That is a glowing recommendation, Melissa. It sounds like a fantastic plant!

Sounds and looks wonderful. Melissa.

Oursteelers, I hope yours turns out as good as mine has been. The color in the photo may be unusually rich and due to the flower growing out of the light (it was on the bottom of the plant). EdF is generally pale, but highly satisfactory: sumptuous is a good word to describe it.

Gardeners interested in EdF would do well to read the comments about it on HMF, as apparently the rose has its preferences, and doesn't do well everywhere. It appears to be widely grown in Europe, with photos posted from Italy to Moscow and Lithuania and west to Great Britain.

I do love a good rose. Varieties with a lot of Damask in them are among my favorites.

The blooms were so beautiful, but it mildewed rather badly here -- back in the day when our climate was much more humid and cool.

I gave it to a friend who lived on the other side of the hills where it was drier, and much warmer . . . She almost never saw mildew in her garden.

But even then, it mildewed rather badly. :-(

Jeri, that's what I gathered from the HMF comments. EdF doesn't mildew for me, at least not to any noticeable extent, and mildew has historically been the most common fungal disease in my garden, though unfortunately that may be changing. I wonder whether there are different clones in the U.S. and in Europe? All the negative comments are coming from the U.S. There was a suggestion on HMF that there may be different roses going around under the name, too.

While I'm on clones and varieties, worth consideration is the notion that some forms of the rose sold as 'Spencer' may be the same as EdF. I looked at the photos of 'Spencer', and quite a few, not all, of them look like my rose. One stated difference is that 'Spencer' is supposed not to be fragrant; my EdF offers a good noseful of scent.

In-U.S.-commerce-as 'Spencer' and In-U.S.-commerce-as 'Enfant-de-France' do appear to me to be the same. So, maybe what you have IS different. Makes sense.

I have grown US roses labeled and sold as Spencer and Enfant de France. They looked identical to me, too. Your rose is absolutely gorgeous, Melissa!

My current favorite bit of cotton candy fluff is Jacques Cartier/Marchesa B. Out of curiosity, I sampled a selection of JCs and MBs before gifting all but a couple. They all grew and performed identically for me except my mislabeled Comte de Chambord from Heirloom which must surely be a climbing JC. It just can’t be anything else even though no one that I know of offers the climber. Carol

Hi, Carol! Your anecdote reminds me of the time I received what was supposed to be 'Austrian Copper' and which instead turned out to be R. foetida (also a fine rose). I told the gal at the nursery on the phone about the mistake and she said, it couldn't be R. foetida because we don't carry it. I answered that they perforce had it, even if they didn't know so, because they'd sent it to me. As I recall, that silenced her.

I greatly like 'Marchesa Boccella', too, of which I find the style very similar to 'Enfant de France'.

Ha, ha! There’s nothing like a rose to make the impossible possible…like receiving a band of something a nursery “definitely doesn’t stock.“ Do you remember Forest Farm Nursery from your days in the PNW? I recently rehomed a Forest Farm rose I had been raising for years. It was sent to me as ’Ispahan,’ which it obviously wasn’t since even the small band had canes, foliage and a habit that looked much like a Hybrid Tea and nothing like a Damask. John on the forum, who lives not far from me, has adopted this rose, and both of us think its blooms resemble a Pernetiana. But, of course, Forest Farm has never offered Pernetianas, so it can’t be a Pernetiana, right? Carol