I have on a couple but I just give them to my daughter......lol Then she passes them off to her son.

Rather than say "regret", I'd say that there are a few I wouldn't get again -- and may even remove, if next year's little experiment doesn't bring improvement. I'll share these, knowing full-well that some others here have shared their reservations about them before I bought them. Well, sometimes you just want to find out for yourself.

'Eugene de Beauharnais' -- OK, I knew it'd be wimpy own-root, and it is. That wimpiness translates to being unable to "outgrow" blackspot season. By this I mean that some of my more vigorous roses simply shed affected leaves and quickly replace them. Not EdB. Where I planted it originally had too much midday sun, and its blooms crisped. So I moved it this year, and it mostly just sat there. Next year it's going into a pot with my "magic mix" and will live the pampered life. I know it doesn't make sense, but there's something about it I just enjoy. My "if I had to do it over again" would be that it would remain a pot pet rather than going in the ground. But I don't regret getting it.

'Mlle Blanche Lafitte' -- This one is really struggling with blackspot, but keeps growing and blooming regardless. If it improves next year, it stays.

'Jude the Obscure' -- This is a tough one. I really love it when it's looking good, but it's one of a very few that go completely naked in my no-spray NJ garden by the beginning of July. As with the previous, if it improves next year, it stays.

'Yellow Sweetheart, Climbing' -- My main regret about this one was that it didn't live up to its "strongly fragrant" reputation. Additionally, it really hated it here. This was my first -- and so far, only -- RRD casualty, so "the forces that be" made it happen for me.

'Monsieur Boncenne' -- If it wasn't for the fact that no one carries it anymore, I'd have probably gotten rid of it this year. It's absolutely gorgeous until the start of July, then it goes completely naked. It's the first rose to get any blackspot, and gets hit the hardest. New leaves from July onward catch spots before they even mature. I'm going to try something next year with it and the handful of others that get hit hard, and we'll see what happens. It's also right next to 'Jude the Obscure', so I wonder if these two naked boys are reacting to that particular spot, or if it's just coincidence.

'Big Ben' -- This was one of three pot pet Hybrid Teas that survived last Winter being left in their large pots unprotected last Winter. Lesson learned! Ironically, this was the one I came to like the least. It's the epitome of a modern show-worthy HT -- huge long-lasting blooms mostly one to a stem, great substance, great form, and virtually scentless. That last bit is what puts me off the most. It was described as being strongly fragrant, but I should have paid closer attention to member comments and references on HelpMeFind, and to the fact that Roses Unlimited didn't describe it as fragrant. To add insult to injury, it's completely unaffected by either blackspot or mildew, and keeps blooming despite my lack of a desire to water it. And get this -- at one point, I thought it had RRD, and cut it back to the soil line in its big pot, and left it unwatered for the whole month of July. It then sent forth a thumb-thick cane with normal growth and is blooming again. I realized later that I was just trigger-happy after seeing RRD on 'Yellow Sweetheart, Climbing' and mistook vigorous new growth for symptoms of the virus. So now it's just mocking me.

"Secret Garden Musk Climber" -- There's absolutely nothing wrong with this rose. It just hates my Winters, and may never grow into what I want it to be. I bought it a second time after the first one didn't make it through Winter 2013-2014. The second one kept some top growth, and started taking off again this Summer. But I realize now that I'd be better with something else in that corner. I won't get rid of it, but if it dies, I'll replace it with something else.

'Blanc de Vibert' -- Yes, the warnings about this rose abound, but I thought I could make it happy. The bush itself is healthy and grows, but blooming is stingy. I did realize that giving it some extra iron helps, and will continue to do so. I probably won't remove it, but I won't buy it again.

'Bleu Magenta' -- I wanted one of the ramblers in this family, and went with this because it was one of RVR's free roses at the time I ordered. It's beautiful in bloom, but looks really scraggly through the Summer. If I had to do it again I'd have just gone with 'Veilchenblau'.

'Jaune Desprez' -- That this rose didn't make it through its first -- and very extreme for this area -- Winter broke my heart. I had visions of it taking over a dying Japanese maple. I know now that zone-pushing shouldn't be done in a tree out in the open, but rather against a wall or fence. I'd definitely get it again, but not until I'm living way farther south.

:-)

~Christopher

All the time. Over and over. For a variety of reasons:

I have to see for myself.

Limited space so something has to go if I want to try something new, which is all the time.

Falling for a picture, an enabling forum member, the ad copy, the hype, etc. etc.

Always searching for the perfect rose. You know the one. It has it all: disease resistance, great shrub form, perfect color, great fragrance, blooms all the time. And since you never find it, you keep on looking.

Should I go on?

I'm glad I have plant friends to whom I can gift all my many rejects.

Ingrid, yes, yes, yes, so many I hate to think. But I'm pretty ruthless. I did manage to give away some early on, but now they're just tossed. My philosophy is I have one life, and there's not a great deal left of it where I'll be able to garden (well, secretly I'm hoping for another 20), so I'll have what I enjoy. And the canker sorted out a few!

A few of the ones I've got rid of:

Cornelia, still have one, but it's relegated to a distant and difficult spot. Actually I intended to get rid of it, and hacked it back as far as I could without using a saw, then left it as I had more pressing jobs. Lo and behold, it produced larger and deeper coloured blooms than it ever has before, so I've tidied up my hacking and left it. 3 others gone though - they were just too rangy.

Buff Beauty, a 2 cane wonder after 3 years, and very few blooms.

Penelope, loved the blooms, but also a 2 cane wonder. Maybe I'm just too impatient!

Felicia, gorgeous scent, but blooms ragged an hour after opening.

Mrs Reynolds Hole, blackspot ridden and very shy bloomer.

Sally Holmes, blooms bone-coloured in my heat.

Any David Austen, all disease ridden for me.

Reine des Violettes, a poorly plant for me with hardly a bloom.

and so, so many more.

Ones that I still have, but feel very iffy about are the only 3 HT's I have

Aoteroa, very poor doer, and the blooms are rather too large.

Peter Mayle, ditto.

Ashram, likewise, though it's grown better, the blooms are too large and garish for my garden.

My daughter likes all 3 of these, and as she lives in a flat downstairs, I don't like to get rid of them - well, maybe when she's on a long holiday!

Also, as I've said in another post, Mme Berkeley. Why didn't I get Dr Grill or Mme Antoine Mari? - I'd been considering both of them for years! Though it was Mme Berkeley who led me to this forum, so I look on her with hope.

Trish

Not really; I just look off in a different direction. We have a big garden. I've had disliked roses that I allowed to peter away and die, but the only rose I can remember ripping out in disgust was 'Perle des Jardins'. It makes a difference how much space one has to garden in. And in our relatively easy conditions, I can nourish hopes that sooner or later a tiresome rose will look better (the Hybrid Musks in the bed I'm currently working in are perking up surprisingly). Very few of the roses I've bought have proven to be utterly lacking in beauty and virtue.

Yes, space is a big consideration. I'd be far less ruthless if I had more.

Agree about the space issues! Sometimes I'm even doubting my choice and wishing I had chosen something else as I'm driving home from the nursery!

My regrets (so far) are Tea Clipper (not a single bloom, grew like a giant weed), Mary Rose (nice bush, don't like anything about the blooms), Buff Beauty (same experience as Trish), Fantin Latour (beautiful but doesn't like the heat here), Evelyn (disease monster) and probably Monsieur Tillier ( love it but the blooms cook in the sun in five seconds).

Although, as others have said, I think it's important to try something you really like, after all, you will never really know otherwise. I read terrible things about The Prince but it grows like a weed, is healthy and repeats really well for me. Likewise Reine des Violettes has really surprised me with her vigour too.

Not now. I know what works for me and I am fairly immune to enabling/catalogues/glossy pics because I am a sceptical, miserable cynic who only believes in my own judgment, in my own situation...and now that it has been hard won, I see no point in spending money on possibles when I know I have all the genetic material I have to fill the wood.

I didn't mind experimenting in the early years but I am pragmatic and never expect to see anything remotely approaching perfection and now find I am happy with so so (as well as being both mean and broke).

Of course, this only applies to roses...not the thousands of plants which are new to me, all of which I want to try at least once. I am very greedy, susceptible and badly behaved when I hear of a completely new plant - the latest being symplocus paniculata - sapphire berry (seeds already ordered and in the post).

Titian, Sydney is definitely not Cambridge, and yet, you could have written that list for me - as I read down it, I was astounded at the convergence in what you had grown and why you no longer wanted them - so very, very familiar, especially the HMs, Austins, the hateful Peter Mayle. I either neglect them to death or simply ignore them...and now that I can move on to a whole pristine new garden...

For those of you who expressed reservations about the hybrid musk, especially Buff Beauty, it might help if you knew that my BB took 3-5 years to become a show-stopper. I put it in the back row out by the alley fence and ignored it for several years. About the 4th or 5th year, I wondered what was that beautiful splash of blooms I was seeing out there and went out to the alley fence to investigate. It was BB in full bloom--and BEAUTIFUL. I had even forgotten I'd planted it out there. Now I dont' worry about it. It let's me know when it wants to be admired!

That said, it does have a heavier bloom in the springtime, second heaviest bloom in the fall, with occasional blooms during the hot summer.

No way I'd ever give up my BB!

Kate : )

Trish, now I'm sure we're soul mates! I also gave away roses in the beginning but just toss them now, also because now I have no one to give them too, and frankly it's just too much trouble. Since there is no issue of disease, with this last batch as stated I'm waiting until next year to make a final judgment. Even though it doesn't seem like it since my property is large enough, I do have space considerations since I only plant the flat areas around the house. Still, except for No 92 Nanjing, I will consider the others long and hard before i toss them. It just takes too long for the new ones to grow up since mine are mostly own-root. I'm really losing patience with that.

At least my guilt is somewhat assuaged since a few others of you, bless your hearts, also engage in the nefarious tossing practice.

The only roses I've ever tossed were infected with RRV. Ugh. Too many of those!

I have enough space that I could plant pretty much limitless numbers of roses, if there were enough of ME to go around. But there are a few non-performers that I let dwindle away and probably wouldn't try again. I've killed three (yes, THREE) Julia Childs. They blackspot horribly, defoliate a couple of times, then disappear. No more. I can tell when a plant hates me. I'll just appreciate pix of her from now on, but without so much as a twinge of desire to own her. Duchess de Brabant, she of the Earth Kind nobility...she's been a total dud for me. I grow teas, finicky hybrid perpetuals, chinas, barely hardy noisettes; but I can't grow a supposedly iron-clad Earth Kind rose. DdB has grown backward unto death, not once, but twice. I can take a hint!

I mourned, but won't replace my Eugene Marlitt. I was comparing it to Maggie, planted side by side. Planted the same time, in the same soil, same care. Maggie grew, Eugene didn't. They may be the same rose, but the Eugene clone was evidently intimidated by Maggie. She IS such a strong personality, lol. So I'll content myself with taking cuttings of Maggie...I'm thinking of a hedge, in memoriam to Eugene.

There are more, but I'm getting depressed...

John

John, I'm also on my third Duchesse de Brabant, and this time I planted her where she has morning and early afternoon sun and late afternoon and evening shade, and she grew like mad from day 1. This rose is from the Antique Rose Emporium by the way. I disbudded all the way through summer and am just now allowing it to bloom. I think this rose would probably do well even with just morning sun until noon. Unless you've tried it in such a location, I'd give it one more try. Also, don't get depressed; I've sent well over a hundred varieties to rose heaven.

Of course you're not the only one Ingrid! For me, it all comes down to disease resistance. I can forgive a great number of sins, but not being able to retain leaves and look healthy, is unforgivable for me. Having a no spray garden, and living in an area with high blackspot pressure, means I'm very picky. Even though I research all my rose purchases exhaustively, you just don't know how it will do until you get it in your garden.

This season, was the third year for a lot of my roses, and those with issues were on the chopping block. I share Christopher's opinions on 'Bleu Magent'. It's flowers didn't thrill me (too much red in the purple for me) and it was blackspot prone. It was not an attractive plant for the majority of the growing season, so out it went. I have 'Purple Skyliner' and 'Veilchenblau', and like them both better so far.

'Aimee Vibert' met the same fate. I know it comes highly regarded, but for me it was not fragrant, and very spotty. It was vigorous and bloomed constantly, but the white blooms quickly turned brown, and clung to the branches.

'Nuits de Young' was also put to the street this fall. It had smaller blooms than I expected. It was sparsely foliated to begin with, and on top of that, was fully defoliated this year with damask crud, or something along those lines. It was own-root, so fears of suckering were another concern. For me, once bloomers need to be attractive plants when not in bloom. 'Tuscany Superb', 'Charles de Mills' and 'Marianne' nearby were lush and gorgeous all season, for example.

'Marie Pavie' is currently on the watch list. It was surprisingly blackspot susceptible, losing lots of leaves. It seems very vigorous though, so I'm hoping as it matures it can stand its ground better.

I don't have plans to remove 'Buff Beauty', although I share the opinion that it's slow to establish. Three years in and it's still two stubby canes. It's healthy, and the flowers are lovely, so I'm being patient. It hasn't helped that I've had sunflowers planted too close to it for 2 out of its 3 years. Hopefully next year it takes off.

-Chris

Never feel bad about tossing things, Ingrid - quite the reverse. I speak from enraged and bitter experience as a furiously desperate fruit grower on a public allotment. The number of people who persist in hanging onto their useless, disease sumps, year on year, infecting all of us, makes me grit my teeth (or would, if I still had 'em). Big bud, raspberry cane blight, tomato late blight, white rot and worse - horrible virus ridden bushes which plotters refuse to root out and burn as long as they get to harvest a single (infected) fruit. My blackcurrants have to be raised anew every bloody year on a 5 year cycle (and I have now run out of rotation space) because other people will not recognise reversion and even when pointed out to them, simply shrug and ignore it. The whole plot is infested with onion white rot because 1 selfish grower couldn't be bothered to harvest for 3 years...grrr. No, you are doing yourself, and your garden a favour by refusing to harbour useless, blackspot-ridden disease magnets...and if it means you have to toss a whole lot of pigs ears to get the one silk purse, then so be it.

Kate, I should have mentioned that your BB was a star - I did wonder if mine would do better with time, but I could see, also, that it was going to be far to large for the spot I had given it, and was going to tear me to pieces as I went past.

Well, I regret the money I spent and the time invested? But I'm learning to grit ny teeth and repeat to myself "sunk cost fallacy, sunk cost fallacy," as I rip the offender out. I alternate that with, "well I learned something from this experience," and when feeling really blue about it, "you're still a novice, mistakes are normal."
But seriously, so far this year alone, ZD has gone, half a dozen hts, MIP is on the chopping block, as is Alchymist, Eglantyne, Charlotte, not-Pilgrim, 2 dud Eclairs, not-Ispahan, possibly Felica and possibly Alfred de Dalmas although that last may get another year. I'm definitely more ruthless due to lack of space than I might otherwise be.

Only one, really, but it has a happy ending (long story follows). I've tossed more than a few roses after giving them a try, but look at it as useful experience. How do you know what a rose will do in your garden, otherwise? In any case, after a while of trying, you get a better sense of what will "fly" in your garden and what won't, so some future errors avoided.

The "happy ending" was the Alba rose, 'Sappho'. I got her from Vintage shortly after moving here, about 12 years ago. She grew lovely and tall, with a drop-dead- beautiful run of spring blooms and even some repeat in fall and exquisite foliage. She was also incredibly, stupendously invasive: shoots popping up all over 5' (or more!) away, in the middle of other roses, everywhere. I had, of course, planted her in one of my prime spots with beautiful, friable soil -- BIG MISTAKE. So, in a fit of pique, I ripped her out (many times...), until finally I had her "cornered" in the middle of a rock retaining wall with almost no summer irrigation, where she would put up a feeble 2' tall shoot or two, but that was all. Then, I thought I had lost her entirely in the drought, when all such shoots dried up.

I felt surprisingly sad, given our antagonistic relationship, when I thought she had completely died. Not only is 'Sappho' no longer commercially available in the U.S., per HMF, I now have some spots where, even if she goes completely nuts, no problem, and I really did love the beauty of that rose. So, I was extremely happy and amazed when she put up a new shoot a couple of months ago, so much so that I actually ripped apart the retaining wall to retrieve some roots and shoots, which I put into a pot, where they are now thriving (knock on wood). On top of that, after putting the retaining wall back together, another 'Sappho' shoot poked through...

I find your story very romantic, catspa. Lovely.

Ingrid,

I only ever second guess any choice, and that is when things do not turn out as expected. This is the gamble of gardening. Years ago when I started, rhododendrons and azaleas were my passion, but my climate thought otherwise as regards the rhododendrons. I believe Cunningham's White survived and thrived for ten years in my muggy and oppressive Southern heat. Winter damage from freak storms and late spring frosts, drought, disease, pests, and the small reward of only getting flowers for a few weeks in the spring ( if the weather cooperated) led me to roses, which give immediate and continuous satisfaction.

Among the small collection I have now, Mr. Lincoln disappoints somewhat. He is stingy with blooms in the heat of Florida summers and grows in the most awful shape. I still have not figured out how to prune him for more blooms. He is the epitome of ugly hybrid tea shape. The best part is that I'm too stubborn to give in, being from the South as stubbornness is our chief merit. So the battle will rage on until one of the other of us gives up or dies. LOL

Jack

Re Mr. Lincoln, yes he has been a very ugly grower for me too. Two oldish red HTs which I can recommend as having a much better growth pattern with lots of basals and being quite floriferous are Duftzauber 84 (aka Royal William aka Fragrant Charm) and Ingrid Bergman. Ingrid is not particularly fragrant for me but D84 has a very nice strong damask scent, what you would expect a dark red HT to have (but very few do). I keep both of them in my small HT collection used for cutting. However much I love antiques and shrub roses in the garden, I never fail to be impressed by a well formed HT in the vase (especially if it is fragrant, which all my HTs bar a white one are).

About the Pemberton Hybrid Musks, just in case everybody doesn't already know this (it took me years to figure it out): you MUST regularly cut out old canes, otherwise they will peter out to nothing. I don't know about plants that are getting established, though if a rose had two canes, I believe I would cut out the older one. I brought a poorly doing 'Penelope' back from death's door last year this way, and it has inspired me: there's going to be a lot of pruning in the garden this winter! 'Louise Odier' is another that require renovation pruning. Probably there are many roses for which this is a necessity, but either I don't grow them, or I haven't recognized this characteristic. I started from a position of pruning as little as possible, and over time have begun to recognize where pruning is necessary and helpful. This year my secateurs and loppers are ready.

So much of what has been said here, I agree with.

Was in a rush this morning, so only mentioned that Kate's BB was a stunner.

Ingrid, I found it almost spooky that we were both brought to a love of OGR's by Mutabilis. However, I suspect in many ways, we are very different, as you look very elegant and refined, and I, at heart, am a grub!

Campanula, it is odd, that on opposite sides of the world, and with somewhat! different climates, our experiences should be so similar. Sorry about your ratbag fellow allotment owners - that must be extremely frustrating.

Verdi Guy, my son gave me Mr Lincoln in a previous garden, and while the very few blooms he ever produced were amazingly fragrant, and beautiful (I used to cut one, put it in a vase and carry it around with me), he was, as you say, the very epitome of the worst HT shape.

Melissa, as a result of canker back to the bud union, I cut many roses to ground level. Because the task of digging them out was beyond me, I hammered in copper nails, and dare I say it, used glysophate. Well, Mrs Dudley Cross wasn't having it, and kept pumping out new growth, till, in a fit of guilt, I removed the nail. here she is just now - sorry for the poor quality of the photo, but it is getting dark

Trish

Melissa, are you suggesting to treat Pemberton HMs like they were the forsythia, the philadelphus or the lilac? I can see were this could help judging from how my Cornelia is growing but what you are suggesting (MUST) sounds a bit radical. What about Buff Beauty, any experience with that?

I had Buff Beauty for quite a few years in another garden and never cut any of the old canes and it was a large, vigorous bush. I wouldn't grow it again because it basically bloomed only in the spring when I can have tea roses that bloom many more times.

Trish, your Mrs. Dudley Cross is beautiful and I'm glad she didn't succumb to your ministrations. I hope she's canker-free now. I've tried that rose several times but it either grew backwards or had mildew all the time. I suspect it was my fault and perhaps I'll try her again some day. The drip system really seems to make a lot of difference, even in areas where the soil is rather crummy.

I did chop Aunt Margy's Rose (which is not on drip) back rather severely since it had so much dead wood and was declining. The oldest, thickest cane was cut out and I'm curious to see what will happen. I'd hate to lose it; it was beautiful for quite a few years. I suspect it didn't care for the drought.

Trish, trust me, I can be a complete slob in the garden, no makeup, old sweatshirt, worn slippers, but then no one sees me, and it feels good to just let it all go.

Camp, I'm afraid I'd lose my temper a lot in that allotment of yours. People there don't seem to care and you wonder why they garden at all if they don't know what they're doing. Maybe you should invest in a flame thrower - "Oh dear, I can't imagine how that happened, vandalism is so rife these days".

Oh yeah, there have been some shouty sweary moments. The English, despite all that stiff upper lip nonsense, can get very passionate indeed about their gardens and plantsWhile the Pemberton musks have been something of a trial (apart from Moonlight) my Lens H.musks, which have a lot more Ballerina in their lineage, are proving to be just the ticket.

Ingrid, I never wear make up, well I did wear it once last year for the first time in decades, and felt very odd. And I go out in the garden in my pj's, and I do have neighbours who can see me, but as I've been doing it for 5 years now, I doubt if they think twice about it anymore - well, I hope not! Anyway, most of them still talk to me.......

As for Mrs DC, the canker was into the bud union, so she must still be infected, but she doesn't seem to know or care!

Campanula, I've often looked at the Lens HMs, and wished they were available here. However......now, even if they were, I have no more room...........Hopefully I'll remember that when the next ordering season comes around!

I can attest to the sweary moments - I was rooting out couch grass growing through from next door at the weekend and swearing, mostly inaudibly, venturing into the audible while attempting to navigate around the base of Agnes.

Speaking of Ballerina - which we weren't exactly - Felicia is on my rip out list above to maybe be replaced with Ballerina, because Felicia has been terribly unimpressive in its first year. For comparison, (also in their first years) Daybreak is three times the spread although sort of floribundaish short and never out of bloom, and Francesca has five, five foot canes plus a few baby canes and both of them have bloomed healthily, and fairly continuously if sparsely all summer. Francesca is resting atm from growing like a weed, Daybreak is having a good fall flush right now, and Felicia spent most of the year denuded from blackspot and has just about regrown half a dozen leaves for the autumn. My Buff Beauty, although it didn't do much its first year, was at least healthy. Is it likely to get better with age? My experience, limited though it is, is that (in my garden) things that don't grow much or bloom much may do so with age, but things that are that unhealthy for this long don't usually go on to be much cop even when they're big.

Not radical, Nik. Roughly I would cut out perhaps a quarter to a third of the oldest canes on a healthy plant, or just those that looked really old. Which is unlike my forsythia, lilac, and mock orange, which I mostly just let grow and grow.

fduk, 'Francesca' can be grown as a small climber--what a beautiful rose it is, I'm glad you have it. You know whether 'Felicia' will make you happy or not, but I'll point out that it's one of best-scented roses there is. I love the Pemberton Hybrid Musks: I think they're really beautiful roses.

Ah, I think the standard practice of growing an pruning these shrubs (like the forsythia etc) which produce lots of basals is to remove a portion of the older canes from the base each and every year. At least, this is, I think the English (RHS) thinking. Unless I'm very mistaken.

What a downpour is taking place over here while we speak... I'm sure we will have flooding events in low lying spots.

You're probably right: what you say sounds correct. With our hectare or so of garden and a limited labor force, my plants get the minimum of attention I think I can get away with, and often benign neglect isn't best garden practice. Though these shrubs as they grow in my garden look pretty good. I think that growing them hard, as Campanula put it recently in a different post, may make a difference: the shrubs just don't make as much growth and are easier to manage, though they're abundantly floriferous. I have seen, in the case of two mature common lilacs, that after several years they benefit from having old growth cut out.

Congratulations--I hope they're appropriate?--on your rain!

Maybe it's our location? Zone 4, long winters, hot summers....I'm just happy with ANY rose that does well, in our area :)

...no regrets with buying, but often regret in the rather too hasty despatch... and it's not unknown for me to re-order one just a few weeks after it's gone...

OMG, Ingrid, I second guess myself all the time! Even while I'm putting them in my cart I'm wondering if I picked the right ones, lol. And again when I plant them and usually all the way until they bloom. Then I see the beautiful blooms and I'm thrilled. There have been some that I later regretted because they proved to be very unhealthy but you really can't know that until you actually grow them.

I fell in love with a Delbard rose Guy Savoy at a rose show and bought it. It looks lurid and ridiculous in my garden. I will try Variegata Di Bologna instead.

Ingrid, I second guess myself all the time. If I have room in my garden and choose a plant on-line (I rarely go to nurseries--they are known for their lack of variety and hardly any roses), I wonder, before and after I order, did I do the right thing, should I have bought this one instead, will it do well in my garden under harsh circumstances, will it look and grow the same, etc., etc., etc. I also tend to push the envelope a bit as well. Who else, where it is hotter than Hades in the summertime, grows raspberries and has great flushes of them (in a drought stricken area as well!). So at least I am adventurous when it comes to the plant world. It is probably a good thing I don't have a bigger yard. Lord only know what you would find me growing in there.

One lesson I learned early on, the definition of a weed. A weed is ANY plant that grows where you don't want it to. That has helped me get rid of plants and not think too much afterwards. Each plant and whether or not it does well, is taken as another of life's lessons.

I regret buying some of the hybrid teas I have just because they are too big and bold. My biggest regret is falling for 'Ink Spots' a velvety red rose that is almost black because it fries in the sun and dark brown crisp blooms persist and persist. It does however, make me feel like Morticia Addams as I snip off the black blooms, for that I am grateful.

Morticia Addams, now that is funny! I remember that scene so vividly and just being startled at first and then cracking up!

Yes. Even as I'm buying them. I research everything that I can and try to make the best decision that I can. That's all anyone can do. The rest is trial and error.

They look wonderful now and are varieties I've never heard of! I'm off to look them up.

'Celine Forestier' It has scant re-bloom and too much apricot, for my tastes.

-Mrs. B.R. Cant' - I wish I had known that it frizzles and burns in our hot California sunshine. Plus it grew into a large bush in only a couple years, sent out a climbing cane, and now because of the burnt blossoms in summer, I've chosen to move it to where it will receive some shade. I LOVE Tea roses, but this one will take more work than I'm used to giving. I've seen one bush of Mrs. B.R. Cant with excellent bloom output at a botanical garden, they let it grow c. 3 and 1/2 feet tall, but c. 8 feet wide and then prune it as flat as a table top. I'm moving it to go between 2 Mme. Jules Bouche' that I rooted from cuttings from Luannes' bush. I'm replacing the Mrs. with either Le Vesuve' which just arrived from A.R.E. or Mme. Antoine Mari'.

Lux.

Souvenir de Mme. Leonie Vientot. I thought all teas would thrive in zone 20/10a. Wrong! Gawky, ugly, bug-prone and no sign of a bloom whatsoever. The rose is still very young, having been acquired as a band last year, but from the comments I've read and received on this forum I don't think it will ever work here. Probably will hit the skids before too long.