Marlorena, why don't you admit it, you have all your roses on steroids! Your Bonica is simply lovely, just like every other rose and plant you've posted. You're being much too modest. My Bonica languished for the longest time until I'd finally had enough and cut it all the way back in preparation to my husband taking it out of the ground. I then felt guilty and had him replant it in a spot that gets much more sun and I think it's now a proud four inches high. I'm curious to see what, if anything, it does this spring. FDUK, after seeing the beautiful picture Marlorena posted I can understand your reluctance in having to give away MAC. Having seen a monstrous one in person I do think, however, that you're doing the right thing. Hopefully, you'll be able to visit it and take pictures. I hope it's a success in its new home. Ingrid

Yes hot indeed.We enjoy hot summers but winters cold and strong sea winds do much damage. I now have roses that can cope with such variation of heat and cold .Took me long time to find roses like horses for courses . Canadian Explorer rang from Morden research labs In Canada have a full range of great plants that are hard as iron nails .John Davis rose flowers most of summer in pink scented flows of climber 10 foot x 7 foot .Makes a good column climber .It can be left and not covered in minus 30c winters and still come back in Spring better than ever. John Cabot too makes a wide rambler on pergoda frame . With out them my rose garden would be bare or cut right back to take half summer to reach a good tall plant .Summers are 100f in July . June is best month for building in garden s. Summer goes on to end of October. Autumn tree colours November December .Worse month February . Im English used to hardly any winters and cool summers .Took some time to find my garden needs in rural wild Latvia

I feel your pain, Rehka! Houston is a challenging rose climate. Hot and humid punctuated by surprise attacks of hail, Blue Northerns, hurricanes, floods and tornadoes! I grew up in Dallas but visited Houston off and on...(dramatic music)...in the summer. I also feel your husband's pain: Asian jasmine and trumpet vine in TX. A patch of neglected Asian jasmine once ripped off the bathroom window screen at my sister's house in Dallas! I think the hardy jasmine you mentioned might be Trachelospermum jasminoides, star jasmine? If so, I applaud you 100%! That's a great go-to fragrant vine for much of TX. I sent my mom a rooted cutting of Zeph for her Dallas garden, and it grew well there. I think Mom's rose lost about 50%-60% of its leaves during the hottest part of the year, but Zeph was pretty darn healthy (no spray except Safer fungicide) and grew fresh leaves when the temps cooled. Mom planted her Zeph in half day sun and grew a vine through the canes. Zeph rests for a longer summer stretch without blooming in TX, and your climate is getting hotter, so I agree that selecting a cultivar with more continuous bloom and foliage cover might be a wise choice for your preferences.. With training, Blush Noisette makes a charming, continuously blooming climber up to about 8' or so. It works well on an arch when 2 are planted, one on each side. The fragrance positively WAFTS in the evening. Humidity contributes to wafting so maybe BN is worth considering for Houston? For a large pergola, I'd plant a BN on one side and a yellow or white Lady Banks on the other. I'd train the Lady Banks up one side and across the top for a magnificent spring show with BN to carry on later in the season. Antique Rose Emporium sells both, but sometimes you have to jump in at the starting gate of restocking. They're popular! I'd call ARE and ask about blackspot tendencies in your area, and check on BN's resistance as well as inquiring about other Noisette possibilities. I'm a big fan of the fragrant, glorious Noisettes but only grow BN and MAC here in Portland. I've never grown Renae but have heard great things about it. I have a couple of baby Annie Laurie McDowells in my driveway pot nursery and am super excited about their inclusion in my garden! If you can get a ALM, and Kim Rupert gives it a thumbs up for your area and pergola, I'd absolutely hold out for her. The photos I've seen are breathtaking! Pure romance. Carol

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR I definitely enjoy my other roses. It's just that MIP has befuddled me this year. It was in a small pot for two years and did quite well and bloomed fine. Then I planted it in a larger pot last summer (in the same location, huge pot--3' tall by 2' wide) and she grew well. This summer she bloomed a LOT. The branches in my pics above (@KittyNYz6) don't show it, but they were completely covered in blooms. I just didn't get a photo because our dog died at the exact same time so I was not snapping photos. But yeah, they were covered in dozens and dozens of gorgeous blooms that then promptly fried in a heatwave in the 90s. Then it has sat for over two months with no new growth of any kind, and the darker blue gray leaves are a celery green color, so I know something isn't right. I just can't figure out what. Except that it is on a south wall of a house that is painted dark grey and just gets too much radiant heat? Not sure. In any case, I'm not losing any sleep over it, just was curious. And I know from others that MIP is not a regular re-bloomer so I wasn't even concerned about that. But I'm used to a lot of new growth by now and have had zilch. So it's intriguing. I assume it's resting, which is fine, but I've not seen a rose rest to the point where absolutely nothing is happening since its spring bloom. @Kristine LeGault 8a pnw 100% I have no issues with the shovel either haha. In my tiny garden, things have to really perform for me to put up with it. I recently got rid of Laguna (monster), Caroline Victoria (bland), and Joan Fontaine. Not everything I like does well in my garden, and sometimes I have to try it out first to see and learn, if that makes sense. :)