Glad to hear other gardeners who have 'Awakening', just because I like it ('New Dawn', too). FruitCat, it may comfort you to know that 'Jaune Desprez', while beautiful, is pretty thorny as well: one of the roses in my garden more notable for this characteristic. The rose is so lush and soft-looking, I let down my guard and get speared. Mrs. Gartin, I appreciate your perplexities but can't offer any help, as I don't know anything about roses in cooler zones. One thought about the rebloom, however: have you considered planting for sequence of bloom, roses, yes, but many other plants? Or looked into once-blooming roses that have different flowering periods? I can and do grow many repeat-flowering roses, but also many once-bloomers, because I think they're beautiful. If you got early-, mid-, and late-flowering kinds, you might have quite a long rose season. Add many other flowering plants, and you can have something in bloom most of the year, at least, most of it that you'd want to be out in the garden.

That is an amazing rose and structure! It must be like a totally secret aerie now!

Well, perhaps more of an accident than larceny, but there was the Whit Wells' seedling , Memphis Music, which was actually Abracadabra, along with several others associated with it, as explained by this reference from Help Me Find. "I believe this rose (Abracadabra) and Memphis Music are actually the same rose that has somehow been given two names, and which has now been claimed by two breeders. I grow them side by side and they are identical in growth habit, bloom cycle and bloom size. And they even have the same sports (Top Contender is Frisco, Memphis Magic is Black Beauty). Abracadabra should have been classed as a mini-flora to begin with . It is not big enough to be a hybrid tea, even under perfect growing conditions. If anyone growing this plant has seen an Abracadabra bloom bigger than about 2 and a half inches across under garden (not greenhouse) conditions, let us know. Or better yet, photograph it and put it here with something that shows how big it is in the photo."

I have a small garden so only wanted to grow repeat bloomers. I bought climbing Cecile Brunner and Zephirine Drouhin this spring because the descriptions say they are repeat bloomers, but many here said they are actually once bloomers with maybe one flower here or there for Zephirin. I am thinking either to get rid of them altogether, or keep them in shade spots where other roses won’t grow well anyway. I have a 3 story tall north facing wall with a couple of hours of sun in the morning. If they can climb up the wall it will still be better than ivies. Or are there other climbers or ramblers better suited for this purpose? —Stacy