That's why I regretlessly yanked out my 3! Belinda's Dreams (big dummy, me, for expecting a stellar performance, but alas, not this rose & not in my garden), long ago...same reasons as yours. Maybe if this rose was grafted onto a rugged root stock, multiflora for my locale, it would not have had its considerable problems for me.

It just lacked vigor for me. All 3 never gained any size. The many petaled blooms were weak necked and the petals themselves were too gossamer, wimping out in every summer rain, which can come more than one a week.

For the same reason my Beverlys got shovel pruned. It's flower's petals easily got waterlogged. Beverly is not an ADR awardee, but its foliage was pretty pristine here as I recall, but its bloom....one soggy, miserable mess a lot of the time.

I'm starting to experience the same problem with my Bliss Parfumas. Gotta' study up on a bloom's, "rain proofness," on all future rose additions.

Moses.

Mine IS stellar, but it is also grafted, on Huey, I presume, since it came as a body bag from Walmart. It never droops, always opens (her first blooms are opening now, after a week of relentless rain and drizzle). So it may just be that she needs to be grafted. But I've also heard on the forum that she performs well own-root. Who knows? I suspect it's a garden by garden issue...location, location, location. You might try putting her in the ground to see if it makes any difference. But if you don't like her, find someone to give her to, rather than shovel pruning her. She might perform well in the recipient's garden!

Thank you for validating my concerns. I will try to get her in the ground somewhere but I am afraid her original lack of vigor will always be a problem for this particular specimen. The stems are too weak for her heavy and somewhat clunky blooms, that often don't open up anyway.

A second Easy Does It will probably replace her in that pot so I can create that mass of sunset color I've always adored in EDI.

This one will have to go, apparently.

My experience is the same as Fig's with three plants of which at least one is OR. I recall buying one at Menard's so just a cheap bareroot from a crate. It's big and lusty so I'm thinking it wants to be in the ground. Don't know about Moses's slackers. I was Very surprised this year to notice all were killed practically to the ground so they're more tender than I thought. We had some longer spells of sub-zero temps at night instead of the usual night here and there for an hour or so. It will be interesting to see how they fare this season.

There she is:

She's been spindly from the start.

I wish I could twist your arm into loving it !

It’s one of my favorites. I have no trouble with it here in dry so cal , and I was fortunate to have great blooms In Tennessee. The funny thing is .. I was given my plant by another gardener in a different part of Nashville. She had balling issues and I was interested in filling my rose garden so I took it . Somehow I never had any issues with it , and I love the blooms so much . The fragrance and color are my favorite! I had it grafted there and its own root here .

The balling issue is so common tho .. I think if it keeps happening I’d just get rid of it . There’s so many beautiful roses out there !

I tried clotilde soupert here thinking maybe just maybe I’d get good blooms in my dry garden but nope! Balled here too lol . I tried! ☺️

Yep, your photo revives my memory of its same performance here.....each bloom just a stack of weak kneed petals, like a pile of dingy, dirty laundry piled up. Hey, live up to your name, "Artist"....nothing but the most beautiful roses for an artist's garden.

I will say, though. Going by the other posters whose experiences and considerable rose skills are well documented and legendary, and have voiced their successes with Belinda's Dream here: Lily, Vapor, and fig_insanity, why not just try it for two more years, 2025 and 2026, in ground in a good spot. See how it does then. If it corrects itself, you've won, if not, you've only lost one rose trial, not 3 like me in my case.

Moses.

@Lilyfinch z9a Murrieta Ca, @Moses, Pitt PA, cold W & hot-humid S, z6

Lily, I think you certainly did your very best!

I think her main issue is that she started out as a weakly band, meant to have less vigor.

Had it been grafted, it might have performed differently. The balling has been happening for years, but you are right that I should maybe try it in the ground if only as an experiment,.

The description as a pile of dingy, dirty laundry is spot on, Moses! lol

Thank you for your encouragement about artistry :) - but indeed, given my time and space limitations, I really feel like must adopt the Marie Kondo approach: keep only what sparks joy. :)

As for my name - I used to be called Severe Novice when I started back in 2018 completely clueless. Then later on I got better results and people told me to change my name. :)

So I did it like Prince: Artist Formerly Known As Novice. lol

I think I will always be a Novice at heart.

“I’m starting to experience the same problem with my Bliss Parfumas”

NOW you tell me.

"I think I will always be a Novice at heart." I think that applies to many of us!

Belinda's Dream needs to have an under stock to preform properly. Own root, it struggles as you know.

@Ken Wilkinson

This is good to know. I may try her again in the future grafted. I love pictures I see online from others, mine was simply always disappointing.

I bought her at the same time I got Easy Does It - also from a band. I am crazy about this rose but this one too probably did not perform at its best due to starting as a band. So much so that I ordered another one grafted from Jackson and Perkins since it was on sale.

I don't think I will get roses as small bands anymore. Too long to get where they need to be, and they may never do.

Rifis, if you only have one Bliss, you have less to regret than I do with my three (3), two in one hole, the older one, alone. I will say that the bloom opens very slowly for me, which I like. It is beautiful, but goes 'pancake' flat when fully open as so many Kordes do. That I find to be a serious fault. You could grow it just for its beautiful, rock solid disease resistant foliage alone, well almost...gotta' have pretty, durable flowers to match.

Bliss seems to be slow about everything in my garden. Slow to break dormancy. Slow to set buds for the first flush and thereafter. Slow to open...now, that's good. Slow to drop its petals, also good. Can't have everything...though. I think its petals getting mushy is more due to the long flower life which means it's inevitable that rain will come and zap it, soon enough. Am I asking too much of a rose...probably.

Moses.

@Artist-FKA-Novice Zone 7B GA, I am in a completely different zone, but I do remember young BD being underwhelming when I had her in a pot. I was hesitant to put her in the ground, based on her flowers not looking like the pics I saw online.

After planting into her spot, I found that she became a rather girthy/buxom bush, with thick canes and even with those stiff canes the flowers were so heavy some would present weak-necked; most of the blooms are held upright. It is very floriferous and the flowers are long-lasting on the bush and in a vase. As for balling, our air is rather dry here outside of early spring, though we’ve been having freak deluges randomly in the Southland this year.

I find BD’s frosty pink color and large cinnamon roll blooms showy.

I hope you will feel at ease in whatever decision you make about BD. :)

@jjkOC zone 10a/22, SoCal

Oh, my goodness, absolutely beautiful your BD. After all, there was a reason I wanted it! I wish mine did what yours does but I will find a place for her in the garden and see how she responds.

Thank you for those gorgeous pictures! It may have made the difference between keep for ground spot and toss altogether. :)

@Artist-FKA-Novice Zone 7B GA, Aww thanks! I hope she will show you what she can do when in the ground. Good luck!

I'm a world away, climate-wise, but I cannot help you love her either. I had her from 2018-2021 or so, and she wasn't hardy enough, dieing-back to the ground ever spring. I think she got cercospora spot in autumn. Flowers usually opened here, but did ball occasionally. Fragrance? Barely any that I can recall; what I did detect was light at best and smelled like carrots to me. Even 'Peace' has more scent to me in warm, humid weather than BD here.

She's gone, and unlike others, I'll never bother with her again.

Steven

Hehe; thank you, Sheila. BD certainly did bloom, and would put on a decent display for her size, but she grew backwards each year. A little smaller each spring!

Her spot has been given to 'Frühlingsduft'. If I'm lucky, I'll see a couple blooms of it this year before the place gets sold.

Steven

My experience was strange in a different way. I can't recall whether she was grafted or own-root, but for two or three years BD was picture perfect, not any problem at all. Then she began to sharply decline and I finally removed her. She was in the same row where all the other roses did very well and were still prospering long after BD had given up the ghost.

@MiGreenThumb (Z5b S.Michigan/Sunset 41) Elevation: 1091 feet

I second Sheila. That's an awfully beautiful rose for a dud, especially the last pictures. When BD opens up properly, she can be the most elegant thing; the trouble is she often doesn't. No fragrance at all for me either, and plenty of balling. Then again, I am not one to judge fragrance since I barely get Munstead Wood.

I am very torn about BD, I still have her in the pot and haven't decided her fate yet. I am preparing a new rose bed in the backyard as I have no more space and I hope to stick her there. It doesn't help that after quite a few years her stems are still weak and flop, but I attribute that to having started it as an own root band.

I find it disheartening to read that after no more than a few years so many roses decline. With proper care, they shouldn't, right? Isn't a rose bush supposed to last decades? And once they grow backwards, can they be revitalized and made to grow larger again?

I've seen this tendency in Easy Does It - spectacular one year and then the next it wasn't so anymore. I re-potted it and it is healthy now but still not blooming as much as I'd like it to and still not bushy enough.

Interestingly, Belinda's bloom count was not bad this season but she balled and flopped.

The only one that's holding strong in the pot I placed it more than five years ago, no re-potting yet - is Olivia Rose. What a rose bush!