Not to worry. Thanks anyway.

Be patient, can't always get to all threads.

I love Felicia, but it takes a long time to build, longer than most HMs. The older it gets the more it repeats, but you must deadhead. Big flush in spring, smaller thereafter. Mayber 3 or 4 flushes per season. Lovely fragrance, lovely rose.

Pardon the spent blooms
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You can also try a search for Felicia, it is often discussed.
Carol

What a lovely combination, Carol. Would you mind telling me what clematis that is?

Thanks,
Mary

'Felicia' in my experience is more shrubby than many HMs, less likely to want to become a climber. She's somewhat more susceptible to disease than other members of this class, though not bad. 'Felicia' has an exquisite fragrance, one of the best, to my nose a combination of musk and old rose that floats in the air, and my chief reason for growing her.

Melissa

Thanks everyone for your replies and thank you Carol for that wonderful photo of Felicia.

It appears that Felicia doesn't have a button eye after all, which means the rose I saw at the park could be Cecile Brunner. Whatever it was I saw at the park was quite beautiful, with tiny pink flowers, with a scent that wafts around.

I'm very sorry for being impatient. I admit I wasn't in my good mood yesterday because I've contacted some of my old friends at Facebook but didn't get a response from them...

Well, I'm feeling a lot better now after a good night sleep. It's Autumn here, cold and windy and nothing is blooming at the moment. Work and studying is giving me the stress.

Oh not to worry, I just didn't want you to feel bad. I'm on Facebook along with a group of us from this forum. We should all connect.

the clem is Vitacella Violet(or Violette, don't remember), it blooms for close to two months, is totally abused and loves every second of it.

My Felicia from Vintage is a bit shrubby, but is now over 6' and because it right next to Prosperity, the shrubbiness is ok. I love this rose and wouldn't do without it. In my climate it is totally healthy. I do like HMs, they are perfect for the Bay Area.

Contrary Grow -- The clematis is C.jackmanii. It's a pretty vigorous clematis and gives young roses something to grow up to and then can handle the big vigorous roses, also.

Felicia is my favorite hm. I got mine from Almost Heaven but don't think he sells it anymore. Mine grew very quickly and is my largest, sturdiest hm with best rebloom. Before last year I would have said it needs absolutely no support, but it was so laden with blooms last year that in the rain it flopped some and has not yet regained its stature but is approaching it. I too find that it gets more bs than some others, but it sure doesn't stop it from blooming and growing. Mine has several flushes per season and has an intoxicating fragrance. Mine is growing right next to Abraham Darby and I find the colors and scents similar.
I have a second Felicia in a very dry area and it has been very slow to build size.
Linda

Felicia tends to become a climber, like cornelia. It repeats, but not a lot in the beginning, it repeats better when it gets older.
If you want excellent repeat, consider china roses (unless you live in a cold area).
The first flush is somewhat paler, like here:

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I planted 4 HM's, and Cornelia and Penelope far outshone Felicia and Lavender Lassie in height and bloom. Marie Pavie is usually covered with blooms in fall until frost.

Thanks for the responses. You know, I'll give Felicia a try because I love roses that are fragrant.

I've just finished watching 'The Secret Garden' - what a short film it was, but the Garden was really beautiful. I'm hoping to create a garden with different shaded pink roses.

Jumbojimmy, you are speaking my language! My garden color scheme is pink, pink, pink with some white thrown in. Sometimes it is harder than you'd think to blend pinks. I tend toward more peachy pinks and purplish pinks throw my color scheme off. I have Felicia, but she is only a year in my garden and is being slow to establish. I grow a lot of teas. Belinda's Dream is a shrub and a good bloomer. My favorite clear pink rose so far has got to be Radio Times though. Smells delicious too.

Scardan, I noticed what you said about Felicia becoming like Cornelia and I have seen a picture of Jon's Felicia in England. I am not sure that Americans have the same plant "Felicia" that you have in Europe. I have often doubted that ours is the same. I have Cornelia and Felicia both. There is just no comparison. Cornelia grows very fountain like, puts out long pliable canes and even tip-roots, but Felicia grows like a pair of holediggers, straight and stiff, and does not "fluff" out. She is quite rigid and broom-like in her growth.

Felicia was my first rose but the growth habit on mine is nothing like you all are describing. It's huge, and throws out enormous canes in a sort of fountain. Probably 12' across if I didn't prune it. Absolutely gorgeous in the spring when it has its big flush, but the repeat is a little spotty.

Xeney, that is similar to what Scardan is describing, and yet mine is nothing like that. Your rose sounds more like my Cornelia. My Felicia is a scraggly straight-up shrub. I think some of us have different roses. I have long suspected my Felicia is nothing like the European Felicia although mine smells like Heaven. And "big flushes" are not words I would use when describing Felicia.

Heh. And my Cornelia is a scrubby little thing.

In my experience Felicia can't handle as much shade as you might expect from its hybrid musk classification. My original plant has grown upright and narrow under more or less the same partial sun conditions that have permitted her neighbors, Cornelia, Penelope, and Ballerina, to grow into big, fat sprawlers. The cutting I rooted a few years ago and planted in nearly full sun is upright and shrubby. It's no more fountain-like than its parent, but a whole lot more vigorous.

My Felicia is not the best HM I have. The first couple of years, it was so nice, but I haven't liked it too much as it has matured. Canes are stiffly branched, shrubby. I like Patricia43's description of "holediggers", that is exactly what mine looks like. Experiences winter dieback and canker each year, my Felicia requires pruning that has given it a lopsided look. Also, the canes get a yellowish coloration that is just plain ugly, maybe I just have a bad specimen.
This rose does not appreciate my climate with its extreme temp. ups and downs, blasting afternoon sun and gusty winds. I was of a mind to give it the heave-ho, but decided to leave it another season. It does not produce but a bloom or two after the initial spring flush and likely will be replaced with a tea, noisette or china.