torgo wrote in
:

The kicker is that I like the Dr. Huey part of the bush much better
than the Redoute part. It's healthy, vigorous, and a really nice
purplish bloom (very similar to Outta The Blue). The Redoute part is
kinda ho-hum - a nice English rose form, but the color fades easily.
What's really cool, though, is having both the pink and the purple on
the same bush at the same time.

We hear about it all the time since it's so common as root stock, but
seeing it bloom made me wonder - does anyone here intentionally grow
Dr. Huey?

I do. I think it's a terrific rose. I have one large Dr. Huey in my back
garden and two smaller ones (volunteers from the base of Scentimental) in
five gallon pots waiting for an opening in the garden somewhere.

The contrast between the deep burgundy petals and yellow stamens is quite
remarkable; so is its floriferous display in springtime.

The once-blooming factor is only a small drawback. The trick to having
once-bloomers, I've found, is to have enough constant bloomers in the
garden to offset them. I have a small apartment garden with just a little
more than 100 roses, some in the ground and some in containers, so a non-
blooming rose immediately calls attention to itself.

When I had far fewer varieties I felt more impatient about plants that
bloomed only once a year and didn't regularly grow them. Now that I have
others with a near year-round showy display, once-blooming varieties like
Dr. Huey and Madame Hardy (which just finished for the year) provide a
certain expectant drama to the garden, and I find that I rather like it.

Another once-bloomer that gave a spectacular show was Indian Love Call, a
dark pink with bright yellow stamens. I'm sorry this rose isn't in
commerce yet because I think it would do marvelously---clean foliage,
resistant to mildew (in Zone 10B at least), delicate arching branches...a
really nice shrub rose.

But Dr. Huey's terrific, as far as I'm concerned.

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