My roses are beautiful, but last year we had a very early freeze, and it hurt many bushes. These were hurt, so I did not cut them at all, but tried to allow them to get as much sun and water as they could. I think that Mr Bayse was the predecessor to Dr. Stephen George, and Dr. Stephen George's facilities (school, agriculture projects) are in Dallas, right where you are, Randy. So they should grow better for you, and possibly for me than in other places. Before I spoke with Dr. George I thought that everything was in Texas A&M in Austin or somewhere else. But he lived and worked in Dallas. He said that when they first developed the Earth kind roses, that Bayse's Blueberry was about the last to go. It made it until the final cut. That suits me just fine because my big complaint with the Earth kind roses is that you should not water them. When our summers in Tulsa are dry, they are very very dry, and I simply don't think that the water qualification to the Earth kind roses is fair. I think it is unreasonable to expect a rose to live without water in an area that might go 2 months with temps near or over 100, and never get water. Sammy

Thank you, lucretial. In my climate, when discussing roses you're talking about shrubs that are bare from sometime in November through sometime in April. One wants those bare stems to be as lovely as possible. For myself, aside from their hips I've long regarded the "typical" rugosa as a rose shrub that looked "weedy". I've never really been a big fan of them in a prominent place in one's home landscape, and that was in part why I was asking about Basye's Purple (where at least, like Therese Bugnet, one had the advantage of prominent nice winter color on the canes). If however despite that winter color, Basye's Purple is "ugly" during the winter, there's no way I want to plant this. Other suggestions? Most roses are going to be thorny/prickly. Rosa rugosa canes are typically heavily covered in thorns/prickles, but they're all pretty much thin and weak (provided you're talking about the species rather than its hybrids with other more stoutly prickled roses). In my experience the typical problem with rugosa roses in winter isn't so much that they're thorny, but rather that the stems and bushes look "weedy". They look just fine in the New England & New Jersey coastal sand dunes, but I'd prefer to avoid that look in our condominium/100 year old brick mansion garden landscape, even as I like many of the other features of rugosa roses. It's no accident that Rosa rugosa, while native to the northeastern Orient, is also supremely happy (almost to the point of invasiveness) in New England! I'm looking for whatever (probably rugosa) rose would get the right size for the spot so that my neighbors liked what it did for the area, looked lovely in the growing season, and also looked presentable in the winter (while being hardy enough to survive most of our zone 6, humid, stormy winters without dying to the roots). In my estimation Rosa rugosa hips are truly lovely (even as the shrub overall is "weedy looking"), but I'm open to that if I can find one that will "work" for me in the spot I'm envisioning. Suggestions?

I've never been able to get Cool Roses to repond to either my phone calls or e-mails, so I don't know exactly what's up with that. I have also never been able to get a response to my question as to whether their rootstock is clean or not either. I believe they are still in business though. As far as other nurseries go that are known to graft on fortuniana, I have no recommendations, at least in what can be considered Central Florida. You may be able to read between the lines here. Becnel Roses is out of business now. I used to get nice roses from them. The best thing we can do is obtain virus free fortuniana as a stock plant, and practice grafting. Sandy

Carla, I can't say enough nice things about 'Basye's Blueberry. I'm glad you enjoyed it. bgrose, I wish you had some peonies to enjoy in your garden! Margaret, there's something about this variety of peony that makes it like it in my garden. I have no idea why. The other varieties I've planted over the years do exactly what yours have done ... nice foliage, but hardly ever any blooms. I dug up all the others & trashed them, except this great performing 'Sarah Bernhardt'. It's really a very vigorous plant. It was a fairly large plant when my Mom gave it to me (it had grown in my grandmother's garden for years and years), so I didn't have to nurse a tiny little plant. Kate, if you ever have any room in the future, you should give 'Basye's Blueberry' a try. If you do, be sure to plant it up close and personal, where it comes in contact with people. Take advantage of its smoothness and fragrance. Randy