I'm in northern jersey, zone 6A. I got an own root from Chamblees that literally grew 3 feet in one season, the tallest out of all of my roses. It's definitely a climber, the canes are tall and needed to be tied to the fence behind it. The flowers are beautiful, last abnormally long for an austin (like 4 days) since it was a one year plant I only got a few blooms but they didn't have much scent, which is normal for me and young plants. I'd give it a year though to get better. One thing i must say though, it is very very thorny. I'll try and get a picture up of the thorns. Thorns don't bother me though, if the plant can prove itself to be good thorns don't matter at all to me. Let me know of you need anything else. Drew This post was edited by zone6-nj on Fri, Feb 14, 14 at 17:31

At David Marriot's talk about Austin roses last year at Ashdown I asked him about all the roses on the UK website that were listed as having shrub versions as well as climbing versions. I asked specifically if the climbers were on different rootstock than the shrub/shorter versions. His answer, which was a real surprise to me, was that the only difference was the way they pruned the roses at DA Ltd. I've been growing Tess for about four or five years, the last three no spray. Afternnon sun (on the west side of an arbor). It is a really great rose, even through the misery of last summer's drought. I think your answer is that the roses are the same.

I saw it too. I did not know it was being aired, so missed the first fifteen minutes of the first half. I read the book last spring, but I do not remember every detail of it. Over all I think the film was fairly true to the book. It was okay, but not really amazing. I would have liked it to been different in terms of the cinematography. I have to say that the area in which they filmed was BEAUTIFUL. Every part of the scenery was just as I had imagined it from reading the book. The landscape, the D'Urberville estate, and the dairy farm were exactly how I had envisioned them. The characters were not what I had imagined at all. The actors that played Tess and Angel did not awe me; they were not particularly passionate in thier acting. The actor that played Angel was scrawney. I almost thought he would collapse when he carried the three dairy maids across the flooded road. There were a couple of things that bothered me. The first was the rape scene. It was not graphic or anything, just strange. The fog seemed to have had a life of its own. As soon as Tess is sleeping it gently crawles up, and then starts rolling in when Alec comes back. As soon as the rape is over the fog suddenly slinks back from whence it came. It reminded me of some horror movie fog that comes to steal your breath away or something. I also thought they could have extended the part where Angel and Tess talk together at the farm. They didn't include the general exchange of ideas. But these are just minor complaints. I do have a question, it is about hair. Did females of that time have bangs? I always thought they wore it 'off the face'. And were men usually clean-shaven? CMK

I have this free app on my iPhone that makes it really easy to create photo collages, which helps me visualize how to design the garden and how plants will look together. It's called Pic Stitch. Here is a collage I just threw together of Tess, Gertrude and then I added in Archduke Charles because it's my favorite pink and red rose. Although this may have been very cruel of me if you like the look because I'm not sure Archduke Charles will grow in zone 5. Actually, my hat's off to you because I'm not sure I would even try to have a garden in zone 5! I don't know how you do it! All of you in the cold regions... you're amazing! I should note that none of these photos are mine... they are all others' lovely garden photos from gardenweb. :)