I have Allegra and Jeri Jennings. They're both doing well for me. JJ is new in the garden but is very healthy and has put on decent growth for a first year band. Excellent repeat. I've got Joyce Barden on order. I can't wait to see this one blooming in my garden. There are lots of folks on this forum who are big fans of Paul's roses so I'm sure they will chime in soon.

My Paul Barden roses are all pretty young--less than 2 years old, so things will probably change as the plants mature. This has been my experience with them: Golden Buddha: a bloom machine, but check the photos on HelpMeFind. If you're expecting a yellow rose like the pictures at RVR, you might be disappointed. The color is described as varying with temperature--I've only seen apricoty-orange blooms on mine so far. Very pretty blooms cover the bush in flushes most of the summer--some balling in the fall. Had some pretty severe dieback this winter--1/2 to 2/3 of the canes died completely. Pretty healthy otherwise--I don't spray, and it was very clean until the rains started in the fall, when there was a minor amount of blackspot. Again, all these comments refer to young roses and things might change as they mature. Oshun: Didn't survive a spring freeze. Had a bloom on the band when I received it, and it smelled great--color was much paler than expected--maybe because it was just a young rose. When I pulled it up after it died, it had next to nothing in the way of roots--it might not be the fault of the rose, I might have gotten an inferior specimen. Jeri Jennings: A great rose so far. It's grown like a weed and has a very pretty arching form. Flower color has been variable from pale yellow/almost white to intense yellow to almost pink. Lots of blooms for a young plant. A little mildew late in the season--I'm hoping she'll grow out of it. Probably my second-favorite Barden rose so far after Marianne. Marianne: Very vigorous. Several blooms the first year. Color was variable, from cream-colored to the wonderful peaches and yellows shown in the best photos of this rose. No disease problem at all. May be my favorite of my Paul Barden roses. Fara Shimbo: A little slow getting started, and hasn't bloomed yet, but it looks like it's starting to get established. I have high hopes for this rose this year. A little powdery mildew--something it might grow out of--otherwise no problems. Carol's Favorite: Too new to tell. Planted last fall, looks like it got through the winter just fine. Mel Hulse: To new to tell. Planted last fall, looks like it's about to bust out in leaves any minute now. Just got bands of "Crested Damask" and "Dragon's Blood", and they look like healthy little plants.

"If my reward for that kindness is to have to deal with unscrupulous creeps who feel entitled to do as they please with my work, then something needs to change." But, it really is the bad percentage that we often react to, isn't it. I'm sure you've had a ton of profiteers stealing your work, but are they really the majority of people using your work? (and by using, I mean, visiting your site, reading your site, looking at your photos.) I would guess the majority, were people who -didn't- take your stuff, and just really enjoy your website. (How many hits does your site get and how many instances of copyright violation are there?) I can totally see how you'd get tired and frustrated from having to protect your copyright. Your site was one of the first that I found when I was looking for more information on Old Roses. (Google quite likes you as I'm sure you know.) And it's your choice. So please don't think I'm blaming you. But something doesn't necessarily "need to change". It has to change for you because that's where you're personal line of "enough is enough" is, but it's a choice. All the emails I've gotten over the years, and the friends I've made from being online and the unusual opportunities,... those to me outweigh my personal profiteers. Everyone has to make their own choices as to where that "worth it" line is. Like I said before, I have friends (who are artists) who don't post their work online for these reasons. campanula - I think if someone owns the copyright to something, it should not be stolen, according to the legal rules of copyright (whatever that is in each instance). I don't think that it's related to how famous or even how talented the owner of the copyright is. I don't really understand why we even have to argue the worth or how "professional" something is. If you create a work of art, you own the copyright. Even if it is hideous or amateurish. on the notion of taking photos of people's private gardens without permission. I must admit that over the past few months, when I drive by a house with a particularly beautiful garden, I stop and quickly take a photo. I've been saving these photos in a private folder on my computer. At one point, I'd thought about posting a thread sharing the photos so that other people could admire or be inspired by them, but then, I was also worried that perhaps by chance, one of the garden owners might see the thread and somehow be annoyed that I'd posted a photo of their garden without permission. So I haven't, and probably wont.

Sorry for the late reply to your query Joe. I haven't been on the forum much over winter, busy with other things. I did go up to the Summerland Ornamental Gardens yesterday to do a quick check on the roses. We had a very difficult winter with a warm November and December, and in early January a sudden flash freeze with temperatures as low as -27 C for a week or so. It is still late winter here and the soil is yet frozen to a degree. Summerland is rated as zone 6b, but we had 5a temeratures with strong arctic catabatic winds and wind chill during the cold snap. So, on to the roses. Most of them will be going into their 3rd growing season this summer, and so are still immature plants. I am happy to report that all of them survived. Many have quite a bit of cane damage, but they all have live cane close to the ground and some have swelling buds already. The collection at the Gardens consists of the following: Marianne, Gallicandy, Oshun, Jerry Jennings and Treasure Trail. We also have Allegra, Janet Inada, Mel's Heritage and Won Fang Yon in the greenhouse at Fraser Valley Rose Farm in Deroche. I will continue to look for viable opportunities to acquire more varieties if feasible, but won't be actively seeking them out. We imported six cuttings of each, along with many more early Austin varieties and a few other hard to find varieties last spring. Jason stuck the cuttings and has been growing them on over winter. I have not spoken with Jason for a month or so, but he is doing an inventory and I will know in a few weeks what took. As well as putting Paul's Plants into the collection at Summerland, Jason will be growing Barden varieties as well and will no doubt have some for sale in Canada in a few years. We too will propagate from the plants in the Summerland collection when the mother plants are mature enough. We will sell our resulting plants at our spring plant sale and our annual Rose Tour held in June. The proceeds will go to help support the Ornamental Gardens. So by my count, we have nine of Paul's varieties in the two Canadian collections. They should be secure for a long time in our Public Garden, which is now 110 years old. We of course were unable to get all of the varieties that we might have liked, but we did pretty well in my books. Because the whole idea of the project was to secure and currate some of Paul's varieties in a safe place, I guess we have a success. An additional intent was to allow us to propagate and share these lovely plants with others. Jason will be able to do that better than we can at the Gardens in the next few years and may in fact eventually begin shipping to the US as his new nursery grows. But again, that will be a few years down the road. Even propagating plants for sale here in Canada is still a year or two away. But then this project started in 2019 and we are now entering year six, but we are on the road to reaching our long term goals. I know many on the forums are familiar with Jason through his You Tube Videos and website. he is young, energetic and a cutting edge nurseryman and Rosarian who shares my passion for preserving rare, garden worthy varieties. For those of you in Canada, check out his website and support him if you can.