Just gorgeous, Jackie!

Thank you - every time I go outside right now there are new surprises - my old, frequently wild garden hides gems which have been there for years, like this ancient Eugene de Beauharnais bush, blooming along with the Japanese quince, and I think I also see a bloom of Odorata in there:

Also, here is today's version of my rhododendron and helebore (which I don't remember planting), color coordinated, but not by me:

Well, you certainly spoke truly there, Jackie, and you have achieved a nice jungly-ness that allows lots of room for pleasant surprises. I too have a high appreciation for my brilliant collaborator Mother Nature, and am happy to have had my garden for twenty years, because a lot happens in that period, and a surprising amount of it leaves traces.

I was tired today (again), but putzed around on the paved terrace, and, feeling better later on, went on to try to get a portion of 'Mme. Alfred Carrière' back up on her pergola. We untied it last year and let it fall where it might while we re-built the pergola, but the thought of wrestling with all that mighty rose was intimidating and I never did it.. However, today I tugged and cut and guided and tied, and got a part of it up. Only a portion will be put back up; the remainder will fall over and mingle with the pittosporum and yellow buddleia and make pleasant surprises for the passersby. It's setting buds now but has hardly started blooming.

A curiosity: I have never in my life seen better flowers on 'Mrs. B.R. Cant' than the ones she is opening now. Large, well-colored, fragrant: fine, but they're opening fully, while the lady's blooms generally have a tendency to remain cupped, and these are coming in March. Go figure.

Melissa - if you can, I am sure everyone would love it if you post pics of your MAC when it blooms.

Decades ago we had a 100 mph wind storm knock 2 three story high by 20 ft wide roses (banksia lutea and Cl Cecile Brunner) off of our house - they fell into the driveway, and made a long mound which was about 8-9 feet tall and covered 45 feet of our driveway. We spent the next 2-3 days pruning, and getting up on ladders to put both roses back onto the house (we had to be fast, as we had 3 vehicles stranded as our garage is in the back of our property). To my astonishment, none of the truly large & long main canes had broken - they just bent over. This was mid-winter, and by the following Spring both roses were growing and blooming better than they had before - they were both back up to 3 stories tall within about 2 years. So, I am sure your MAC will respond well also, and the situation reminds me of the old English saying: "growth follows the knife".

So interested to hear about your Mrs. B.R. Cant - it always amazes me how dfferent roses act differenttly depending, in many cases, on the weather - maybe she likes drought followed by a lot of rain!

Jackie

Jackie, I may try to photograph MAC if I can get her up on the pergola, but my experience taking pictures of climbers, where it's necessary to stand back to get a good portion of the plant, has not been too fortunate: closeups are far easier. Anyway, she's a great rose. I'll be glad to get the rest of the pergola covered. 'Mrs. B.R. Cant' has occupied a surprising amount of it, while 'Duchesse d'Auerstaedt' is mostly heading up the flowering ash. I want the rest covered, shady, full of pale fragrant blooms, and incidentally I want to get the terrace neat and an appropriate setting for such beautiful flowers: it's been a mess all winter.

P.S. I know about those storms. Had a thirty foot 'Treasure Trove', and the mature black locust it was climbing on, come down in high wind; and the remarkable ice storm of 2017 felled a good portion of 'Archduke Joseph' and its supporting persimmon. What a mess. But, as you say, they both came back fine.

P.S. Some roses need pruning, as even I agree, but I'm not sure MAC cares. I cut out the dead growth and some that was senescent, for looks and to make handling easier, but my impression is that she'd bloom amazingly without any pruning at all.

Mine, which reached the top of a tall tree within 2 years of being planted, has bloomed fine since, with no pruning at all, except when some overly energetic canes did fall down in storms.

Jackie