Hi everyone! I wanted to tell all of you THANK YOU for reading my post and letting me know that you enjoyed it. My passion and appreciation of roses is enhanced by sharing it with others. It always brings me great pleasure to hear all of your thoughts as well. I always love your feedback and even though it would take too long to respond individually to each of you, I read each & every one and enjoyed your input. I am going to post more of the other roses I love & miss, since I felt bad leaving some of the others out...and Eric kind of encouraged me...lol. I hope you all enjoy that post as well. To answer a few questions posed to me: jumbojimmy....Reports of Charles de Mills fragrance vary. I have read that it has no fragrance, mild fragrance, and lots of fragrance....I have no fewer than 50 rose books and none of them can agree on whether Charles is fragrant or not! When I visited the Montreal Botanical Garden I could not detect fragrance on their Charles de Mills. However, my Charles is VERY fragrant. I guess all noses pick up scents differently and maybe it even varies according to soil, temps., etc... I guess you will have to find out for yourself if he is or isn't! organicgardendreams....I can't vouch for whether Yolande would do well in CA....hopefully the many posters from there will help you out w/ your question. She certainly doesn't need the cold to bloom, like the Albas & Gallicas so I would think she would do splendid in warmer climates unless certain diseases might be an issue. Jean....Felicite will get fairly big, but not usually as huge as her Alba sisters. Albas do need space; they are not small bushes. But you can prune her a little to keep her in bounds. Somewhere in the 4-5 foot tall range. Some Albas can top 7 feet and my Belle Amours have shot up to over 8 feet! Here in zone 4 there really aren't any roses that are as impressive in size as the Albas. Next to our puny hybrid teas that die back every year, the Albas look like Jolly Green Giants! Thats another reason why I love them. She really IS worth it to have in your garden even if she is your only once-bloomer. She will be done blooming by the time the Japanese Beetles start up and she stays quite healthy the rest of the summer so you won't have to fuss with her. And that fragrance will win you over. She is such a beautiful, feminine rose that I couldn't imagine not enjoying the pleasure of her, even if only once a year. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter.... only come once a year, but we still look forward to them, right? Thanks again, rose friends! Celeste Charles de Mills, my blooming machine....

Olga, the size of your rose bushes amazes me. I can't even imagine my scrawny little belle de crecy or belle sf ever getting that big. I think that for whatever reason, some roses on their own roots stay a lot smaller than grafted ones. For example, my own root Abe Darby is five years old and has never gotten more than 3 feet tall x 3 feet wide. It always bloomed amazingly and was given great sun, good food...but no matter what, it always stayed small. I've noticed this iwth some other ownroot roses. When I've gotten grafted ones, they took off immediately and gotten huge. I don't know...just my observations. I remember that Mad Gallica, who lives near me, had said the same thing years ago and I have come to believe that it's true. I try to get most of my roses from Pickering now, though I just recently ordered some own root ones. Hope I don't regret it. Thanks as always for your help, Shelley

That is so odd about DdB, no I don't have any Eucalypts anywhere nearby. I noticed the downward-pointing floppy wilted (yes, also slightly rolled) leaves when it was still in the pot I bought it in and even returned it to the nursery to ask advice. I was sure it must be verticillium wilt or similar. They said it was normal for DdB. I 100% know it had enough water as it was in a pot getting watered everyday! I even watered twice daily to see if I could change the new wilted growth but nothing happened and it wasn't even hot. I had significant misgivings about planting it in the ground, I guess I'll just keep an eye on it!

Thank you, Jackie. I'll definitely keep this rose even if it doesn't turn out to be Charles de Mills. I also hope that the color is due to its age. I bought it for the dark purple/dark red color in memory of my Mom because it was her favorite rose color. That's why I'd like to know if it's CdM and order it soon again in case it isn't. The main difference that I see is in the presence of many thorns all along the canes. It's practically impossible to touch any cane without gloves but the descriptions say that it should be almost thornless. I also looked at some photos showing smooth canes, more or less, which definitely is not the case with my rose. Hope these additional photos, showing closeups of thorns & prickles, will shed more light. The main cane has even larger thorns but I am not good at taking photos. These look very different from much smoother canes on Charles de Mills as, for example, shown here at Sissinghurst: http://vanessainnes-wagstaff.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/DSC_0485.jpg