I know we get a LOT more sun intensity here (SoCal), but in this climate, DE does quite well in dappled shade all day, all the way through full sun. The individual flowers last longer when protected from the hottest sun and, if mildew is a problem for you, the greater the warmth and direct sun, the fewer those problems will be. Generally, eastern sun (morning) is "cooler" and better for growth while western (afternoon) sun is hotter, baking the plants more and yielding greater water stress in comparison. Does that help? Kim

Sorry, I was rushing when I posted and forgot to mention that the climate in which mine dies back is zone 4 Minnesota. There's no doubt in my mind that at least in zone 5b and south, it probably doesn't suffer any dieback at all. Now as for the scent, I've smelled plenty of synstylae roses (both species and their hybrids) and this smells quite like multiflora usually does to me - musty, not musky as most others do. Different noses for different roses, though, remember? Don't expect to know what you'll think before you experience it for yourself. Meanwhile, if you have a less than ideal spot for a rose, this one is a good overall landscape plant, I think. It gives a lot without asking a lot.

Gorgeous picture of John Cabot, flowersaremusic! Mine hasn't decided if it will survive or not but given your photos I am going to whisper sweet nothings in its ears all winter and hope for good things come spring. Sorry I missed the earlier questions about Wilhelm, Vaporvac. I got mine from Vintage so it's not an option now of course, but I know I've seen him elsewhere since (maybe High Country Roses or Hortico). I don't want to get rid of mine - far the contrary - but I'm afraid he's being crowded out by the more aggressive Heavenly Pink and he's down to a single cane. Until he recovers more fully I'm afraid to take cuttings of him at all. Ratdogheads, Francesca is one of those hybrid musks that has limped along for me in zone 5, but it's not in an ideal spot so don't overly judge it there. It's planted under some limbed up pine trees so the ground can get a bit dry. Heavenly Pink and Darlow's Enigma thrive there, but some hybrid musks like Francesca and Cornelia and Clytemnestra hung on with a few scattered flowers for a few years before two of the three fading (Cornelia is still hanging in there). I've planted some of the less hardy HMusks in my warm zone 6 area like Prosperity to get a better response. As for Danae, I had several copies of her as a mystery plant from RV and they all summarily died over the winter in various places, so I'd say she's not hardy in zone 5 at all. Ghislaine de Feligonde survives fine but is a once bloomer for me and not many blooms at that. Guirlande d'Amour blooms quite nicely if you like that look and it's pretty hardy. Buff Beauty survived a few years in a different spot before dying overwinter and I quite like the flowers. It died pretty quickly in this tough spot, so this year it gets the warm spot as a preferred rose. I think Francesca has a chance for you in a decent spot and perhaps give it a little extra mulch or something for winter protection. You get more reliable snow cover than we do, so that helps your roses even if the weather itself is colder. Cynthia

Pruning cuts off food making leaves, so that isn't something you want to be doing now. However . . . . Given what your goal is, I seriously doubt that Darlow's Enigma is the rose you want. It will naturally grow into a bushy shrub form, but that shrub is 12 ft tall. It isn't a climber in any usual sense of the term. Pruning makes it grow denser, but then you have an incredibly tangled mess of interlocked (by the thorns) canes, which are almost impossible to detangle when the canes die from abrasion. For many years, most of my pruning of this rose has been trying to thin it out.