I used to grow her. She did fine here grew to maybe 4 feet in height. Several things were responsible for my getting rid of her and many other old garden roses. GH needed to be sprayed to grow here and I stopped spraying. I only had it for 4 years so not really a fair trial. But without cane hardiness and having to grow from the ground up each season I'm not sure it would ever have reach its potential. Here there was mostly one very nice bloom but likeI said I did not have her long enough. Lastly, Japanese beetles adored her. They got most of that first bloom and I was seldom able to enjoy them.

Well those blooms may of just sold me on her! Patty, I believe you are near me (we're about an hour south of Chicago in Kankakee county) so my experience will probably be more similar to you. Do you know if your's was own root or grafted? Wonder if that makes a difference in her performance. I may just try her anyway and hope she gets as beautiful as Cynthia's!

Kellbell I planted GH last year as a band. Still pretty small but it's chugging along! The flowers were too pretty to not try it :).

Cynthia, Absolutely gorgeous!

Re own root or grafted - I have 2 plants, one is grafted onto Dr. Huey (which I did not realize until it threw up a Dr. Huey sucker!), and the other is own root from a cutting I rooted by sticking a piece I pruned off directly into the ground! After 2 years, the own root one is actually larger than the original one.

Anyway, both of them are doing fine. This Spring we had very unusual, endless rain all the way through April (Spring starts in my garden in Jan), and they did get damask crud. So, I pruned them both hard, and took most of the leaves off. They both sprang back with clean foliage immediately and are now blooming again. I would think in your zone own root would be better, so if it did die back in the Winter it would come back as the same rose.

Jackie

Mine was own root and she did grow fine Cynthia's photo does tend to make me wish I'd given she more time. I used to read all the time about giving these types of roses a good 5 years to really show what they can do. Leaf disease issues was largely responsible for her removal. Without spraying in our short season I still believe a rose needs those leaves for the energy to bloom well.

Thanks for the compliments guys - the rose did all the hard work as she's a mostly zero care rose for me beyond deadheading (I don't spray). I also don't have the blackspot problems as bad as further east, but we get plenty in our zone and I don't recall GH taking much of a hit. Mine is own root from Vintage in 2008 so it is both own root and has had time to build up a root system. It's interesting that Jackie's experience is better for an own root rose. I think most of the places that sell it are own root anyway, so it's a moot point, but it's good to be able to reassure you that it grows robustly on its own roots in such a wide range of zones.

Cynthia