Souvenir de Mme Leonie Viennot is undoubtably a beautiful rose; I have 2. But i am thinking that I will probably sp the older one. It's right at the entrance to the main garden, so very visible. The problem is that ,though the flowers are sometimes truly wonderful, they are SO vulnerable. Every year, so many of them are ruined by the Oxythyrea funestas,thrips,and heaven knows what else. Seen from afar, this isn't so much of an issue, but since I have to pass by the rose to get into the garden, I have those flowers stuck right under my nose all the time,with all their faults. It seems like having the plant there just sort of encourages my own character defects or something! I try to look at the good blooms, too, but it's the ugly ruined ones that wind up attracting most of my attention. I have to see if there are Oxys inside the ruined blooms so I can catch them and stick them in a plastic bottle; it's not a good idea to just try to ignore the Oxys since that just allows the effing things to increase and multiply. The spent blooms do not drop at all cleanly, and don't just snap off easily either. Also, this rose blooms early-usually a real plus IMO. But these flowers do not stand up too well to rain, for example, and these last 2 years or so we've had rain in May, after an overly dry Feb and March. So,though I've had this plant a long time and do feel affection for it, I think that after it blooms I'll cut it down. Now, on HMF, I see that someone says it's easy to layer,so I think I'll try this; I've got a young cane to try, as well as older branches. Do any of you have experience with layering? Is young wood or older wood the way to go?