I know nothing about Flamingo Dancer, other than the meager information on HMF. There are some lovely pictures though. It looks like a beautiful rose. The one photo of it cascading down is particularly lovely. I'll be eager to read about it from someone who grows it. Lisa

Ingrid - I don't have any useful insights for you regarding how it will do in your SoCal environment, except to say that its flowers are quite lovely, and it will look magnificent next to your FB, SB, and La France. Mine is still quite young, but it is determined to bloom so I'm expecting great things from it ... if it manages to survive this coming winter. I'll update if it does not, for the northern gardeners. I couldn't bear to pinch off the bud.

Matt, thank you so much for posting this picture. Even as a baby the bloom is breathtakingly lovely, and I'm now thrilled that I decided to add FD to my order. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it makes it through your harsh winter.

Oh that's lovely, Matt. I wouldn't have the willpower to pinch that off either. Sorry, Ingrid that I'm just adding to your thread without knowing anything about Flamingo Dancer. I'm hoping, as you are, that Mustbenuts will be along soon with lots of information. At least your post gets bumped up for her to see it, this way:) I'll bet Flamingo Dancer will take our heat very well. I can't imagine Burlington not breeding for heat tolerance, being in Visalia. The heat there is worse than ours, and it doesn't cool down much at night in the summer. They also have water restrictions in Visalia. . I'm sure FD is going to be great. It sure is pretty! Matt that one first bloom is already so perfect looking. Lisa

Matt- that's a terrific picture of Flamenco Dancer and it's better than anything else I have of my plant. Mine is at least 3 years old and in a non-optimal part shade spot under the fringe of a large oak tree. It has survived OK for me, though not cane hardy, so I think you'll be fine in zone 6b. Mine doesn't really climb well however, after all that winter kill, though it still wants to be a lanky climber-type bloom on the end of long canes.

Under these not very supportive conditions, my Flamenco Dancer puts out a bloom or two maybe every 6 weeks. Like with many roses, a zone warmer can make a lot of difference so I think Matt will have better results if he has surviving cane. When climbers have to regrow from the base they're rarely as robust as they would be in warmer zones. Ingrid, my experience doesn't much translate to yours, so don't judge your rebloom from my report.

For me, this is one of those roses where I notice the stamens, though that might be because I don't get there till it has fully opened out. The stripes are the kind of soft pink that would blend well with the other roses you grow, Ingrid. Mine can have a sort of semi-double look in hot weather, but Matt's photo shows the optimum kind of bloom that it's striving for when happy.

Here's a side view looking a little more double:

Here's what I think of as a more typical bloom

All in all, I'd say this is a very nice rose that should climb in a mannerly way for Ingrid, and survive fine for Matt and me. The foliage even in July is pretty clean, and I can't tell about fragrance since most roses don't stand out in fragrance to me.

Cynthia

Thank you Cynthia, for the additional pictures and your comments. As Lisa mentions this rose was bred in the heat of southern California, so for you, and in the conditions that you mention, this rose might not have given its best. It's still a pretty rose, and I like the two-tone somewhat striped look. I have only one other rose, Deanne Krause, that is striped, but it has single blooms, and so the look is different. I can't wait to have this rose in my garden, and you know I'll be posting pictures at the first possible moment!

She's beautiful! Lisa

Thanks for your beautiful picture and your honest comments. I'm sorry that you're going through such a rough time;, it's worse than anything I've ever had to contend with. I hope there are better times ahead soon and that these horrible fires will be put out. I so hope your garden survives all this.

Mustbenuts, I wish you would check in and tell us when you can retire. You deserve it.

Thanks for renewing this thread, Sheila, which enabled me to enjoy these lovely photos again. I planted my tiny band of FD a few days ago and we're now having awful Santa Ana winds and on top of that our resident skunk had dug around this rose, tossing aside the thorny branches that were supposed to protect it as though they were blades of grass. I suppose he was digging for little creatures to eat. Don't know whether this one and the other two small bands will survive with the weather changing in the blink of an eye, but I live in hope. mustbenuts, this rose looks so pretty in your garden. I hope mine gets large enough to require some kind of support.