@Stephanie, 9b inland SoCal no ma'am, ALmD is NOT difficult to root! It is slower growing own root and demands rigorous deadheading to limit its flowering to force it to grow instead of flowering and that is the complaint. Climbers are traditionally slower to establish into the blooming machines we expect. ALmD is slower to get there because she FLOWERS A LOT! She wants to flower at the expense of growing. Remember the "first year they sleep, second the creep and third they leap"? ALmD remains in year #1 for YEARS if she's allowed to continue flowering a LOT, which she will do unless you pick off the flower buds to force her to mature through years two and three. Once she achieves the larger size, she will explode and pave' herself in blooms. If you don't mind treating it like an infant; keeping it potted and pinching off flower buds for several seasons until it puts out climbing growth and the required root system under it to support the plant, own root can work. So far, none of the nurseries who have attempted offering it own root have grown large enough plants to take decent cuttings from. People have received small cuttings because they have been taken from small potted plants. To make good own root plants, it requires thick, strong cuttings and those only occur on mature, large plants. Those require either budding and culturing or years longer growing in the ground and allowing it to build into the plant you need. EVERY source there has ever been for this rose has been repeatedly advised of this fact, because I told them. If you receive (or received) thin, small rooted pieces, it's because they were snipped from thin, small potted plants instead of what SHOULD have been grown and used to propagate it.

Congratulations, Kim! Does this mean that you are a proud father? :-) That's a beautiful rose. Medium shrub, few prickles and has enough of a sense of herself to keep you waiting a full week for the unveiling: I like her! As Ingrid noted, she does resemble MFK. I have always been a MFK admirer, but I know some do not like the fact she is prone to vegetative centers. You may have hit on the perfect solution! The bloom color is lovely shade of mellow sunrise, and the burgundy stems are a perfect foil! Carol

She is here too! I also got her last night, gave her a good soak, and potted her up this morning. (Well, mostly I potted up multiflora that will soon be mostly Annie Laurie McDowell, but you all know what I mean!) I'm so excited to see how the bud eye grows at the point when I clip off the multiflora branches! Thank you Kim for making this possible! And thanks to Steve at Wisconsin Roses for doing such a great job with this rose!

I had two Annies, one was in the garden, one hugs a pot. I am in zone 6a, colder than NJ. I covered the outdoor Annie with mulch and a nursery pot during the winter months. But I lost her after a few years. Now I just have a potted one.