One thought I have is that being as Charity is a seedling of Graham Thomas, according to HMF, it might have similar water requirements (must have winter irrigation or rain) and similar growth habit. Someone on HMF said it had grown to 10' in two years. Maybe in a swale with north exposure?

I posted earlier this summer about a mystery rose that I'm now convinced must be Charity:

Not 'English Garden'

It's really been a workhorse of a rose. Planted at the foot of a Darjeeling banana, it gets quite a bit of summer moisture from a drip line. It grows in full sun with a full Eastern exposure, as it's on the corner of the property. It's been everblooming for me as the summer progressed - even during the hottest days. The flowers shatter quickly on the plant, but when picked as buds in the cool of morning, we've found they last several days indoors. There's a great myrrh scent that is on the sweeter end of the myrrh fragrance spectrum. The leaves had only the slightest touch of blackspot in the early part of the summer, but only a dozen or so on the whole plant. And speaking of the plant... it's a grower. I'm 6'5" and it's easily a foot taller than me now. But it's very upright / narrow, densely bushy, mostly thornless and has lovely foliage that shows off the blooms well. I'll try to take some updated photos tomorrow.

John, how many inches across are the flowers, and how quickly do they shatter? Wildeve shatters in three days for me, from opening bud to deadheading.

I'm starting to wonder what the differences are between Charity, Crocus, and The Sheperdess?

The blooms on mine are right around 3 inches across. If it's hot, they only last a day or two on the bush - but like daylilies there are always more buds coming along to replace the shattered blooms. The process moves more slowly when it's cool, but not much. Flower longevity cannot be counted among its positive attributes, and I suspect the continual bloom might be the result of getting so much water (since it's near the banana that requires a lot).

It looks like the differences between Charity, Crocus and The Shepherdess are:

1. Charity: myrrh scent; soft yellow blooms with a dark center that are initially cupped but open flat and fade to almost white. No hint of pink. Shrub is more tall than wide.

2. Crocus: tea scent; very double cupped blooms with subtle coloring that includes pink and yellow, but with a creamy ivory white as the dominant color. Shrub is more wide than tall.

3. The Shepherdess: fruity scent; globular blooms with pink and white dominating and hints of yellow/apricot. Shrub is more tall than wide.

Personally, I don't think you could go wrong with any of them!

What's the difference between a Charity and Jayne Austin? They both look very similar to me.