Assuming you may want this rose after seeing Kitty's gorgeous photos in this post: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/4378328/last-roses-before-pruning?n=11

If not... you need to go look. SOOOOOoooo pretty. Heirloom has a band size available right now. Just sayin'.

And it says "...The fragrance is magnificent and wonderfully rich, much like an expensive Parisian perfume...."

I don't want to dig anymore. I don't want this rose. I don't want this rose. I don't want this rose. ;)

Yesterday, Heirloom said Amazing Grace was out of stock. I guess I should look again. Diane

Don't hate me Diane. They only had one band left. Once I saw they only had one I couldn't stop myself.

Heirloom sent me an E-mail saying that it was back in stock last week but I was never able to order it online as it kept showing it as out of stock. I should have called.

But congratulations to the victors!

Anyone in hot/dry areas have advice for the placement of this rose? I first had it in my rose garden where it got quite a lot of sun. It didn’t like it (but it was very young). I moved it an area where it gets a lot of shade and filtered sun. It didn’t like it there either. Other roses do well in both places.

I was thinking of moving it back to the area with more sun now that it is older. It’s in a pulp pot in the ground so moving it has not been terribly disruptive to it, but I would like to move it just once more over the fall/winter and be done!

Currently, is getting really bad mildew, which wouldn’t be too bad if it didn’t look so sickly. It looks like it just needs more sun... but it’s confusing because it also still has some leaf burns even from the shady/filtered sun it has been getting.

What placement does this rose need? Should I just pot it and wheel it around until it’s older and stronger? I would prefer to put it in the ground, but I could pot it up I guess.

I’m tempted to just find a spot where I can forget about it, keep it on drip and let it fend for itself until it deserves more attention. I don’t really like babying young, sickly plants. But of course when it does grow up I want the perfume of it somewhere I can enjoy it.

I’m conflicted. Advice?

I should also mention that back in June Amazing Grace seemed happy in its current spot.

Should I just leave it where it is for another year and see?

See. Conflicted. Sigh. It’s just so sickly looking right now.

(it’s the Cocker one - same as Beth’s and Kitty’s - AKA Myriam - from Heirloom)

Hi Cori Ann!

Since I last posted on this thread, I have seven Amazing Grace, I'm not sure if my experiences will be that helpful to you because you seem to have some that do so much better for you than me, and vice-versa. We are way more humid than you and I think hotter, with sandier soil while you have that fertile super soil!

In any case, regarding the sun, I had mine where they received morning sun, then shade for the afternoon, followed up by a couple of hours more of really brutal hot late afternoon sun right before dark. These times are getting shorter as the days get shorter of course.

I just moved one a couple of weeks ago to full sun, and while it's still doing fine, it's not as hot as it was and my gut feeling is that the new place isn't going to work in the brutal summer.

So I think that I accidentally found the right mix for them before! They are continually blooming here, with lots of alfalfa compost and tons of water, almost daily. Great foliage, no spray.

The stories of the seven inch fragrant blooms are true, just fantastic! But maybe because they are young, they are terrible in the vase for me. Immediately shrink and turn a harsh dark pink. And they ball when the humidity is exceptionally high here too so need assistance opening.

But in spite of that, their huge size and fragrance makes them worth it for me.

I've also had good luck with the ignoring plan with some. I dug up some blackspotted messes of Heirloom (the rose) and banished them acres away down the driveway, expecting them to die.

First they bloomed with no leaves as they were constantly defoliating, then they finally got their act together and now are covered in blooms, go figure.

Thanks LL. Yes I remember that mine lasted longer in the vase when we were comparing in Spring/early Summer. Strange. It seems like it may be quite finicky... maybe here it needs filtered sun... but more light now and less in the spring/summer than it would usually get here. I’m not sure I have a spot that gets filtered sun all year. I will keep scouting.

Did you see any of this in your low humidity? Sometimes the blooms would just not open without help here. The center would literally stay a ball.

Lavender, where did you order yours from ? I'm only seeing heirloom as the vendor now . It's so pretty !

Hi LL. Mine all opened no prob.... but I think the dry heat probably helped with that. I could see how the petals could stick in a ball in humid weather... there are so many petals!

Mine were from Heirloom too! I took this picture a while back to show Moses, in case he checks in, for his Amazing Grace thread, but the site wasn't loading pictures.

Oh dear...you know when you see something that you really want, even when its obvious its no good for you? I know this rose will ball in my garden. ( alhough I could deal with it if it balled like lavenderlaces...) It will go a soft white with powdery mildew..then crunchy with heat burn. But its so pretty ! gahh, and according to HMF its even avaliable here...

This is what happened if they didn't have assistance in high humidity. Keep in mind that they are young and all could be different next year!

The ball in the center could get so stuck together that it was hard to open without tearing it. When I left them alone, the center just rotted.

This one is opening fine though and they were huge here. I fed them some banana peels and egg shells to see if that would help also.

Curdle , I totally know what you mean! I talked myself out of this rose when the thread was first started . Now I'm trying to talk myself out again! Haha it's so pretty. I absolutely hate when roses ball , but how will I know if I don't try it ?

I'll probably end up buying it though, when it goes on sale . It's so pretty to pass up!

It is such a petal packed, gorgeous bloom. Sigh. I think I’m going to move it to the area where I can forget about it.

The blooms on mine were wonderful, no problem opening, but the bush itself is just sickly and awful looking right now. It needs to grow up and get healthier.

Lily if I could talk you out of buying Amazing Grace.... I actually would. UNLESS you can find it more mature at a local nursery or bare root. In my opinion, this young one from Heirloom was just too small and sickly/slow growing for the price. If I were to do it over I would not have bought it (and I got mine on sale for less than half price).

Curdle if you have an option to buy one more mature, I would go for it. But if it’s a young one, I would pass.

Thanks Cori Ann for your honesty! Sometimes blooms can leave us blinded to all the other problems a rose can have. Sonia rykiel has been that for me. I heard it lays on the ground, bought it anyway and sure enough.. lays on the ground haha !

I'm going to keep an eye for it maybe someone else will sell it for less. I hate to say it but heirloom is my last resort for roses. I can't stomach the cost. I could if I got a large plant but that hasn't been my experience. Rvr shows it out of stock ( they send much too small plants for me anyway) . Maybe roses unlimited will have it . No chance of finding it locally . Our local market is horrible!

Cori, mine are having the opposite problem with growing, getting way taller than expected, even the one still in the pot.

However, they are upright and narrow bushes here so should be easy for you to hide yours for a while until you are happy with it.

Is Summer Romance still doing fantastic for you? Here, I'm using her as a climber up a wall do add some greenery as even today, only a couple of small blooms.

Did your AG arrive as little defoliated pale sticks like mine did? The shipping seems to take ten days or more and the prices are crazy, agree with Lilyfinch for sure.

Hi LL. Yup Summer Romance is going strong. Constant blooms here so far. There have always been at least a few. Beautiful, healthy foliage. I can take some photos when I’m home.

I’m probably going to prune Amazing Grace down to little nubs when I move it. Let’s see if it grows back tall and narrow then. I’m more of a tough love kind of person I guess. It has to earn its care and its water.

I still find it so interesting that we have so many opposite experiences with Summer Romance, Memorial Day, etc.. I think that I use it as an enabling tool though to rationalize buying anything!

Just because 99 percent of HMF says that a rose is horrible doesn't mean that I shouldn't try it, right?

just wanted to add in my zone 6b, this beautiful rose is sadly a black spot magnet :(

I’m sorry Michael. That stinks.

LL... did you propagate your Amazing Grace(s) on your own? I don’t think it’s under patent anymore (it’s from 1990 as far as I can tell). I think this will be a good one for me to try budding/grafting onto some of the Fortuniana I have from UC Davis next spring. When I prune it and move it I might try to root a few cuttings so I have extra to try it with. It definitely needs something to become stronger in my yard.

No, am embarrassed to say that I bought them all at the most expensive place of all, Heirloom! The soil, including the pots, was composted alfalfa and coarse sand. very fluffy. I forgot if your fertile soil was clay or?

In my fast draining soil, they could blackspot in the beginning but I figured out it was only when they didn't get enough water, not the other way around as one might think.

They have nice thick stems and huge blooms like Memorial Day, but MD was the opposite for me regarding water. MD does fine in clay if it's not too wet, but haven't tested AG in clay yet.

My soil is super heavy, thick, sticky, but fertile and nutrient rich clay. I’m going to try my hand at propagating extra cuttings this fall and budding them into stronger rootstock next spring. Let’s see what happens.

Keep us posted! I'm going to try to remember our soil differences in the future because that's probably why we're having such different results.

Help y'all ! Of course I ordered this despite multiple warnings . :)

how big is this ? Hmf says 30 inches ? That dosnt sound right . I'm planning my beds now . Just need a ballpark size . Or I could pot it up . Thanks !

My little band hasn’t matured enough to give you an idea Lilyfinch. Sorry!

That's ok ! I think it'll be a pot pet til I see how it does. I hear it can ball which I hate so maybe I can keep it protected from that

Lily, my seven are much taller than they are wide and I think that they naturally want to grow that way. They don't give me the impression that they want to get huge but certainly over 30'!

Does anybody have any happy updates on AG?

I'm thinking of moving mine that get afternoon sun to full sun in the hopes that the extra frying might help them to open better in high humidity. They seem to do fine if there happens to be dry air blowing in for whatever reason.

I still adore the fragrance but they are still turning a harsh color and immediately shrivel in the vase so it kind of defeats the purpose sadly. Will they outgrow this?

Speaking of growing, they are about 4 feet tall and half as wide.

Here’s mine today LL. A while ago I moved it to a place I didn’t have to look at it so it could improve in privacy. It gets eastern exposure here currently and has a lot of circulation around it, good drainage, really ideal conditions honestly. It’s under 3 feet and looks weak, but believe it or not, this is an improvement. Compared to all my other roses, including others also bought from Heirloom about the same time (like Madame Anisette), it’s a total runt.

Laughing out loud Cori!!! "Improve in privacy!" That just tickled me because I do the same thing!

Mine has eastern exposure too and I thought it was the perfect place for a nice cutting bed but I can't cut them. Your blooms look nice and big though. Does the center stay balled or does your lower humidity help that?

The positive is that mine do seem to be continually blooming, though they need assistance opening, and that the fragrance is lovely to my nose. But our noses are different so maybe horrible for you?

Oh the fragrance is lovely, for sure. They don’t ball here and seem to have no trouble opening up their bazillion petals. They’re very pretty and petal packed. It’s worth keeping for those reasons alone. Maybe mine is just in a prolonged awkward adolescent stage.

And you can cut yours already also? No immediately shriveling in the vase? I'm afraid of moving mine to the back forty and then finding out that they just needed a little more time.

But mine have lots of blooms, so it's hard to have the centers rotting in humidity if I can't get to them fast enough!

They last about 5ish-7ish days in a vase here depending on how good I am at cutting the stem under water, changing water, etc. So, not super long, but no immediate shrivel either.

Mine don't last 5 to 7 hours! I would be THRILLED with 5 to 7 days!

Hello ladies :). Any updates since May on AG?

lilyfinch: is yours doing well? We probably have similar humidity levels and I should have asked you for an update before purchasing some from heirloom. I also realized they are rated to 7b :( does it need protection?

I did end up moving my seven to the back forty in full sun to see if it would help with the balling. Once they recovered from the shock of the move (in summer heat), they went right back to blooming, though they were still balling at about a fifty percent rate.

Now after settling in with a couple of drier air days, I see today that they are all blooming and open! The blooms are big so they keep up with Memorial Day as a landscape rose, though I wanted them for cutting because of the fragrance.

The size of the plants range from a scrawny two feet to a bushier four feet, though they still seem to have a tendency to be narrow. I have some huge blooms on a Charlie Brown Christmas tree plant on a couple of them!

Another thing that I've noticed is that there was a lot of cane loss over the winter in their previous somewhat protected position. They are out in the open for the north winds now so we'll see how that goes. Our heat index is still in the 90's today though.

I've had mine for a few years now. She's approx 3' x 3' in size. Her blooms are very beautiful and very highly fragrant. I do find the blooms don't last long on the bush, and repeat is slow in our intense dry heat.

I would still recommend her. I like her enough that she was one of the few I tried to propagate via cutting this summer, and my one success - YAY. So providing she survives her hardening process out of her hydroponic baggie this week, I'll have two plants!

Congrats Karen on your cuttings! It's interesting to hear how AG performs in different climates. It sounds like your dry air solves the balling problem but how does she do in the vase for you? Mine are thankfully pretty long lasting on the bush, but shrivel immediately in the vase. Maybe time will solve that?

LavenderLace - I must confess to being a timid cutter. I love having cut roses in the house and at work, but unless I have bush(es) overflowing with blooms (basically spring flush), I leave them on the bush. AG tends to bloom just a small handful of blooms at a time for me outside a few stronger flushes, so I haven't tried cutting her. I will try next spring!

I just bought an AG from Heirloom. I guess after reading your posts, I might as well start singing the hymn to it.

I’m looking for Amazing Grace rose tree In memory of my baby granddaughter Grace can’t find one in stock anywhere, can anyone help.

Lilyfinch - That's a heart-stoppingly beautiful rose! Yes, God is with us all...I so agree with you! What a wonderful thought that God is sending you these heart shaped flowers! I'm going to have the same thought when I have flowers like that!!! Thank you!

@Lilyfinch z9a Murrieta Ca

Gorgeous Amazing Grace Rose! Thinking of adding her soring 2022 to my gardens. Cant’t resist the 7 inch blooms & speculat fragrance reviews!!! Seeing it in a vase wouod be AMAZING! Like hlossy leaves, too!

THANKS FOR THIS THREAD-Cori. I hope your rose bush is doing better.

So it’s Spring here in my Michigan Zone 6b garden and I’ve been reading this thread about this stunning Amazing Grace rose. I grew this rose a a few years ago and was one who provided a review on Heirloom. I have been seriously pining after this rose since removing it due to black spot. I just ordered two more from Heirloom to give it another go. I see couple of you are from Murrieta where my mother had an abundance of roses surrounding a full concrete patio and they loved the heat and had no disease…can’t say that for Michigan. Wish me luck!!

Good luck! :) :)