"Mark. Gooley" writes:

I think I've been having unrealistic expectations of a recent
introduction being something that looks and repeats like the
best of the English Roses but smothers houses given half a
chance, when I should be giving my Noisettes and other
potential giants more time and a better situation -- and maybe
get more of them.

I'm trying to think of some of the old roses that would look like the English
roses and get large. Souvenir de la Malmaison, the climber, is close, but
doesn't repeat well for me. How about Sombreuil, very fragrant, lots of petals
and good repeat bloom. But I guess that depends on what is in your mind when
you think of English roses. To me, Abraham Darby is typical.
My Darlow's Enigma and Secret Garden Musk Climber are still babies, but I'm
expecting big things from them. I don't get a great deal of fragrance from
either, but I love those blooms. Especially DE. They look so fragile and
delicate, just perfect little flowers. Mine is planted in an area that does
not get nearly enough sun, but this one hasn't stopped blooming and doesn't
have a single blackspotted leaf.
Reve d'Or is a great, and big, noisette. Mine did take three years or so to
get going well, but now it's covering a palm and cascading to the ground. This
rose has the most perfect looking buds of any rose I've ever grown.
Do you have Alachua (sp?) Red? Or did I see it on the nursery site you
mentioned? I wonder if it may be the same rose as Red Cascade. RC is classed
as a miniature, but the only thing miniature about it is the leaves and blooms.
This one will throw 20' + canes every season. It can be grown as a climber or
a groundcover. A local nursery uses it for erosion control around a sink hole.
Mine is growing up through a rectangular arbor and cascades down (and out and
up and under the siding and everywhere else I don't cut it back.) I use the
hedge trimmers each spring to cut it back to arbor size and then hack away at
errant canes at least once a month. If let go it would easily be the largest
rose I grow. Oh yes, and it those canes remain on the ground any length of
time, they root. You could cover acres with just one of these in a couple of
years.
Give yours a chance to grow a little. The ones you mentioned in a recent post
are some good roses (Mrs. BR Cant comes to mind first) and should fit your
needs the near future. Patience, patience.....and no I don't have any to
spare. g
Julie