I have to say my PAOK is a blooming machine! When I got her first year own root from DA, she grew to be about 10--12 feet and was eating people as they walked up my pathway to the front door. I pruned her back within an inch of her life, year two and had the same results. Lots of flowers even in the worst of our hot, hot summers. Year three, I moved her late to a spot in the back where she could spread. She sulked as the person who dug her up did not get a lot of the root system. I forgave her and babied her as I figured she was just getting used to her new spot and growing roots. I just pruned her again within an inch of her life and hope she will grow big and produce lots of blooms this year. I have only seen a coral color on her at the base of her flowers. She is a beautiful medium pink for me. Now Lady of Shalott, she had bright A$$ orange flowers her first year and I nearly shovel pruned her. It was awful and she produced approximately two flowers the entire year. Year three is much better after she was dug up and moved. I love my PAOK and consider her to be one of the best DA roses so far.

Well, Lilyfinch, APdL hasn't turned out to be a fabulous rose like Bishop's Castle, but I suspect that it is not a problem with the plant, but a problem with my climate or where it is planted. Keep in mind that roses tend to grow very slowly for me (for example Abraham Darby is still quite short for me but for many people, it can be a climber). My Alexandra, Princesse de Luxembourg is planted right next to Abe, and still has only 3 basals, and those are not well branched and only about 2 feet tall. She doesn't look much like the photo that Vaporvac posted above. She is also one of the roses that were planted at the edge of the drip zone of Vlad the Impaler (English Hawthorn), under which the roses that were planted failed to grow entirely ("the Zone of Death"). The flowers are quite large, about 4 inches across here, but I bet they would be quite a bit larger in a wetter climate like yours. To put it in perspective, the flowers are larger than Abraham Darby, and twice the size of Alnwick Castle. They are probably a little less than twice the size of Souvenir de la Malmaison that grows in the local rose garden. Her colors are a touch brighter than SdlM as well. The flower form is more structured and fuller than Sharifa Asma, and has more durable petals, many more than SdlM. Her flowers do have a worthwhile fragrance, but not as strong as Sharifa and none of the beer-like quality of SdlM. Flowers open rather flat, not cupped. She's not a "covered in flowers" type of plant, but she is not particularly stingy either. The flowering is more steady. For me, she's not overflowing with growth, but I suspect that in a lower elevation with more water and humidity (and without the overhanging Vlad) she would be a great plant. I'm going to try to pamper her a bit more this year and see if ishe takes off, now that I've removed Vlad. I think that for you, she would be worth a try if you like the flower form and color and want a rose with a more traditional fragrance than SdlM. Again, don't take my experience too seriously, because my conditions are particularly challenging, but I like her enough to keep trying to see if I can get her to grow better in my garden. From September 2018 after the huge hailstorm ripped up the leaves: click to embiggen Peter Kukielski describes it in his book as tall and arching or spreading 5-7 feet and vigorous and fragrant. I'm not saying this to try to convince you to get her, but just that my experience with her is probably not a good example. Also worth mentioning is that in his book, the photographs make her look like an HT, but in my garden, she is not very HT-like.

@librarian_gardner_8b_pnw Mine is the same with the bare legs. All the growth is at the top. I'm wondering if I didn't prune it back far enough this spring. I left it at 2ft. I may take it back to 12-15in next season. @Tangles Long I just saw the youtube video and it wow......it totally blew my mind! I've only seen pictures of this on DA's website (they've since removed it). Pictures/videos like this are the reason I planted a hedge of PAOK in the first place in 2018. My hedge is still very leggy, but it did bloom frequently this year. Until I saw that video, I started to think this kind of display isn't possible in reality. Boy, was I wrong! To top it off, @jo_pyeweed (z9 SF Bay Area)'s pictures are stunning too! I really REALLY want this type of display from PAOK, and really any rose in my garden. It's not enough to have pretty blooms any more. I want full and lush shrubs, even when they're not in bloom. I've been looking into how to make that happen, and I think it really boils down to hard pruning in warmer zones and buying grafted. I buy own root exclusively, and every picture I see of a bushy rose, it is one that is grafted. I don't think that's a coincidence, since grafted roses can offer a more uniform experience across many different conditions and rose types. For that reason, I think I may transition to deliberately growing more in pots, since soil conditions are more uniform. (Or I just need to be more patient, since I'm dealing with own root roses lol) @noseometer...(7A, SZ10, Albuquerque) Fragrance is the only thing that disappoints me so far with this rose. It's present, but not strong at all. I've read that it's really strong and that it takes a few years to develop it's power. I've had mine for 4 years and it's only a lite fragrance so far. Nothing really blows me away like the website and stories would suggest. I really did a nerdy ramble here haha, but this thread really speaks to many of my sentiments around growing roses. I want to look outside or walk around and see what I've seen in this thread all the time!

I cant agree more with Diane. PAoK is not healthy if you have blackspot and Boscobell is beautiful. Cardin Mill: blackspot mess Princess Margareta: gorgeous, but a blackspot mess Chaelotte: beautiful, but a black spot mess RD: smaller blooms but good health Teasing G: super healthy and beautiful, but maybe too light yellow some times. Consider Moulineaux if you havent yet. Disregard my comments if your zone 6 does not have blackspot. Molineaux is a deeper yellow