We must have been writing at the same time, Ingrid. Actually it must not be quite as hot a spot as I’ve made it sound. There is no hardscaping to reflect heat, and I have a few other happy roses there already. ‘Queen of Sweden’ just can’t handle it. The blooms are small and blow within a day during the summer. I had hoped that QoS would be wonderful during this time of year, but I’m not impressed. There are very few blooms, and they’re still small and blah. They do hold together for a couple of days on the bush now, but I’m not crazy about the bush either. The leaves have an almost gray cast to the green, if that makes sense. I don’t give up on a rose easily, but my QoS is about to be dethroned. ‘October Moon’, another Paul Barden rose, is next to QoS, and doesn’t mind the shade until 10 or 11 and then full hot sun. I even have the HT ‘Princess Charlene de Monaco’ on the other side of ‘October Moon’. Her blooms do fade in the summertime, but otherwise she definitely does just fine, thriving. All I have to do is provide enough water. My soil is rich clay, and it retains the water very well. Even though Ingrid’s home is only about 10 miles from mine, my “scorching hot” isn’t quite the Hades that hers is in summer. It’s my lower altitude and closer proximity to the ocean, I think. About the only thing I liked about QoS was her tall and narrow form. I don’t expect that from Siren’s Keep, but I really do need to be sure it won’t get wide and sprawling before planting it there. Otherwise, here I come ‘La France’! Lisa

Well, I might as well add some pictures from the past week or two to this post. Every time I get ready to go outside, it decides to start drizzling more heavily. It’s that on again off again type light rain. I’m amazed at the difference in colors some of the roses are showing now, compared to the summer pictures I posted above. Here’s a few for comparison. Mel’s Heritage November 2,2019. Mel’s Heritage color now that we’ve had cooler temps. Excuse the spent blooms. They’re very difficult to reach. They’re such a dark pink compared to the rest of the year. 1/19/20 Cornelia shows many shades in this older picture from 5/24/18. (I have NO idea how I managed to get this picture labeled and dated. I wish I remembered how I did it.) Cornelia 10/26/19 Cornelia 11/23/19; Cornelia’s blooms are getting a little deeper pink in the picture below. Cornelia 2/1/20; Cornelia’s blooms are now about as deep a pink as I ever see them. Lisa

Helen, my thanks to you for hosting this website. Too many wonderful rose sites from the early days of the web when I was first exploring have disappeared. A few were captured by the Wayback Machine, but too few. I'm glad the one is being saved. (it's actually one fo the many reasons I prefer books. Information is distributed better online, but preserved better in print.)

Sheila — I would love to grow Spanish Beauty/Mme Gregoire Staechlin but not sure how it would do here in Brooklyn/7b. My mother had a number of her climbing along the fence/trellis in the back of the one of her borders. W/Perle d’Azur clematis climbing SP and blooming after she finished. All in part shade. Wish I had a photo to share — it was stunning. As were the hips later. She was in south central PA, zone 6b/7a - think w/fairly acid clay, if that helps. About how big Sombeuil gets — the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s (7b) is 10? 12? feet, I think. That’s still quite a bit south of 5b - but gives some comparison with it’s size in 9/10 CA. I wish I had enough sun to grow Mel’s Heritage. But unless something strikes down the invasive Norway Maples in our neighbor’s yards….not sure if even then. No idea what would be a good sub — including get that big. Oursteelers did your Baltimore Belle arrive? What color is the foliage of yours - light/mid/dark green?