Its not red like Chrysler Imperial, Firefighter, Ingrid Bergman, Olympiad. Its more of a deep rich very dark pink/magenta with red undertones. When it is in full bloom in the spring.....its a showstopper, trust me! I have one thats really big and one that is young. Its a good grower, not a wimp. Thorny thing, so be warned. I really dont know why its not more touted. Give it room and a couple of years and it will be a star. Right now, in this Texas heat, I am not getting many blooms, just struggling to keep things watered but I plan to cut my big one back quite a bit in the fall and sock the fertilizer to it. A good rose that would look wonderful next to it and has a similar big growth habit is Quicksilver - that lovely lavender color would be a show off next to Tess. I have 2 of them - may have to get another and put next to Tess!

http://www.towerhillbg.org/admissionandhours/ $15 for adults $10 for seniors. I believe they also offer free admission to members of the NE Rose Society and the American Rose Society. Last year I won best of show with a spray of six Mohana HT blooms. I saw the NE Rose Society selling potted roses.

Absolutely. One nice thing about starting roses in pots is you can move them around to see what position they appear to enjoy best. I have a friend who grew a potted Sweet Chariot at her condo in San Diego. In her front garden area, it mildewed terribly. She moved it around to the back patio, which seemed very similar to her. but Sweet Chariot stopped mildewing.

Vaporvarc, E.B. LeGrice is quite a big climber. It can easily get 14' across on a 4' fence with no difficulty. The flower production is abundant and continual. Few climbers match it in this regard. The individual blooms are about 2.5-3" across, filling the canes on short, 3-4" laterals in 3-4 bloomed clusters, and have no fragrance to speak of that I can remember. They do not nod. Stamens show when fully open. In the public garden where I observed its progress for about 5 years, it drew you in. No,other climber there did that. I haven't seen it 10 years, but it made such an impression on me, I can still see it in my mind's eye. It was sprayed there very regularly, but it seemed to be so vigorous, I wonder how much it really needed spraying. An old Franciscan monk recommended that the in charge folks at the garden plant it, and they very wisely did. In the same garden, Fourth of July (unimpressive), Darlow's Enigma (ditto), Jeanne LaJoie (great in spring, thereafter a dud), New Dawn (same as JLJ), Aloha, and all the other climbers could not compare to E.B. LeGrice. Above all it exuded vigor, willingness to bloom, and poise. Now, Climbing Pink Don Juan is a winner in EBLG's league, but is nowhere as large a climber. CPDJ's blooms are 4-4.25", pretty petal packed, very fragrant, 2-3 blooms together or singles, and held on about 8" laterals. They both bloom more continually than any other climber I know of, even my Lady Ashe, no slouch as a repeater by a long shot, but Lady Ashe is a true climbing hybrid tea, making single summer blooms on up to 30" laterals, straight upward. In spring the first-round is 3-4 blooms on 14" laterals, then mostly long stemmed singles until late fall. Moses