Paul loves his Gallicas, and that's why he bred some new ones. But he also put forth a couple Teas, Miniatures, a repeat-blooming Rambler, etc. His 'Golden Buddha' does great for me -- my cleanest rose, even without fungicides in NJ.

:-)

~Christopher

Won Fang Yon. I can never remember the name of this rose so have to look it up. I love love love this rose. Reblooms, I believe it's a tea. Mine is still young but I think it will get big.

Which one is the repeat rambler? I haven't heard of that before.

Paul Barden does have some absolutely fabulous Gallicas and I'm putting in several this spring including Marianne, Song of the Stars, and the deliciously purple Umbra. That kind of purple really doesn't show up in reblooming roses much, though there are some purple hybrid teas or hybrid perpetuals that have some of that look.

I agree with Chistopher that Golden Buddha is a nice reblooming rose of Barden's. Here he is in his golden phase - this one does fade to cream in the heat, though the photo below is from August.

Another good Barden repeating rose is Oshun, in a similar color scheme. Mine is a creamy yellow most of the time with an apricot cast, and it's pretty clean from blackspot too.

More of a classic hybrid tea shape is the style of Pam's Choice. She does repeat off and on, but usually a few blooms at a time, and only variably with the delicious russet color she can have. This photo is a little fuzzy but it shows my best shot of her in russet-pink mood.

For something completely different, Dolly's Forever Rose is bright and cheerful and it does repeat. Mine isn't yet prolific, but it's still just coming into its third year.

So the bottom line is that his Gallica-style roses only bloom once, but that's characteristic of Gallicas anyway. Plenty other of his roses rebloom though.

Cynthia

The repeat blooming rambler must be Mel's Heritage. I hear great things about it, though mine is still small.

-Chris

I'm already becoming fond of the frequency and quality of the blooms on 'Oshun', though I've only had it a year or so. Nice scent, last well.

'Won Fang Yon' is a very good repeater.

Lovely photo, Paul, and that color is absolutely stunning in any rose, much less a tea. I simply had to put this one in this year, and I'll let you know if I can overwinter it here in zone 5. I have about 6 teas that I can keep alive and blooming, though they're not remotely officially hardy here, or as glorious as they'd be further south. Still, in a zone 6 pocket of the yard with leaf bag protection around them they do reasonably well. I'm hoping your Won Fang Yon will be one of the survivors, since you do breed tough as well as beautiful roses.

Cynthia

That looks amazing.

It IS amazing.

I have Won Fang Yon Just planted this year and full of buds. I will report on it's rebloom. I also have Jerri Jennings and it has marvelous yellow blooms. These were in pots last year, so this is the first year I'll be able to tell how they rebloom.

I am so pleased that 'Mel's Heritage' has proven such a good remontant climber in some climates (not great in cold zones, I'm sure), like much of California. I've seen large specimens of it and thought to myself - why would anyone bother with 'Cecile Brunner' if they could grow this instead?!

And thanks, Jeri - I am thrilled that it has made such a handsome plant for you.

Curios fact: When I grew the 200+ seedlings of this cross, this exact seedling stood out from all its siblings as a far more vigorous, healthy-looking plant, and so I potted it up for observation without ever seeing a flower. In fact, it had to mature for two full years before flowering for the first time! It would have been so easy to discard it as unworthy before it even got to flowering stage.

Paul, is there any chance its sibling Tajique will be released into commerce?

:-)

~Christopher

@AquaEyes: I have no idea. I surrendered this and many other "final selections" to Rogue Valley Roses and it seems they're in some sort of limbo.

I echo Christopher's enthusiasm for Tajique, and we can both check with Rogue Valley to see what progress they may have made. I suspect requests from interested customers might be better to jog them into production than reminders from Paul himself as the breeder.

FWIW, I've tried two or three times to grow Mel's Heritage here in zone 5 without a glimmer of winter survival. I'll try it once more in my zone 6 pocket before giving up, but I suspect it's no more than zone 6 hardy at best even if it survives. I can't seem to overwinter Cecile Brunner either, so I'm out of luck both ways!

Cynthia

I agree that Mel's Heritage out-does Cl. Cecile . . .

It IS worth noting that it will take a couple of years to really get going. It WANTS to sprawl, so you have to work a little bit at getting it to go up, instead. But oh, man -- it's WORTH IT.

And not just in the garden ... It's also spectacular in a vase.

Paul, I'm glad you took the trouble to give it a second chance, and sent it to the Heritage. Golly -- The Kernel sure did love that rose.

I'm just sitting here looking at all the roses that I truthfully have been wanting some for a while, some just lately, but I had no idea, maybe just didn't pay attention, or something, that they were Paul Barden Roses! Dolly's forever rose, Pams Choice. I've just started looking into the tree climbers and was looking at Treasure Trail! I love those Gallica's too! I was disappointed in some of there blooms, a couple, I got none, a couple, I got a couple, and the hybrids bloomed really well. We had a mild winter...hopefully this winter will be back to normal. Atleast that's the only thing I could think of..the mild winter!

I'm really trying now to figure out where Mel's Heritage could fit in. Out of curiosity, what's the growth habit of a climbing rose without support?

'Mel's Heritage' is essentially a repeat-blooming Wichurana rambler, which inherits its species ancestor's lax and trailing habit. Without support, it'd likely sprawl along the ground. This pic on HelpMeFind shows it doing that where it wasn't supported by the fence behind it.

I, too, am trying to figure out where I'd put 'Mel's Heritage' because of that habit. I think it would work great along a split rail fence, but, alas, there isn't one in my yard. And my space is just too small to allow it to spill out, which would mean regular tying-in to keep it tight.

:-)

~Christopher

No. I couldn't let it sprawl, either. But it IS possible to make it go over an arbor (see above). That makes it want to send out laterals into the opening -- but THAT allows me to make bouquets of it.

So, at least in MY conditions, an arbor works just fine for it.

Maybe I should build a split rail fence ... I have a border that I'm converting to mixed blackberries and healthy pink roses right now anyway. BTW, we're fortunate to have a wild rambler down the street on the power line right of way, I love the way it looks climbing over all the other plants and popping up amongst the poison ivy.

Does anyone know anything about the rose Paul hybridized that's listed at http://paulbarden.blogspot.com/2011/05/121-06-14-impressions-in-year-four.html#comment-form? It's gorgeous and I'm hoping it made it to commerce somewhere! I looked on HMF at descendants of Tradescant but no luck there.