Hi Predicted to drop into the low 40's here tonight and like you I'm never prepared because the usual fight is heat lol Last major cold spell was 09 actually dropped to hard freeze for 4 hours set record lows for daytime highs Funny, the first year I arrived here 78 it snowed!!! all the way into Miami lol AS I remember that was a 60/70 year record and it has not happened since lol Went to visit my daughter in Kansas and I chose May to avoid the cold . Was snowing when we arrived . broke a 80/100 year record. Think I could single handedly stop global warming lol. Anyway good luck everybody!! gary

Polar Express has a pale lemon tint to the bud & the center of the opening flower here before it disappears into a uniform cream. The blooms easily lasted two weeks before dropping their many petals cleanly, even in high heat & humidity. Two new last year as gallon own roots from Chamblee's grew on into 5 gallons to plant out this Spring. Very nice medium perfume to the blooms & a lovely old-world look with canes that arch gently as they gain height. No troubles no spray & considerably shade tolerant with 2-3 hours of full sun in some of the spots I trialed them. Really wanted to bloom - kept pinching most buds & shoots for shaping, but got ahead of me several times. http://newflora.com/product/polar-express-rose/ Honeymoon showed a pale apricot blush in the hearts of the creamy blooms which gives them depth & is known as Vanilla in Europe. Palatine calls this an upright climber, and it may be when grafted or more mature, but the own roots that arrived last year have flexible & gracefully arching canes unsupported. Great health so far, grew well in pots from 18" to 5' & green to the tips this season in my warmer zone. Hope as yours matures it will become cane hardy for you, Patty. https://palatineroses.com/rose/honeymoon Prettypetals, count me intrigued by Cream Abundance as well. Tell all!

How lovely to do this for your aunt! You're wise to be strategic about how much work the rose would be and how much bloom there is for the effort. Tomatoes produce a very tangible and profuse benefit for the efforts involved, but sometimes there is a slow return on a rose. Of the three you mention being locally available, by far JFK is the hardiest for me. Neither Honor nor Full Sail has even pretended to overwinter for me in zone 5, thought Seil has had luck with them in zone 6. Sometimes roses that are at their limit of hardiness for your zones may be the ones that fade after a few years. I also don't find that PJPII is a strongly growing rose in any form (grafted or own root). Bolero and Paloma Blanca and Polar Express are all much more reliable bloomers as well as hardy roses for me, and I like the idea of Polar Express. Another rose that you might be able to find at a local store is Snowdrift, which is an Easy Elegance rose. This one is hardy in my zone 4 pocket of the yard and has now in its second year BURST into incredible bloom. I've seen very nice rebloom in other years so I think it would make a steady source of flowers for her, but it's not the best of cutting roses. However, the blooms are fully double and they start out looking cupped as the Austins do. It's also rock solid clean as far as blackspot goes, which is a huge issue for you in NJ. Mine is about 4' tall and wide, which may not fit in her space. Polar Express takes up less real estate and would be as resistant to disease I think for you. Roses Unlimited sells most if not all of these and their gallon-sized roses often come with blooms already on them, but they do take some settling in as opposed to big nursery pots of roses. Do let us know what you decide! Cynthia

Subk3, That's the recommendation Chris gave, the Kordes representative who operated New Flora, the now disbanded Kordes marketing arm, here in the USA. Truthfully, some Kordes rose varieties are not more than just so-so bloomers regarding frequency for some of us Roses Forum gardeners. I think generally, Kordes roses show greater flower output in zones 7 and warmer. I shovelpruned: Summer Romance, Madame Anisette, Zaide, Lion's Fairy Tale, and Cream Veranda because of poor repeat blooming, and am contemplating doing the same to my Earth Angel, which also has been reluctant to repeat bloom, producing 4'+ octopus canes instead. This coming season, 2019, is it's 4th. year in my garden, maybe EA's last, if it doesn't turn around. On the other hand my Kordes rose, Beverly, is a blooming machine, but is not ADR (gets black spot), nor does it survive winter very well, even heavily protected. It therefore dies back to the ground, starting from SQUARE ONE every spring, which makes it hard for B to put on any size, not having gained anything near mature size yet, even after 4 years in my garden. Moses