Try Burling or Wisconsin roses.

I got mine from angel gardens. Message Pam and see if she has any.

I have 6 beautiful plants of Annie Laurie McDowell along my garden wall that get better every year. I feel an obligation to pass along this lovely rose so that others can enjoy it, too. I tried several times to root it and was unsuccessful. I’m not ready to accept defeat at this point, but I’m thinking I’d be better off learning the art of budding and trying to graft it on Pink Cloud or Fortuniana rootstock. I’m presently completely inexperienced with grafting, but definitely open to the challenge. Kim, what’s your advice to me on this? (I’m fairly confident that I can learn and only wish I was closer to Burling as she offered to teach me.) Which rootstock would you recommend for Annie Laurie McDowell and which method of grafting?

Somewhere online Burling has an excellent tutorial on chip budding. I'll see if I can find it.

@judijunebugarizonazn8 thank you! Here is my blog post with photos of chip budding. Please feel free to browse all the other posts on my blog as many contain information and photos of chip budding. https://pushingtheroseenvelope.blogspot.com/2014/11/chip-budding.html Google "chip budding" for MANY articles, videos and tutorials on how to do it. I've wrapped and am attempting to root a lot of Pink Clouds for stocks at this time as there are several roses in the yard I want to replicate. I've battled an own root Marguerite de Fénelon for several years and I give up. It NEEDS good roots. https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.41340 Do you need Pink Clouds or do you have it?

🙌😊

Thank you, Kim. I just sat down after a busy day and saw your reply. I’m going to spending some time looking through the info you sent. No, I don’t have Pink Clouds. Someone on this forum, I can’t remember who, offered me some root stock a year or so ago, but I wasn’t quite ready to tackle it at that point. Now that I’ve caught up on a lot of the big projects around here, I’m feeling ready to focus on learning grafting, so I need to get some root stock.

Oh thank you everyone for all the wonderful responses! I wasn't actually expecting it, and roseseek to respond, I am honored! :D I've poured over your posts many times!

@judijunebugarizonazn8 if there are any roses or supplies I can send you, I'd be very happy to as thanks for for learning to bud! I remember looking into it once and instantly feeling overwhelmed. I'm such a visual person, if I can't see it in person it feels like deciphering Greek! I'll also reach out to Steve Singer at Wisconsin Roses to see if they'd be willing to bud them if sent the materials. :)

Thank you all again for chiming in! This really has been my dream rose since I started growing them years ago. :)

-Julie

@judijunebugarizonazn8 you're welcome. PM me if you'd like cuttings. You'll have to root them and grow it until it pushes the gauge you need for budding. I prefer Pink Clouds because it doesn't demand the high heat I don't have to root, though it roots faster in heat, nor does it demand high heat to push buds. Yes, it pushes them fabulously in heat. It has thicker cambium than most others, making it easier to successfully bud whether you're skilled and practiced or not. Burling used it for decades and stated she likes it because it remains in budding condition for much of the year. She created every mini standard Sequoia ever produced using it and made many full sized standards, even weepers to 6', using it. This is a Sunshine standard I bought from her at Sequoia years ago on PC. I planted it in a pot on a client's patio where it grew for years. This was it in 2011. When she finally tired of it, I dragged it home and planted it in the back yard until we sold the house in 2015 and moved north.

I gave it to Kippy who used to post on these forums. We dug it and she dragged it home to Santa Barbara. This was it in 2025 in her garden. She said the head was easily 5' in diameter.

The large Annie Laurie McDowell on HMF in Old Orchard, Valencia, is budded on Pink Clouds. Burling budded that more than 20 years ago.

Probably the only conditions it wouldn't be suited for would be where there are severe, deep freezes or where the water quality is SO alkaline, it isn't drinkable. It's half multiflora and half China. I also grow De la Grifferaie and IXL, both multiflora, and neither of them have AS thick cambium as PC does. And, PC AND Annie Laurie McDowell were indexed and found to be "virus free" of the viruses for which they test.

@Mihoshi Ivy I'm happy there appears to be a way for you to grow ALmD. It's honestly a lovely thing. I know you will like it .

Kim, I can’t direct message you from the app on my phone, which is how I use Houzz. But if you message me, I can reply to you. I would like to arrange for some cuttings of PC to come my way.

@roseseek said: "Burling used it for decades and stated she likes it because it remains in budding condition for much of the year."

I've found that 'Pink Clouds' can be budded on to any time of the year!

@Paul Barden I love it! I gave up on Fortuniana and Huey here because both DEMAND heat which we simply don't have without using a green house (which I don't have) to root and push buds. The multiflora types don't but PC roots so much easier and faster than IXL or De la Grifferaie. Even rooting requires some heat. That much I can provide. @judijunebugarizonazn8 PM sent!

Judi, I was the one who offered you a Pink Clouds plant when we did our trading. I have several very well-rooted 1 gallon plants of it. You have my email. Kim, I'm happy to send one to you, but since it roots so fast, it looks like you don't need one unless you want it asap. Kim has my email as well. I also have a couple of extra well-rooted one gallon IXLs.

I'm not sure what the problem may be with rooting cuttings; we rooted multiple trays of them at Florida Southern, for distribution to the Florida nurseries, and as I recall, the rooting percentage was quite high. We used an outdoor intermittent mist system, with no shade (full noon-time sun), in Florida's sticky humid heat. So among those conditions may lie the trick to rooting it easily.

@malcolm_manners I believe it. I rooted them easily wrapping cuttings when I was back in the Los Angeles heat. Rooting here in the "beach cold" is a much less reliable effort. Successful propagation requires heat. Sequoia Nursery used to root anything they were given under mist in 100+F green houses like a Xerox machine. I'd take Carolyn cuttings in October and pick up gallon own root plants in April. Many of the cuttings shown in photos on my blog were Annie Laurie McDowell. I had to give up trying to root and bud Fortuniana and Dr. Huey here due to that lack of high heat both require to root and push buds. Commercially, the issue with rooting ALmD has been none of the suppliers have grown a large plant from which to take cuttings. They've all taken small pieces of small potted plants. That is precisely what I have advised every one of them I have spoken with to do. Bud a plant to grow as a mother plant, because you need those thick canes to produce vigorous own root plants, and you're not going to get that kind of growth from a potted plant, particularly if you're continually cutting pieces off it to try making more.

Well, that explains my lack of success, malcolm-manners. I tried rooting mine in the late fall because I seem to have better success rooting roses that time of year. They root slowly, but they seem to do better in the long run over the cooler part of the year for me than in the heat of summer. Apparently Annie Laurie McDowell has her own terms and likes the heat! I didn’t know that. I’ve had poor success rooting The Prince in the past but this past fall I tried again and managed to root 4 lovely little bushes through the winter. That one seems to root better in the cool weather. Different strokes for different roses.

I, too, Judi have only had success rooting other cuttings in October here stuck in the ground and uncovered.

I see ALM is totally different.

@judijunebugarizonazn8 perhaps you might be better off accepting @susan9santabarbara 's offer of the PC plant. Hers are already potted while what I may be able to rough out won't be. I can send thick cuttings which may be rooted for stocks, though, if you're interested.

It probably shouldn't be surprising ALmD prefers heat. Her mom, Renae was a Visalia girl and that place is HOT. Annie was "born" in Newhall, CA, where it ranged from 15F in winter to 115F in summer at its worst. She'll grow without high heat but she definitely propagates much faster and easier with it.

Roseseek, what an interesting comment. I have Renae and she thrives in Santa Clarita. Somehow I thought Annie Laurie MacDowell was a much older rose.

Here is Renae, yesterday.

@sylviaww 10a, hot dry inland Socal no ma'am, Ralph Moore introduced Renae in 1954, from a cross he actually made in 1941. It was named for the sister of the man who owned a store in town, who passed from cancer. I raised Annie Laurie McDowell in 1994. Don't you love that "peach tree" foliage?

Thank you, Kim. I’ve contacted Susan and we’re discussing the idea of her sending some plants my way.

@susan9santabarbara if you have more starts of Pink Clouds needing homes, I have someone who is in need and will be traveling through Santa Barbara the first week of May, in case you might have an orphan or two?

Kim, I have three Pink Clouds in gallons who would be happy to go live with your friend. They were in their gallon pots for well over a year, so I "processed" them at the end of March. By that, I mean that I cut off the rootbound parts and gave them fresh soil, and gave them a bit of a haircut. I put them back into one gallons, on the chance that someone might need me to mail them. I also have two one gallon IXLs who need homes. Just let me know.

Thank you, Susan! I shall let her know and report back. Much appreciated! Kim

Susan so kindly gifted me PC and I recently rooted a few cuttings - 100% success rate so far, it’s given me a lot of false confidence in my abilities 😂.

I managed to track down a tiny ALMD and plan to bud it once everyrhing grows to a reasonable size. Fingers crossed I finally get a robust mother plant 🙏🏽

@ SD Shine -Z10a Bay Area grow your ALmD in a pot of good potting soil. Keep it appropriately fed and watered and pick off all the flower buds as they form. It WILL try to flower continuously at the expense of growing. You CAN let it flower but that will slow its growth and development. Ideally, you want shoots the gauge of a #2 pencil from which to take buds. Your Pink Clouds stocks need to be at least that same gauge or larger for budding to succeed. You can try smaller gauge material and it can work but it's more dicey due to the smaller, thinner material. If you get that thinner stuff to live, it will take longer to develop into the size plant you are desiring. Once you have momentum with your ALmD, it won't take long for that thicker, stronger growth to begin pushing. Once it's really pumping out growth in the pot, you can move it on to the ground where it will slow and push roots before generating more top growth. Fingers crossed for you!

I’m so excited for you, SDShine, and I hope you keep us posted. I’m waiting to be able to get some cutting material to root PC so that I can begin grafting ALMD. I’m trying not to hover obsessively over my PC plants, but I can’t help but think of Frog and Toad and how dear old Toad would sing songs and read poetry and yell at his plants to GROW!! That’s what PC needs to do though, so I can get some nice canes for cutting..

Back in November 2020, I was able to root a cutting of Annie Laurie McDowell. The plant did great alongside the orchids, but it did not like the dry summer heat (did better in a well watered pot than in the ground), or the winter cold here (acted like a tea). I'd be curious to try rooting cuttings again. The way this rose grew was truly beautiful, and once it rooted, it grew very quickly.

November 17, 2020

November 28, 2020

December 12, 2020

December 28, 2020

New growth was so beautiful.

@susan9santabarbara I've heard back from my friend who will be traveling through Santa Barbara and she would be delighted to have the Pink Clouds and an IXL. I thought I had your email so I could put you two in contact with each other, but I'm not finding it. I'm also unable to message you though Houzzless. Would you please PM me or email me at this name on aol.com so I can get you and Jennifer together? Thank you! Kim

I'll email you right now.

I posted this photo on the Seassonal thread, but it really belongs here. This is one of my six Annie Laurie McDowell roses planted in my “English Border” , as I like to call it. I think this is the best spring flush I’ve seen; normally the thrips ruin the first flush and my fall bloom is the best. I sprayed them with Spinosad this year early enough to stay ahead of the thrips.

@judijunebugarizonazn8 gorgeous! Remarkable what a little patience can produce, no?

Judi's pic above is a good opportunity to remind folks that if you click on a pic, it will often enlarge to a spectacular degree!