It is SO encouraging to read about your roses in containers on a balcony!!! I, too, have all my first Old Roses in containers on my balcony. They were all in bands from Vintage, three of them received in the Spring, and three more that I bought from Vintage quite recently. Because we went through a protracted move from Merced, CA to Sacramento, CA this summer, the Spring ones (which I had potted up when I got them) spent June and July in the garden of relatives here in Sacramento, but they are on my balcony now. The other three are also potted up doing OK. FIRST GROUP: Devoniensis - still with the relatives, but doing all right, not growing a lot. Mme. Antoine Mari - doing very well, in spite of my having made a few mistakes. Only a few flowers, but getting ready to give me a few more on longer, more vigorous canes. Nigrette - a small 1935 HT, doing very well, and with a lovely growth habit. NEW GROUP: These are not all Old Roses, as my sister wanted Oklahoma. Mlle. Jeanne Philippe - came with a few lovely little light yellow blooms on it (blooms should eventually be apricot). Hanging in there. Mlle. Cecile Brunner, the shrub - swinging right into action, making new branches, buds, etc. Oklahoma - also came with a bloom and bud, truly gorgeous in color, it is now apparently working on roots. I don't really have enough sun, either, but I'm going to give it a good try. So far I've been moving the pots around, trying to find the optimum sun conditions for each of them. Parts of my balcony get about five to six hours of sun, but it's afternoon sun and can be terribly hot in the summer. It was too much for little Nigrette in the last hot spell, about 3 weeks ago, and I moved her into the shade as soon as I realized it. To know that your roses have done so well in even a bit less sun has really made me feel more optimistic!! Thanks, Laura

About Summer Wine. I bought it from Heirloom about 7 years ago. It is one wonderful rose! The bush is healthy and grows fast. The blossoms are among my earliest and then the blooming time goes on for a long time. Their fragrance is mild but pleasant. It has the most gorgeous big orange hips on it all winter until a hard freeze. Mine was badly damaged last year when the winds of 80 mph blew the copper tellis with it over. I had to cut away most of the rose to get the trellis back up. Well, it bounced back like a rubber ball and was covered with roses this year, and is even now sprawling out and over the other shrubs. I may cut it way back once the hips blacken, because that does not seem to phase the plant at all! And oh yes, there is one late rose blooming on the tip of a vine that is hanging in the exact center of my office window. Over the past few days I have watched it unfurl and bloom in a brilliant raspberry orange. Summer's light and heat turn it to a lovely soft pink with buttery yellow, but I like the early and late flowers best with their more intense colors. This is one of the most disease free roses I have. It is also one of the first I would plant again if I ever had to move. Do give it a strong trellis though. There is nothing wimpy about it!

Hi Judy Blush Veranda is a floribunda and the 2 new Parfuma are HTs. Also Blush does not have the fragrance of these new roses. Blush does have a problem opening in damp weather, but it opens well in my dry climate. I don't think there is much similarity. First Crush does not have many petals and opens and finishes fairly fast, but puts out a lot of flowers. It is quite pastel in my warmer climate and probably much more pink in cooler climates and opens quite well in all climates. Savannah on the other hand has a lot of petals and eventually opens into a really large flat cup. It is a surprisingly long lasting cut given all the petals (more than 6 days in my vase here). The flower is much larger than Blush when fully open and it holds a strong pink color. When it is opening the center is a pretty salmon pink. I don't see problems with it opening in damp weather but it can get a vegetative green center when night temperatures are really cold - but that is now the rage in the cut flower business. Summer Romance is a strong shade of pink and a Floribunda. Free blooming, very productive and I have seen no problems with the flower opening in any weather condition. It probably is my favorite rose scent - really complex with some citrus undertones. I am almost addicted to smelling this rose! Sorry to hear about your Christiana Herzogin. Do know we will introduce nearly all of the Kordes here in N. America usually about one year after they are introduced in Europe so you don't have to risk a rose shipping from Europe. We will be introducing C. Herzogin under the name Earth Angel - the peony shaped flower will be a big hit with those that like peonies and the fragrance is quite nice. Pink Veranda we have renamed Pink Martini taking it out of the Veranda series as it was just too enthusiastic a grower for this series. For me it is about 3.5' x 3.5'. It puts out an amazing amount of bright pink blooms. Disease resistance is quite good. No fragrance of note,, but it makes quite a statement in the garden with all those blooms. It is called Moin Moin in Germany. Summersrhythm I am located in Oregon - actually a hot and dry part of the State. The roses have been at Lowe's stores in the east but not in the western States yet. Distribution depends on nursery growers selling to Lowe's so what you see at a Lowe's store will vary from region to region. Quite a few of the mail order companies do have the Parfuma roses and Savannah.

It grows well in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, or did for years (we haven't been there in a while since we let our membership lapse). The rose sold as "Bermuda Kathleen" was also featured prominently at the BBG; it is apparently a Mutabilis seedling and may be more restrained in its habit. It has the changing colors but more on the pink spectrum than the yellow,. There was also a "Yellow Mutabilis" sold by Vintage which looked exquisite -- at least in their picture. That one had me drooling, as I am a pushover for pale yellow. I have the real Kathleen, BTW -- definitely a climber -- couldn't be happier with it. It is a hybrid musk and not a china like Mutabilis.