I think in almost any zone I'd enthusiastically recommend Acropolis. The petals have enough substance to be able to open and bloom even in hot humid climates, and yet it's hardy enough to have mostly surviving cane in zone 5. It blooms off and on all summer, and the blooms go through an intriguing change from dark pink through coral pink and cream and indescribable parchment colors with some green tinges on the reverse that I find just fascinating. It would blend well with old garden roses, having a cupped shape, but is right at home among my more modern roses as well.

My plant is a good 5' tall and bushes out reasonably well, though when it was younger the flowers pulled it off vertical to droop like a lot of Austins do. Now that it's older the established cane keeps it pretty upright most of the time. In a warmer zone, I expect it would get even bigger and bushier, though I don't think it's a monster. I just arranged a lot of roses into bouquets this morning and I don't think Acropolis was particularly thorny - probably in the lower 20% of thorniness.

The foliage is clean all season for me and I never recall seeing any blackspot, though it's possible I'm sure. We don't get much mildew or rust here so I can't comment. I do think it would be a good cupped rose for opening even in humid weather and not balling. I've never seen the tight brownish petal edges or balling on this rose like you see on Belinda's Dream or Clothilde Soupert around here.

Ah, you encourage me to show pictures? Bwa-ha-ha, I would love to. I'll start with what I consider to be the "classic" look of Acropolis, and the one that sold me on this rose when I first got it about 5 years ago.

Sometimes the blooms can get quite dark coral-pink when they're first out, then they lighten up as they age. Here's a shot from this June that looks particularly bright in the newest blooms - you can see the older bloom has mellowed and the bud is creamy.

When hot or aging, the blooms can be cream with a pink tinge to the edges, like these below. You can see the greenish tinge on a few of the older roses and some are starting to brown a bit.

I like the contrast in new and old blooms in the photo below, and the right hand rose is that parchment color that intrigues me.

Here's an idea of the drooping canes you can see in this rose when it's young. The cane is a good 5' long but weighed down by the flowers.

Here's the closest thing I have to a full bush shot more recently. The photo is taken at a diagonal to fit in the rose, and the color is a more uniform coral pink that it can get in hot weather. In reality, this is only the top 1/3 or so of the rose, since it likes to bloom tall.

Just the huge fat buds would sell me on this rose since they also have intriguing color variations. Here's one from August (a particularly hot August last year) and Acropolis was one of the roses that just kept blooming through the heat. Just look at that clean smooth foliage - not a hint of BS in blackspot season.

Not convinced yet? Let me send you off with 3 bloom shots showing the variability in this rose for my last spaces on this thread.

So if a picture is worth a thousand words I think I've said enough! It's still available on the Palatine site last I saw but it's selling to other GW rose fanatics who've been persuaded to add this most excellent rose to their yards.

Cynthia