One great rose

I maintain a pretty laissez-faire attitude in my garden and don't really spray or even try to trap many pests. But as I was passing under the arbor this weekend I did pluck a couple of Japanese beetles off my 'John Davis' rose. I felt I owed it to him, somehow. Of all my roses, and I grow several, the 'John Davis' was the ONLY one that didn't die to the ground after last winter's schizophrenic high and low temperatures.

A really rugged rose in all respects, 'John Davis' is one of the Canadian Explorer Series of roses and can withstand Zone 3 temperatures (to 40 below zero) with little or no dieback.

I grow mine as a climber, but he also makes a nice shrub rose, growing to 7 feet high. Flowers are a pure rose pink, double, about 3 inches across, and grow in clusters that cover the plant in June and bloom less abundantly throughout the rest of the season.