Thanks for the responses. I can rule out cold weather now as the cause of the die back. To Florence I can say with some confidence that this rose will bloom in light shade as the second location for mine was in partial shade. I am going to continue to try and grow it because of its healthy foliage(except for wanting to die!) excellent garden form and beautiful fragrant blooms. I'm inclined to think that my problem is related to drought and I had better make sure that this rose in particular gets plenty of water during dry hot periods. We often get a month or so sometime between June and October with very little to no rain. I plan to order Stanwell Perpetual from Heritage for next Spring, as it appears from their catalog description and photo that this will be a very similar rose. Judging from the the few responses I had, I must be one of the few Garden Web folks trying to grow K. v. Denmark in the deep South.

Bean counter, is it really z4 in Rockford? Thanks for your ideas; I'd never heard of either. Michael, as far as I can see, Bonica has been hardy the past few winters in public gardens here. Fru Dagmar was a recent aquisition of mine, and it seems to top out just under 3' here. I need this to go a bit taller to discourage jumping over. But I've not seen it grown on in this area more than a few years, so perhaps I'll search around. Thanks.

hi james, i have been growing 'shishigashira' since the mid-80's and it is definitely not cascading. after that many years, it is a dense, spreading shrub about 5'x5'. the flowering begins in fall (usually late september in my area) and continues sporadically through mid-winter. i have seen the occasional flower at christmas though the main flowering period is during october-november. during peak, it is a solid mass of small, bright pink flowers over glossy foliage on stiff branches and a fine plant, in my opinion. 'chansonette' has more beautiful individual flowers and my shrub is still young. it is, however, already exhibiting a cascading form at less than 3' in height. it blooms later than 'shishigashira', more into winter here. i can't make a fair comparison of overall merit between these two because of the differences in ages but ,hopefully, 'chansonette' will become a favorite as well. just considering the individual flowers, 'chansonette' wins hands down.

The nuts from my red buckeye tree fell and are sending down little tap roots. Should I pot them up or leave them in situ over the fall and winter? I eventually wish to spread the new seedling trees around in our woodland copse area. Red Buckeye blossoms are pollenated exclusively by hummingbirds.