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!

Maybe not all that unusual, but many Brits were sending in lists of roses that survived the big chill. Perhaps- like here- freezing temps generally tend to be short-lived, but temps in the 20's* for 4 nights straight definitely took their toll on Mr. Laxton's roses; the list of uninjured roses is much shorter than the other two lists of the somewhat affected and the not-much-hope roses. So many of those varieties are still around 150 years later, I guess they really were hardier than many others. Did you have a look at 'Jean Cherpin', btw? I especially like the looks of that one... Virginia *I admit that I'm not too savvy about the "degrees of frost" concept... perhaps it wasn't 4 nights of temps in the 20's, but 4 nights with temps under 10F? Brrrrrrrr!

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.