Thanks everyone. All great feedback. I used it as an opportunity to practice my meager pruning skills, and basically hacked most of the branches down ton 12-ish inches. It looks a little like a modern tea rose after pruning, but this should give it plenty of rest while it rebuids, and in a shape I like. Boy do I know about resilient. For a couple of years I had a Madame Plantier still planted in the 2-3 gallon black pot that it was in when I won at the el cerrito celebration several years ago. It sat on a hot concrete patio, mostly not watered, completely neglected for a couple years. Assuming it was really really dead (sung like the munchkins from the Wizard of Oz, for entertainment value), I reached down to pick it up and toss it, and something in me decided to try to see if it was actually still alive. So I watered it a few times. And wouldn't ya know it, from under the soil, it sent up a couple new basal canes. The old canes and the old stump were dead, but something new came up from the roots. After all that time. I repotted it into a 5 gallon pot last spring, and this year it is covered with little buds just waiting to open. I'm hoping the same happens with my Rose du Roi. Thanks! -kmama

For anyone interested in the subject of water absorbing polymers -- here in hot dry San Antonio I dig them into the hole with everything I plant, roses, annuals, perennials; everything except succulents and cacti that is. I also mix the dry crystals to potting soil in the amount recommended and haven't had a problem, but I agree if you add too much they will let you know! They are much cheaper if you buy online. I've been getting them from watersorb.com for years. Four pounds including Priority Mail shipping are $35. Customer service is great. They ship the same day they are ordered. You can also add dry crystals to plants already growing by sticking a long narrow trowel into the soil and dribbling a few crystals down the blade and then covering. The roots will find them. If I happen to dig up a plant I find little roots clinging to the water filled crystals.

Wow - thanks for reviving this, Sara Ann. You've been so good at posting to give us all chances to show off our roses by colors this year that we got plenty of rose eye candy already this year. I appreciate your warm comments as always, everyone - Trish, Kate, Molly, Diane, Sara Ann, Ingrid, and it's both fun and discouraging to look back at how wonderful the roses were in 2013. Coincidentally, I'd also give a major body part (OK, maybe just a major amount of blood loss) to have any single rose bush whatsoever look that good in my yard this year. Not that this was such a bad year overall, but the rose stars were few and far between. Everything (virtually) got pruned to the ground after winter and it really strikes me how much difference it makes to have surviving cane vs. no surviving cane. The rose puts all its energy into regrowing cane, and forgets to bloom, except for spots of isolated blooms here and there on scattered bushes. For the most part, my better bloomers were the newly planted roses that didn't have to regrow anything and still had the flush of youth. They say it'll be a relatively milder winter in these parts with plenty of snow, so I'm hoping for another year like that one in 2016. Now for the questions - Diane, I still like Ascot and it tends to hover in the 4-5' range for me. It's a reliably healthy bush, but it seems to be one that appreciates some surviving cane, like most of my roses. Here is a closeup from 2013 of Ascot showing those luscious big fat reddish blooms: In contrast, here's the one solitary bloom cycle I caught for Ascot this year (and I went out faithfully every week all summer). Pretty meh - washed out hot pink with more like semi-double blooms. Still rock-solid healthy leaves, just in recovery mode like most of my roses. Nevertheless, it's still a keeper in my world for the sake of the photo above: Ingrid - sorry for being confusing in labeling the medium pink rose in the first picture. Petal Pushers has small mum-sized blooms in regular profusion (it was one of my more reliable bloomers this year) but it's toward the back near the grey shed, obscured by other roses. The prominent one falling over the fence is one I forgot to label - the Delbard rose Dames de Chenonceau. It's a totally reliable rose for me and not bad for blooms this year. I'm sure with your warmer climate it would do more blooming, though I'm not sure if the multiple petals would make it more vulnerable to drought or not. I dearly love this rose, as well as the Champagne Moment/Lions Fairy Tale to its left in that first photo in this thread. Here's a closeup from July this year of Dames de Chenonceau. I think Roses Unlimited carries it if you're tempted, Ingrid (smile) - this looks like your style of lovely subtle colors. It does tend to flop though - I had to lie on the ground to look up for this shot. For comparison, here's Petal Pushers from June of this year. This is what I usually see when I catch this rose, as it's a notorious droopy rose and doesn't climb very high. When I'm motivated to lie on the ground for a photo (not all that often, considering all the stray rose thorns also on the ground), this is what Petal Pushers looks like, also from this year. Yep, this one makes me dizzy and I can't exactly tell which way is up: Anyway, thanks for your comments on this blast from the past, and may our next rose years be good ones this time! Cynthia

Michael, I have a Cl Crimson Glory I have grown for over 10 years. The one in the picture above started out as a rooted cutting of mine. I rooted mine myself, so obviously it grows great on its own roots. The scent started out amazing, and it is still amazing. Very strong traditional "rose" scent. Mine re-blooms throughout the summer, but takes a longer rest between flushes than some of my other roses. I am in Northern Calif in zone 9 - don't know where you are. Jackie