Thank you! I have about a third of an acre and grow many roses. Most are planted with lavendars, sages, and other plants. I avoid orange roses, but have mostly all shades of pinks, light apricots, buffs, and a few reds. I have some Tea roses, H.P. and one Bourbon. Right now Grandmother's Hat is brilliant, and Souvenir..Victor Hugo and General Tartas are huge and in bloom. The rest are Hybrid Teas and David Austin shrub roses. My Meilland, Kordes, Buck and Delbard usually do well. I have several unhappy plants that I will replace. Earlier I had a HUGE problem with rust, and now a few roses have black spot. I try to keep organic/chemical free, so I want roses that are as disease free as possible. I also look for fragrance. Doing well as a cut flower is also important as I share my roses with friends and neighbors. All suggestions are most appreciated.

Thank you everyone for responding! I have pulled up everything I can find on this rose and read everything on here that I could find. I was thinking the 3 year wait on getting a decent flush would be worth it considering it's nice healthy dark leaves. I have not played with roses in over 20 years out here so am having fun doing some catch up on what is going on and all the new varieties. I am an avid gardener and pretty much grow 90% of what I eat now. I also do lawn and ornamental work so deal with all the diseases and soil problems on a weekly basis. Yes Purilisa, the nematode pressure is high in many area's here. I am going with all Fortuniana rootstock except for this one because it seems that it probably does not do as well grafted from all I have read. I just received 4 roses yesterday from KandM and do like his quality. I asked him about MA on the phone and he said he could not get it to bloom so does not carry it for resale. I do not know if he trialed it on it's own roots along with a grafted version to compare and if he gave it enough time to show it's worth. I also wanted Amazing Grace and that one will be another challenge from all I have read.

Comments: I've read up on Velveleaf and decided it's best to pull the plant so it won't spread. On a positive note, here's info I found interesting: "The seeds of Velvetleaf are reportedly edible. In an outdoor emergency, the soft leaves can be used as a substitute for toilet paper."

Southern California is not the easiest place to grow bigleaf hydrangeas. But it can be done. My sister lived in Laguna Beach for years and she had great hydrangeas but they were in pretty much all day dappled shade. Plenty of shade and plenty of water will prevent the browning of any flowers prematurely. One of the issues you will have to contend with is the lack of a proper period of dormancy. These are not evergreen shrubs and they need a down time to recharge themselves and the very mild or even warm winter temps you experience interfere with that. Lack of sufficient dormancy will affect flowering and eventually the health of the plant overall. You can induce a "forced" dormancy of sorts by removing any remaining foliage in late fall and not allowing the shrub to flower until after the spring equinox.