While I can't speak for Sweet Antike Freelander, I purchased Carmel Antike Freelander from Northland last spring, and love it! The blooms just last and last and don't ball at all for me. If you go no HMF the last three pictures submitted are mine from the same bloom, at different statges of opening.

I've actually placed an order from Northland for Spring, Sweet Antike Freelander & Party Dress (although not a Freelander), hoping for similar results with Florist's Roses. There's some blackspot, but its not often that a florists rose does this well in a no-spray garden (at least for me). I'm just dying to find Magma Freelander! Can't say how the rest of the Freelander Series would be in CA in relation to diseases there, but Carmal Antike seems to enjoy the deep south :) Let's hope Sweet Antike does as well!
~Tammy

Here's a pic of mine from this past summer:
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I have Sweet Antique Freelander. I barely survived the freeze of 2009-10 that took out half my Freelanders. But the flowers are just amazing..very fragrant ruffly blooms of a slightly lavender pink. my plant is still struggling back after 2 unusual Northwest winters. I know I will love it if and when it gets back to a good blooming size. I think it would probably be AMAZING in your climate! Of the Freelander Series the best for me have been Antique Caramel, and Ice Girl and one of the coral- apricot blend colored ones that wants to be 7' tall no matter how often I prune it, and grow one flower on the tip of each of its branches. RIght now after an ice storm, in late January it is sitting out there with 3 perfect roses blooming away! ITs not Safari, which I lost but one of the others in that color range.

It is so true that location and environment are everything when it comes to growing roses. In another thread, we were asked to list the five worst roses in our gardens, and Caramel Antike was number 3 on my list. Its blooms were fine, but there were only about six produced a season, and it will not grow. Period. I've had it about three years. Last year, I got Party Dress against my better judgment, and so far it is doing better than CA. However, part of the problem is my fault. Both these rose were ordered from Palatine and grafted on multiflora, which I know does not like alkaline soil, and we have alkaline soil. I should have known better, or ordered own root roses from Northland, I guess. I'm hoping that with the continued adding of amendments to acidify the soil, things will improve. I wanted Kordes roses so much, and I didn't realize at the time that Northland had them. Diane

Thanks for the info. about freelander roses.

nanadoll I had the same experience with Palatine. The roots hate my soil. Luckily, half were put into 15 gallon cans and these did well. I let them form roots of their own and now they are happy in my soil. The others that went into the ground.. I could not understand why they were declining so fast when they looked very husky as bareroots. Thinking that the location might be bad, I decided to move one and saw it had almost no roots left so I put them all into pots of potting mix+sand+soil and in a few years they bounced back having made roots off the bottoms of the canes.In all cases the giant roots they arrived on were almost completely gone.

I would still buy from them but plant only in a container at first. It's better than not having the rose at all. I have to say that some of the rescued ones. that almost died from lack of roots are now some of my healthiest, largest roses

newroses: I don't remember Caramel Antike being sold as a florist rose. I purchased it because it sounded like it was rose I might like. It is still very much alive. Winter kill is not a problem here. I have never protected a single rose against the cold, and I have never lost one to winter kill, nor have ever had any significant cane damage due to the cold. I never worry about disease resistance here, either, since we don't have black spot. This is a desert. So, I personally think that the multiflora is the problem, since my other Kordes on multiflora have had to overcome a similar problem to a lesser degree, and the Kordes roses on Dr.Huey have not had the lack of growth and bloom problems.

Thank you kittymoonbeam and Diane for sharing your experiences about alkaline soi. In my pH of 7.7 alkaline soil with limestones, own-roots struggle and are not as vigorous as grafted on Dr. Huey. The own-root Easy Elegance rose developed in Minnesota declined to 1/10 of its original size, and doesn't bloom here.

When that rose was in an acidic potting soil at HomeDepo, it was loaded with blooms. I will dig it from the ground, and put in a pot with MiracleGro potting soil. Thanks, Kitty, for that idea.

Caramel Antique was one of the earliest Freelander roses as a commercial cut. It is a decent garden rose and is proved to be fairly hardy in cold climates. Kordes has better choices than Antique Caramel for cut flower production with longer vase life and better stem production. I don't like its tall lanky habit in the garden setting but others seem to tolerate it. Disease resistance is average for a Kordes rose. Multi-flora is a very good root stock for colder climates. I agree that in California or desert climates Dr. Huey is better and on alkalline soils it is certainly a better choice. We use multiflora because we can seed propagate it thus avoiding any potential for virus transmission in our mother block plants. It is a pain in that it can sucker and we have to clean it up. I have a prefernce for own root plants when the variety performs well on its own roots - not all do. I have never produced Freelander as own root plants so I have no advice on that. A 7.7 pH is a very alkaline soil and I don't doubt that roses have a hard time flowering and growing in this soil. Have you considered acidifying the soil when planting. I am sure the local Extension office could make a good recommendation on what to add.

I have acidified all my roses on multiflora,and all are doing pretty well, but Caramel Antike. I will be doing this again in spring. I also have a few Kordes on Dr. Huey, and they are fine. I only have a couple of roses that seem to have a hard time flowering.
On another topic, I am using the new zone rating from the new USDA map. Hope I interpreted it correctly. I was shocked at the big change. Diane

Caramel Antique did very well here the first two years, but has since declined. Don't know why. As noted by others, it is not a good cut.

INTERESTING that the assumption was made that I was growing Freelander roses for my own garden use. Actually, I run my own organic cut flower business. I use garden roses, English roses, AND Freelanders. My Freelander Roses are in a row in my cutting garden. THey are marvelous for just the reasons they are advertised...a cutting garden! Ice Girl gives me tons of beautiful long lasting fragrant white roses. The last cutting of them provided 2 dozen for a special birthday party.
Safari went into a bouquet for a 20th wedding anniversary along with Marvelle (Which was sold as a Freelander the year I bought it, but corrected by the next year. IT is HUGE in my garden. Sweetness, now in its 3rd year is giving me copious sprays of ruffly pink roses to sell at my flower stand. Caramel Antike...One good cutting in early summer of huge flowers, usually rain spotted here, with a rebloom later in the summer. They are much like Jude the Obscure, but longer lasting as a cut. In a dryer climate they would be lovely. Tonight I picked sprays of Red Typhoon, and the yellow blushed with red ones (Magma?). The bushes are big and beautiful. It has taken them 3-4 years to hit their stride in my garden, but that includes learning time for me!

I wish Palatine could still sell Freelanders, but now I am filling in the gaps with those other new wonderful Kordes roses that were mentioned by NewRoses. For me, the Freelanders were tough roses that stand up to the conditions of a roadside flower stand in summer warmth and wind. Some even had lovely fragrance, like Ice Girl.

(And now all my Freelanders get a good 6" mulch over their graft in wintertime, even if other roses seldom need it...no more losses).