Beautiful, Jeri!

I love this rose, but it's only borderline hardy here. I've had two over the last 20 years, and lost both to unusually harsh, and admittedly abnormally cold winters that had Polar Vortex blasts. I may yet try it again, since now we're officially Z7b, moved up from Z7a. I do envy you, Jeri. Of course, if my weather were as warm as Cali's, I'd also be growing Belle Portugaise, lol

I love it! So charming.

If there is one single thing I have learned about growing roses in the past 35 years, it is that I will be happier if I only try to grow roses in our garden which LOVE our climate here! I was lucky, and moved into a family house & garden where lots of various kinds of roses had been planted in the previous 85 years. The house had become a rental, and for 25 years immediately before we moved in, the roses had not gotten much care or irrigation. Half of them had died, but the surviving half (about 50+ bushes) turned out to be the much older ones. Almost 100% of the HTs had died, or were covered in diseases. The survivors were all old heritage roses which like warm climates: hybrid giganteas, hybrid wichuranas, old tea roses, chinas, polyanthas, tea noisettes, & hybrid multifloras, and one hybrid perpetual. It took me another 10 years of planting roses to figure out that I should stick to those types of roses - not difficult, as they are happy & healthy here even with NO spraying of any kind. I also cloned many of the old old ones whcih had survived from my DHs ancestors and spread them around the garden - I knew they liked it here! So, if you read a rose book, or go to a Rose Society meeting, don't pay any attention to the "conventional wisdom" that almost all rose can be grown anywhere. It is more true to say that most roses can be grown somewhere.

Jeri - of all of its names, I love "Ragged Robin" the best, even though is not as old as the other names. It is just perfect for how the blooms of that rose look.

Jackie

I totally agree with Jackie. There is a big difference between something surviving and something being happy and looking good. Even though some roses look great in other gardens, I discovered that the same roses aren't necessarily happy in mine, and rather than fussing over them endlessly, and us both being unhappy, it's better to just remove them. That being said, it's tough to decide when that moment is.

" So, if you read a rose book, or go to a Rose Society meeting, don't pay any attention to the "conventional wisdom" that almost all rose can be grown anywhere. It is more true to say that most roses can be grown somewhere. " -- Jackie

Jackie, it took a few years, but thee and me, eventually learned that lesson well. Saves you massive frustration, doesn't it?

Noseometer . . . The thing that was hardest for me to learn was not to fight Mother Nature, and the Nature of the Rose.

Oh, and Jackie . . . I like "Ragged Robin" best myself. It somehow suits where our plant came from, and the tall weeds that were all around it.

This plant, I've never seen a single sign of virus on it. I'd swear -- this actually may have been planted as 'Gloire des Rosomanes'.