That is amazing! I think it's going to be a great year for roses.

Oops! Just as you said that it's going to be a great year for roses this year, I went and bought a Tropicana and a Henry Kelsey today..... ouch! Where am I going to put them!? Sigh.... OK, the Tropicana is going into a big pot, but the Henry Kelsey... hmm, I may just have to move something else to allow Henry to be planted there.... OOPS! :-)

Ostrich, feed 'John Davis' well and he'll become a handsome big thug :)

In 2014, my 'JD' had topped out at eleven feet high, though had suffered a fair bit of desiccation the following winter ... though, he's now edging back up there and really filling out nicely, this years display should be a fantastic one, what a great rose!

Thank you, Twros! I will surely feed John D well then :-)

Now how on earth did you keep that size in check? I worry that it will be too big and then I will not have enough space there.... my yard is not huge, and if it gets over to the other side of the fence, my neighbours may just not be so happy about it.... how should I manage these vigorous climbers please?

Another "OOPS" moment here... maybe I should have asked these questions before planting dear John D!!! LOL

Ostrich, my Henry Kelsey tends to act more shrub-like most years, if that's any help. :)

Thanks, Marcia! Do you have any photo please? Also, is it more wide than tall, or the other way round please? Does it tend to have some die back then? Thank you!

Blooms in May? Perhaps this year! Virtually zero dieback and early spring = lots of buds!

Ostrich, here's a pic from 2014. Couldn't find any from last year. He does have some dieback some years, others not so much. He tends to be wider. As you can see, he can also bloom his little heart out!

Well, it doesn't seem to want to upload my picture. You're not on the Facebook group, are you? I could post it there for you.

Marcia, sorry but I don't "do" Facebook!!! LOL! Hmm..... how could I help you to upload it please? Thanks so much!

BTW, I was hoping that it would be taller and less wide.... hmmm...... :-)

Pretty straightforward to upload pics, or it should be - click on "photo", it goes to your pictures and you click on the one you want. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to want to upload it. I've done it on here before. Not sure of what the problem is.

Well, copy and paste seems to work! LOL There's Henry on the left. :)

Or not. It showed up in my post but not after I submitted it. >:(

marcia, do you think that it's because your photo size was too large? What if you try to upload a smaller file, if that was the problem? Sorry to have caused you all this hassle!

I'll try tomorrow. I had a picture on Facebook and saved it on my computer, which I just turned off for the night. Caught this on my phone before turning it off. I'll see what size it saved as and adjust if need be.

Ostrich, 'JD' is a gentle easy to control giant that doesn't become overly wide, oh and has those really nice smooth almost thornless canes. You can either extend your wrought iron lattice upward (if the neighbours don't mind that is) or train 'JD' to grow more laterally, which would look really good if you have the room along your fence.

Any current photos of JD in bloom?

VStapes, since you asked... here it is! :-) JD from yesterday!

It's beautiful! Thanks for posting. I planted one last year, but it's still a dwarf ... I love your trellis too.

WOW! Terry, your JD is truly amazing! How old is your JD please? I want mine to grow up like yours!!! :-)

BTW, Terry, what rose food do you use please?

Ostrich, I think the large plant had gone in about five years ago, the smaller one three years back. Last year, bloom production and foliage had been skimpy in comparison and so out came the fertilizer! My soil is a bit lean and I applied a high nitrogen mix of 25-10-12 when the first flush of bloom was finishing up in early July and another good feeding this spring with Miracle Grow Shake 'n Feed 12-4-8. It's soon be time to feed 'JD' again and from here on in I'll continue with the stronger fertilizer.

Thanks, Terry! I need to use the fertilizer more often then!!! LOL!

I used Rose Tone when I lived in the States and had really good success with it, but I cannot get it in Calgary. I have used Miracle-Gro too, but am wondering if I should try some of these fish fertilizers or whatever you call them because some people have had good results with them. What do you all think?

Nice terry, here is my 3 year old just before it exploded.