The way I look at it that an English garden & a Colorado garden has a few things different, mainly cold (it doesn't get that cold in England due to the currents), humidity (a gazillion times drier in Colorado than in England), length of growing period (7 months if I'm super lucky, 4 months if I'm unlucky), and altitude (6000+ ft versus, what, sea level?). Thus, mulch for me! Every rose that was under a ton of mulch has done exceedingly much better than any rose that wasn't mulched (with 2 rare exceptions - Austrian Copper & Theresa Bugnet). I have 2 roses completely buried in vinca - a Perfume Tiger and my Cardinal Hume. Both are stunted roses.. I don't see *ANY* canes whatsoever.
