I'd describe the plant as a fairly typical hybrid tea. It is a good garden plant as compared to most mauve HTs, but not as compared to the best Buck roses. The colors and fragrance are extraordinary.

Yes. It is upright, but full, mine is 5' x 2.5'. I think it is grafted on R. multiflora rootstock. Not disease resistant, but the color and fragrance (spicy/clove to me) make it worth growing.

Is distant drums cold hardy without protection in zone 5/6?

JIM

Mine are. I do not have much problem with BS here, but my growing conditions are obviously different than yours. Also, mine are own root.

Mine will be own-root also mgleason56.
Your climate may be alittle colder than ours?
I'm on the warmer side of zone 5 and on the colder side of zone 6. I'm right on the line.

JIM

I didn't have any luck overwintering own-root DD..I tried growing two different times and they didn't make it. I am attempting a third time from Pickering and grafted onto multiflora...keeping my fingers crossed. The colors are amazing...enough to make me want to keep trying to grow this rose.

I just did a weather history check for this past winter for here.

Our coldest day was 0 degrees F.

We had 11 days out of the entire winter that it was between 0-10 degrees F.

We had 31 days of winter that were between 11-19 degrees F.

The rest of the days were 20 degrees F. or above.

But, the winds are bad here in the winter, so, the wind chill would drop some actual temps.

JIM

Mine: 5 years old, own root. Grown in a very open location, full sun, blasted by late afternoon winds. Zone 8, but we have problems with hardiness of some varieties because of the exposure factor. The plant is 6 X 6 feet and gets NO pruning and only supplemental watering. It gets some Blackspot but otherwise is a trooper of the highest caliber. Other people do not have as good results as I have had, so YYMV.

Hi! I've had some trouble with my Distant Drums, a bad bout of blackspot last year, borers, the flowers sometimes quite undersized, burning of leaves in sun, just not very many blooms. But it is only 3 years old, I'm hoping for better performance as time goes on, and I do love the color. It may actually do better in a colder zone--that is what it was bred for, after all.

Amazingly, mine comes back every spring although it never gets very big. Another to consider is Silver Shadows. Honeysweet is also nice.

I have also grown this rose twice with no winter survival. So pretty it's worth is just to have 4 months of blooms!{{gwi:319020}}

Sort of weird for a buck rose not to survive winters. LOL
I will give it a try though and hope for the best. I have one on pre-order to be delivered May 2010.

Maybe they need good winter protection there first growing season?
Or maybe they need winter protection always?
I like challenges, so, I'll give it a whirl.

JIM