Brendan - it sure is photogenic!

Straw - There is no way I would call that gorgeous rose bush boring!!! The petals are stunning and I love the color too!! This is Beautiful...not boring... IMHO. :) :)

You have to compare the same plant with a similar growing region to make a fair comparison of a plant. My growing region of zone 10 will show completely different growth habit compared to even an 8. My 2 Evelyns stay about the same as my AD but you have to also realize they are on Fortuniana rootstock so not the same animal as a plant on it's own root. Rootstocks change plants entirely more then anything else in the equation.

It is all very interesting in all ways. Evelyn grown in zone 10a is 1,853 miles from the equator so the colors I have on my plants will not be the same either. I am from Plainfield Il originally. All the tomatoes I grew up there taste different then they do down here as well. Soil and climate change things altogether! I definitely saw it firsthand when getting here in 1990.

Where do you live Sharon? Felicia can also be added to the list. Katerina zeimet is a small bush and Climbing clotilde soupert is a beautiful rose although some report balling. I will add that Peggy martin And ghislaine de feligand As well as raspberry cream twirl Are also great roses. Let's not forget madame Alfred carrier. You can add your zone and location to your name. You might also consider adding this to the regular rose form and antique rose form for more replies but I think you've gotten pretty good feedback here. Just now realized this is a really old post but great information in any case. Probably why raspberry clean cream twirl wasn't included in the list! LOL!

On the other side, I absolutely LOVE Crazy Love! I find that mine is a steady if not profuse bloomer, with a little shut down in the heat like a lot of my roses. When it blooms, it blooms all over with those big fat striped blooms in lasting color that stay on the bush a long time. I agree that it's big - mine is fairly tall and narrow at about 5' tall by no more than 2' wide. Think the size of Poseidon in a colder zone. John's experience may be more like yours in PNW.

Cynthia

Judi my Crazy Love is own root from Heirloom. I actually avoid grafted Kordes for the most part because I think they are vigorous enough in their own roots here. ( earth angel is the only one that does much better grafted for me)

Here is my Adobe Sunrise this afternoon. The second flush is a lot more orange than the salmony tones of the first.

I have been batting chili thrips for years. Initially, I thought it was just heat and humidity causing small brown blooms, brown growth and the puckering and bronzing you see on the leaves. They are just so hot and dry looking with all the brown. A friend pointed out what it was, and they were definitely correct. I cut and bagged all the growth and sprayed everything with Captain Jack's and did that probably 10-14 days apart several times. What I found is that it DEFINITELY works, but they ALWAYS come back. When the weather cools down, their numbers decrease naturally and late fall, winter (I'm zone 9a with milld winters) and spring always give me quite lovely blooms without intervention. My local friend who sprays much more religiously appears to have developed spinosad resistance in her chili thrips and had a much worse case over time than I did. I decided to go the other route and buy beneficials, minute pirate bugs, lace wings, lady bugs, even a couple praying mantis for fun - and it really seemed to help more in the long run than the spinosad. I did do a second round of minute pirate bugs 30 days after the first application. I'm hoping to use dormant oil for any over wintering thrips this spring, and then additional minute pirate bugs. I believe I bought them around "Earth Day" in April and they were running a promotion with a discount. My state of mind now, is that they are here to stay and likely will not be eradicated, the chemicals require constant respraying which is not ideal and they can become resistant anyways, - so I am just accepting them and pivoting to other flowering plants in the absolute heat of the summer when roses look less ideal anyway due to temps.