I wish I could get William III spinosissima and have your problem, Brandon. I think your rose could improve. It also could have been that plant, in the particular location, at that time of your life that stood out. I hope that special feeling happens again with your new Abe in time.

Yes Brandon, I have had the same experience. But I also think that much of the difference between the performance of various varieties is often due to the differing conditions under which they are grown.

I have grown some of my favorite varieties in four different gardens and three different climates. Jayne Austin is one that seems to perform very differently in different climates with respect to bloom form and fragrance amongst other things. In the warm wet climate of the mid Pacific Coast, she was one of the best roses I grew. In Eastern Canada, in a colder climate with hot humid summers whe was rather mehhhh. Here in the arid Okanagan valley she is nice, but not like I remember her on the coast. As Jeri is wont to say: "location, location, location.

There are others I can say similar things about. So is it the particular plant, my memory, or the environment? Perhaps all three have a role.

Cheers, Rick

Yes, differing conditions definitely create vastly differing performance. I think there is also the element of "20-20 hind sight". We romantically remember pleasant things. I have encountered roses I once grew and enjoyed and had the "why isn't that in my garden today?" as well as "what in the devil did I EVER see in THAT?!" responses. Part of it is due to fond memories and part is due to changing interests, desires, "values" (?). Your education increases with each variety you grow. Your taste changes over time and with exposure and experience. Your judgement (HOPEFULLY!) becomes more discerning with that same experience. That "wish I still had that one" experience is universal. Ralph Moore frequently mentioned roses, particularly his "Purple Heart", not Carruth's, but Moore's https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.18617, stating he wished he still had it to use in breeding. Though POP entries for it from when it was in the tests stated, "Did the only respectable thing, it died". Would he have felt similarly if he had found it again? Who knows? I have culled or lost seedlings I wished I still had and re encountered a number in other peoples' gardens I had given them too. I am infrequently sufficiently impressed with many of them to want to grow them again. I have also frequently encountered roses I have given away, usually looking spectacular compared to what they looked like in MY yard. I have wanted as few of those again as I have my own seedlings. Once I'm done with it, I'm pretty much done with it. Now, considering things I've lost due to moving? Oh, yes, there are a number of them and I have regained a few. Others, I enjoy seeing your photos of, but I'm not in a rush to obtain them again.

'Fruhlingsmorgen', 'Flamingo', 'Topaz Jewel'...