I'm just sitting here looking at all the roses that I truthfully have been wanting some for a while, some just lately, but I had no idea, maybe just didn't pay attention, or something, that they were Paul Barden Roses! Dolly's forever rose, Pams Choice. I've just started looking into the tree climbers and was looking at Treasure Trail! I love those Gallica's too! I was disappointed in some of there blooms, a couple, I got none, a couple, I got a couple, and the hybrids bloomed really well. We had a mild winter...hopefully this winter will be back to normal. Atleast that's the only thing I could think of..the mild winter!

Sorry for the late reply to your query Joe. I haven't been on the forum much over winter, busy with other things. I did go up to the Summerland Ornamental Gardens yesterday to do a quick check on the roses. We had a very difficult winter with a warm November and December, and in early January a sudden flash freeze with temperatures as low as -27 C for a week or so. It is still late winter here and the soil is yet frozen to a degree. Summerland is rated as zone 6b, but we had 5a temeratures with strong arctic catabatic winds and wind chill during the cold snap. So, on to the roses. Most of them will be going into their 3rd growing season this summer, and so are still immature plants. I am happy to report that all of them survived. Many have quite a bit of cane damage, but they all have live cane close to the ground and some have swelling buds already. The collection at the Gardens consists of the following: Marianne, Gallicandy, Oshun, Jerry Jennings and Treasure Trail. We also have Allegra, Janet Inada, Mel's Heritage and Won Fang Yon in the greenhouse at Fraser Valley Rose Farm in Deroche. I will continue to look for viable opportunities to acquire more varieties if feasible, but won't be actively seeking them out. We imported six cuttings of each, along with many more early Austin varieties and a few other hard to find varieties last spring. Jason stuck the cuttings and has been growing them on over winter. I have not spoken with Jason for a month or so, but he is doing an inventory and I will know in a few weeks what took. As well as putting Paul's Plants into the collection at Summerland, Jason will be growing Barden varieties as well and will no doubt have some for sale in Canada in a few years. We too will propagate from the plants in the Summerland collection when the mother plants are mature enough. We will sell our resulting plants at our spring plant sale and our annual Rose Tour held in June. The proceeds will go to help support the Ornamental Gardens. So by my count, we have nine of Paul's varieties in the two Canadian collections. They should be secure for a long time in our Public Garden, which is now 110 years old. We of course were unable to get all of the varieties that we might have liked, but we did pretty well in my books. Because the whole idea of the project was to secure and currate some of Paul's varieties in a safe place, I guess we have a success. An additional intent was to allow us to propagate and share these lovely plants with others. Jason will be able to do that better than we can at the Gardens in the next few years and may in fact eventually begin shipping to the US as his new nursery grows. But again, that will be a few years down the road. Even propagating plants for sale here in Canada is still a year or two away. But then this project started in 2019 and we are now entering year six, but we are on the road to reaching our long term goals. I know many on the forums are familiar with Jason through his You Tube Videos and website. he is young, energetic and a cutting edge nurseryman and Rosarian who shares my passion for preserving rare, garden worthy varieties. For those of you in Canada, check out his website and support him if you can.

Aaron, congratulations on your DH! I am waitlisted. Ann, I’m not too far from you, in Portland, and just got a young Jeri Jennings from a local rose friend who received a spare with his order. JJ looks like she is going to be a wonderful Hybrid Musk for my arch. Her clusters of blooms are buttery golden-yellow with peach edges and what I’d call a sweet licorice fragrance. GORGEOUS! Joyce B looks like a fantastic rose, too. If only I could grow them all! I’d love to see pics if you get JB. Carol Jeri Jennings

I have had quite a few correctly named roses from RVRs too, Frances. I'm hoping your Etienne is correct. Umbra does appear to be sold out and the rose they sent us was located right before the rose we wanted. My rose had an Umbra label with an OK written in magic marker on it. I never had seen that before. When I first moved here, I went over there to pick up a Marianne and bought another 25 or so roses I wanted by wandering through the bands sorted alphabetically on platforms/tables. I really think the lovely owner's age is a factor here. She has Scott now trying to get things organized. They really don't allow wandering through like I did that first time. An employee is sent back to find the rose for us and possibly they are not all fanatics like we are. I seem to have gotten great mislabels for the most part. They also get shipments in from a grower or growers I've seen on the grounds too, that have nametags in the little pots. They were offloaded close to the entry. I guess it has been too much to handle at times.