I have had 'Zaide' for two years now, in which time it has condescended to produce one flower. That was so long ago I honestly don't remember what it looked like. I can't comment about the thrips, which I have not had so far, knock on wood, but in all other respects, your 'Wedding Bells' could hardly be a worse choice than 'Zaide'. I would offer to dig up and send you mine, but I have a granddaughter with that name. The DA roses may be BS ridden scrawny growers in my heavy soil, but they do bloom at least once a season, and usually a few times more.

Zaide, which should have been named 'Seldom Seen,' has been a One Bloom Wonder for me in W. PA., zone5/6. It's beginning its third year in my garden and by July if it doesn't kick in, it's history!

I got it from Chamblee's who have since removed it from their catalog....enough said! A good rose is not dropped by Chamblee's, who have also dropped two other Kordes losers, Summer Romance and Madame Anisette. Many other Kordes roses are fantastic, but not the above.

Well now I have heard good things about Wedding Bells. Sad to say that I have Zaide coming this spring. Wonder if I could cancel.

Patty, contact your nursery, and question them about Zaide. Convey to them all the negative repots you have read about. If they assure you Zaide is garden worthy , and you learn otherwise in time, you will also learn about the nursery's credibility and future reliability.

Oh wow Zaide has done great for me! I was thinking of ordering another one, and I don't really have doubles of anything lol. I'm sorry to hear it's not doing well everywhere, it's really lovely. This will be its second winter, looks good so far. Bell Rosa I have Wedding Bells too, but did not get it till very late last summer, so can't tell you much, looks okay out there now.

Thank you everyone for your input. I'll just keep WB and hope for the best! :-)

Hmm, Moses & Mcnastarana, thanks for the feedback! Zaide is approaching her third year and I was wondering why I don't seem to have many photos of that one. I guess I should be glad I have any. Still, I give roses 3 or 4 years to settle in, so maybe she's a slow one to get established and will shape up. Wedding Bells is a fabulous rose, already in the top 50 of my 1000+ roses and she has the potential to make into the top 20 I suspect. Totally winter hardy for me and gorgeous high centered large blooms. Very impressed with this rose so far.

Cynthia

Cynthia, 1,000+ roses! You have a rose paradise!

Could you please share your top 10 hybrid teas, ranked in descending order, with a brief explanation on why for each one? It would be a tremendous help to me, and I am sure also for many of your fellow Forumlings!

I'm curious about wedding bells growth habit. Is it very tall and wide or tall and narrow? I'm trying to figure out placement for a new bed and not sure it WB would need to go in the back.

I don't grow Zaide, so I couldn't say much about it, but Wedding Bells is one of the most impressive roses I have grown. I know we have totally different climates, but mine is as disease resistant as they come and produces the largest, most long lasting blooms of all the roses in my garden. I think every garden should have at least one Wedding Bells.

I Agree with Moses...Cynthia please list your Top Ten...Sorry Bella rosa for hijacking your segment

Rosecrazy - no problem! Cynthia, please post some pics. I would love to see pics of Wedding Bells in your garden or any other rose pics - I'm feeling rose deprived! LOL.

Thanks for the great pictures, oldrosarian - clearly your Zaide likes to bloom more vigorously for you than me. I did find one picture that has two blooms in it, from last year. Mostly mine is one bloom at a time, and a lighter pink than most of your photos, though it can occasionally bloom with a darker center and lighter outer petals.

Here's the dark and light contrasts for Zaide.

Wedding Bells is still small in my yard, but my word it really does want to bloom. I love the gradual way the blooms open and they last a long time on the bush. For some reason, both of these roses have pretty reliable tiny brown edges virtually any time of the year, but it doesn't bother me (and might be a factor with WB of how long it lasts on the bush).

When first opening, it can look every bit the HT form like florist's roses:

Even when fully open I still like the form, and the blooms are quite large - these are at least as big as the full palm of my hand and probably bigger.

This isn't the most attractive bush shot, but I've been impressed that only 2 years old it is trying its darndest to put out such huge blooms that it's bending the whole plant over. It needs another year or two to beef out sideways in my zone before it looks good as a bush to support multiple blooms, but being very winter hardy it shouldn't have problems doing so!

Thanks for the comments folks, and I'll post a separate thread about my top 10 rose bushes with reasons for each (probably a little later in the week). Sorry I missed responding for a while - I've been out of town. I want to hear about your top 10 roses with reasons as well, so it needs a separate thread.

Incidentally, OldRosarian I've been drooling over your wonderful themed posts showing your roses. I haven't logged into them individually to comment, but you have the most intriguing variety of roses that send me to hmf hoping they might be available! I appreciate hearing about the rare ones as well as the ones that are available, and I am sure your garden is a true treasure. Mine has off and on spots of glory, but it's surprisingly modest in blooms for as many roses as I have.

Cynthia

I don't have ZAIDE, but I do have WEDDING BELLS. Not a great repeater, but mine's in a big pot, not that that has ever stopped other roses from blooming tho. As you can see, there is a bit of an issue with thrips. And I do not spray. Don't have the time...

She finishes pretty tho. Not sure if these are two diff blooms or the same. The pics are 11 days apart, so I'm guessing there were two blooms. These are the only pics I got last yr. Both in July.

I am seeing a pattern for those who buy Kordes roses from Chamblee's say they don't bloom....I bought my Kordes roses from Palatine Roses and have had good blooms first year in the ground! I wonder if it's the problem with the nursery, not the rose? Palatine has different rootstock so maybe that is the key?

Lauren, Chamblees' roses are own-root in 1 gal., but sometimes I would say they are small roses put in larger pots depending. I have found the Kordes OR take time to develop here in Cincinnati....However, Chamblee Summer Romance and Fire Opal are two of my best constantly blooming roses having been planted in 2016. Last years show was phenomenol. I also have Zaide and Dark Desire which were blooming machines in their second season.I'm waiting to see how Milano and Bordeaux do this year. Zaide and Milano were OR big box discount purchases while DD was grafted from Lowe's. I'm getting Bordeaux this spring from ARE. I'm sure the grafting gives them a great boost, at least initially. I'm anxious to try something on multiflora myself.

Oh yes then that makes complete sense! Own root roses need more time to mature than grafted.