It was very interesting to learn of the pruning suggestions for RdR! I had completely forgotten that this spring I had given it a very hard pruning. This spring, the bush was about 3' tall with a lot of short canes coming up vertically through the middle of the plant. Further, it was extremely twiggy with a lot of little branches very tightly intertwined. I knew it was time for a major pruning and did just that, reducing the vertical canes to 3 or 4 and getting rid of the twiggy growth completely. Right now the bush looks great, including the foliage which is remarkably clean and the shape which is rounded and full at about 3'. I still think that the rain has contributed to the constant bloom this summer.

ahhhhhhhhh.. Ladies you rock.. thank you all so much, funny how after reading your replies I looked both up you suggested. My roses look like both. Yet, the one I have is already 8 feet tall. So it must then be the Queen Elizabeth. Now with 15 more buds and blooms, today is 75 degrees and I bed those buds pop open.. whoot whoot Connie- took your advise to0 btw from the other post I put up about what roses should I get for my arbor. Ordered 2 parades to my groups. Thank you This spring- will be quite the digging adventure for mui!!! xoxoox

First full year in my new house and the yard has been getting beaten up the last few weeks by weeds and they slowly keep spreading. Probably taking up 25-30% of the lawn right now. Any thing I can do to help remedy this problem? I am going to have to reseed or can I slowly reverse this mess? I appreciate your time in helping me out.

That’s good news, Paul! I hope the plant flourishes for Convivial Rose and soon gets big and they can start making babies off of it. And hopefully the babies will sell at a bit more of a normal price for roses, so the rest of us can afford to grow Ivy Mike as well. ;) I was telling my husband about this auction and when he heard what it sold for, he was so impressed that he asked to see the pictures of it. Normally he smiles indulgently when I fuss over a gorgeous rose but has few , if any, comments and doesn’t really look at the pictures, though he appreciates my gardening passion. This time he actually looked closely for himself and remarked that it really is a beautiful and unique rose, quite different than the average rose. Kudos to your rose breeding skills, Paul!