite sweet and fruity.

I wish I could comment on your list, Khalid, but I don't grow any of them yet. it looks interesting with many varieties I don't see many having. I suppose some day I'll have to get Evelyn since you so highly recommend it, Straw and I love fragrance .I'm seriously considering SBP. Did you mention buying yours from Burling. If so, I may just get it come Spring since it can take a while to grow from bands even though I doubt I'll have a bed for it until autumn. Thank you, LL for you critique of the Kordes roses. I got 1st Crush late in the season as a mark-down from Lowe's. I checked on it yesterday and it's STILL putting on new healthy growth as are so many of my roses! I have yet to move it to its final home, so I'm thrilled it can take some shade as I want it in an Eastern exposure bed. How long have you had yours and how tall is it getting? Is it a bushy, well-clothed plant? Ideally it will go with Heathcliff, Othello, cl., Viking Queen and Sugar Moon, but if it's tall, it could go in my new North-Easter bed with Mme, A. Carriere and Tess Cl. I also want EA, but worry about her height, also. I may wait and see if Lowe's carries her in the Spring so I can see her blooms. She's stunning though in pics.

Help Me Find lists three offspring of Louis Philippe. One is a mutation; one is from its seed and one from its pollen. Archduke Charles is a mutation of Old Blush and has produced only mutations. That doesn't necessarily mean anything other than no one has reported raising any seedlings from it, but seedlings have been raised from Old Blush. Mel's Heritage may be fertile, or not. There are no listed crosses involving it, either direction. Again, though, that only means no one has reported raising any crosses from it. Of the three, I would think Mel's Heritage would be the most interesting to try, because of its parentage and the fact no one has reported any results from it. Unless you're going to try something really far out, like species crossed with Archduke Charles or Louis Philippe, you are likely to raise "more of the same" from them.

Made a huge bouquet of Lemon Spice this morning and found a lot of ants in one of the blooms. VV, was that you that had ants eating your First Crush? What did you do? The ants might eat my new green lacewing eggs also and I need them for the aphids! Khalid, yours is a timely post for me! I haven't seen mildew at all and this morning I see what appears to be mildew on the new plants that I bought from Home Depot. They are my first grafted ones and were so inexpensive that I couldn't resist. I'm also wondering if it could be some sort of fungicide oozing out of the leaves? I questioned one of the nurseries about that when some arrived looking that way last fall and they said that it was fungicide, which I wasn't thrilled about. I've had these for two weeks though and it just appeared. Might try some milk on them also! When I did it last year, I sprayed every few days but not sure what the proper protocol is.