How refreshing to hear you all accepting "other" roses into your old rose gardens! Harry I love your exuberant garden! (I NEED that Mandarin honeysuckle, tell me where you found it!) peplill, that Kordes 'Grandmaster' is incredible. I've never heard of it but it reminds me of something, I can't remember what just now. Olga, I've admitted to having a Knockout and a Blushing Knockout and, yes, they have their place and function. As a sidenote, I've wanted to SP KO for two years now and my DH has persuaded me to think otherwise. His logic is how can you want to dig out the most disease resistant, insect resistant, floriferous, most densly foliated, and hardiest rose in our garden? That's when I give it another chance until I can figure out another rose that has the same qualifications I can replace it with (when he's on a business trip!) Blushing KO is a more pleasing pink with bluish green foliage, better to blend with other roses so it stays. I also have Carefree Sunshine (thank you Jean!) which is new to me last year but is turning out to be sensational. It is a soft butter yellow and just as disease resistant as the KOs. Of course, most of the hybrid musks qualify, lots of shrubs, oh, Sally Holmes definitely, and rugosa hybrids, there are just too many to mention. I haven't had much luck with the floribundas I've tried, something about the wavy petal form that doesn't match, or color, or stiffness, I don't know what it is. Think about bloom form, color, and fragrance and try to match them to the antiques you love. It's fun! My new love - Autumn Sunset with goldflame honeysuckle

Luxrosa -- 'Georg Arends' did get hit with blackspot here in NJ -- as did almost all the others, with a few interesting exceptions, notably 'Golden Buddha' bred by Paul Barden, which has remained PERFECT save for the occasional mildew on a leaf or two (and this says A LOT about a rose in the mid-Atlantic), and the only spray I used was neem oil, baking soda and dish soap in water as a modified Cornell mixture a few times up until late June. 'Georg Arends' shed damaged leaves rather quickly, and did get to an "almost naked" stage once, but leafed out again rather quickly. Keep in mind that this is a rose that came only this Spring as a band from Vintage. I let it have only a few blooms, and yes, they were VERY VERY fragrant -- strong, sweet "old rose" that is said to be "pure Centifolia" but being as I've never smelled a Centifolia, I can't comment on the comparison. They were a monochrome, unshaded pure pink, shaped like a typical fat Hybrid Perpetual cabbage but with the folded-back pointed-petal look of a Hybrid Tea. Considering its ancestry (it's about 3/8 Tea and 5/8 Hybrid Perpetual), that makes sense. Oh, and the plant is completely thornless -- I still haven't found the first thorn. It's growing as though it will be a short climber, or at least something that would do best with a little support -- like against an open picket fence -- so I have it where I can attach it to the lower part of the deck railing as it gains a little more height. I think much of the vase-life is a result of it taking a couple days to fully open, due to how many petals it has. Once opened, it holds up another couple of days. I cut one in the "loose-but-closed" bud-stage, sepals fully back, and gave it to my neighbors who share the yard with me. They kept it in a vase inside right by the window where I could see it while working in the yard, and I watched it unfurling over a couple days. By about the fifth day, it started looking as though it was finally past its peak. And I can't imagine they did anything more than stick it in a vase with plain tap water. If you can't find a plant by Spring, let me know and I'll try rooting another piece of mine. I was hoping to interest Linda Loe of Long Ago Roses in growing a few rooted cuttings of some things I picked up from Vintage which don't seem to be available elsewhere, so at least they don't disappear from commerce. 'Georg Arends' was one of them, so I was going to root a few anyway. HelpMeFind has Pickering as one of the other nurseries carrying it, but it's not on their current HP inventory on their website (perhaps they used to carry it?). Hortico may be the only other way of getting it in the US, though once again, I don't see it among their current HP inventory. :-) ~Christopher When it arrived and was repotted, April 25, 2013: First flower I allowed to open, May 22, 2013: A pic showing 'Georg Arends' on the left ('Nouveau Monde' on its right), taken September 2, 2013. At this time, it's recovering from going naked. This post was edited by AquaEyes on Sun, Sep 29, 13 at 2:09

I'm a millennial and I blame those cheap orchids you can find about everywhere haha. Most young people today do not have the stability of their own home and backyard to plant roses, many jump from job to job that is just the reality of today. With orchids they can bring them anywhere with them as long as they've got a single rented bedroom with a windowsill. Marketing ploys like "Just add Ice" Orchids really add to their attraction also. Most millennial gardeners I know are really into orchids and they view roses as old school, finicky, and unsightly when not in bloom. Some people I've tried to give cuttings to told me that the thing about roses is that they look awful most of the year and their thorns are ugly. Personally I think orchids are much more difficult getting them to rebloom and such, I kill them all the time somehow. I admit, rose bushes do look unsightly sometimes, but there's nothing like seeing them change with the seasons. The recent drought restrictions in CA also factors in. I've seen many yards just in my neighborhood here remove their roses for rocks and cactus because it seems like all you hear is people shaming others for "wasting" water. Neighbors are encouraged to report each other if they see people not abiding by the restrictions. It sucks when you have a tiny yard to begin with and are being told to water on certain days and during certain hours only because I can't always be home during those times. Landscapers are always knocking on my door offering their "drought tolerant" landscaping services now and meaning people are using their services. I find roses are pretty drought tolerant once they get established so I'm not going to worry about it. Here's the water restrictions for my city. Watering - Exterior Irrigation No watering - between 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. or within 48 hours of measurable rainfall Even numbered addresses - Tuesday and Fridays only Odd numbered addresses - Mondays and Thursdays only Locations without addresses - Monday and Thursdays only Water leaks - must be corrected within 24 hours of discovery/notifications Wasteful running of water/washing with water - unlawful, without reasonable purpose

Ah @BenT (NorCal 9B Sunset 14), I have a 50 year old massive clump (tall as me) that I jump into to prune and such. In adding roses to the front, I'm going to divide it out in clumps and replant. It makes a nice 'privacy screen' or back of border. I'm betting the rose blooms will just pop in front of it too. That bird is the reason I went with a lot of orange/apricot, lite pink/mid pink, pale yellow/yellow and white. Zeph D. will be the darkest color. Those colors are in the Bird's bloom, even the yellow, and it's blooms are massive. I'm no designer, but that just seems like a good thing. (Picture is from Wilcox Nursery, Mine looks like this.) I've never transplanted a bird, but there are so many outer baby clumps, I figure I can just sheer off those to be my transplants and effectively 'move' the mama back about 2' by doing so. The mama is about 6' x 8' right now. Worth a shot I think.