I read a review somewhere saying if you want a rose to cover the side of your igloo, this is the rose for you! I was a novice rose gardener facing a garden of dead, prickly twigs that used to be roses every spring. I wanted something that survived winter - does it ever!!!!!

It isn't fragrant, or vaseworthy, but it is big, beautiful, and healthy. It remains disease free without spraying or systemics - rare in the humid Pocono summers. Once its roots hit "critical mass," it sends up huge healthy canes covered with bright pink flowers. It makes the hot pink Knock Out rose look like a sickly dwarf.

What a survivor! It survived two moves in one year, including two "polar vortex" winters - the worst winters in recent history. I hurt my shoulder in the first move and didn't get all of my roses in the ground before winter. WB spent one winter in a pail.

I lost many of the roses I moved. I am still mourning their loss.

The survivors are small, short own-root roses, growing roots trying to revive - and William Baffin.

He is taller than I am, with canes as thick as my finger. ...still smaller than he was before I moved, but not for long. He survived without protection in the worst of winters. The only thing that can slow him down is the deer - they don't even bother the burly canes, just new leaves and buds.

I am growing this rose at the back of the garden, blocking (eventually) the neighbor's shed as a backdrop for my other roses and cottage plants.

Reply to this comment