If BS is an issue in your locale, I suggest that you avoid 'Margaret Merrill'. All of those "Excellent" ratings for MM's disease resistance that you'll find at HMF must have come from gardeners in areas where BS is never a problem.

I tried own-root Margaret Merrill in north Texas and it was not a success. Wimpy plant and losing all its leaves to BS didn't help any!
Will be eagerly waiting other responses since I would love to grow Apricot Nectar again. And love the look of Sheila's Perfume.

Having worked on the HMF database and knowing how often all of us use HMF to research roses, it would be wonderful if you could share your experiences growing these roses own root on the MEMBERS COMMENTS for the rose page.

When I read Herb Swim's book he described the industry practice that when a seedling was selected for testing, it was automatically grafted when it was carried forward for testing. So, all of the roses that were finally introduced, were only tested as budded roses. Some of those roses may never have needed the extra vigor provided by the rootstock. While others may never have made it to market without the extra push given by the rootstock.

Now, nurseries are selling these roses own root. Since they have never truly been tested as own root plants, finding out which roses do well own root and which roses are a waste of time, effort and money is going to be a real challenge in the coming years.

Yes, we can find the information with a search on GW, but it might make it easier if we also put the information on HMF.

What do you think ?

Smiles,
Lyn

Totally different climate and set of conditions...Sheila's Perfume was an own root from a friend's British import way back when. She was a HORSE! After only a few years, the crown of the plant was the size of my knee. It grew easily to six feet, very full, INCREDIBLY prickly and flowered continuously in Zone 9b. She experienced slight mildew in that garden which could honestly have been due to water stress as much as anything.

In the same garden, Geranium Red was one I rooted from the own root plant growing in The Huntington Gardens, when I was a volunteer there. It experienced a bit of chlorosis due to the alkalinity of the soil and had rust issues, which could also have been due to water stress conditions. It was never more than about three feet by two feet in that garden after many years growing there. Sheila was definitely the more vigorous and healthy variety in those conditions, but the color and amazing scent of Geranium Red kept it there until the end. Kim

I planted Sheila's Perfume own root last year. It barely made it through the winter and probably will not survive next winter. Bolero did much better.

'Geranium Red' is a monster on Huey. Ditto for Apricot Nectar. Own root, I dunno.

I tried Sheila's Perfume twice ownroot here in zone 5 Nebraska and I couldn't get it to a sufficient size to overwinter. A friend in Omaha gave me her grafted Sheila's that she said had too much BS for her tolerance. It has settled in nicely and is blooming, and has overwintered for her at least two years here. Zone 6 might not be as much of a problem for you, but here the graft did seem to make a difference to get enough roots to survive the winter.

I couldn't overwinter Apricot Nectar in two tries, but I was putting it in my zone 4 pocket and haven't yet tried it under better conditions.

Cynthia

This is Margaret Merrill growing in New Hampshire, and it's a grafted plant but I wanted to show it because BS is a terrible problem here. I guess this demonstrates the notion that not all blackspot is the same.

Margaret was easily six by eight feet in Newhall (budded from Edmund's many years ago) and had no foliage issues there at all. The PLANT was gorgeous. The flowers fried as quickly as they opened. I loved the bush, the foliage and the gorgeous sepals, I just very seldom saw a decent open flower because they were so heat intolerant. Kim

Saw MM own root in ENGLAND and it was stunning....not so sure about here. It is weak for me (grafted). Sheila's Perfume is an amazing rose here!
Susan