I can't help you with these roses, but I want to wish you the best when you undergo your surgery. Come through with flying colors so you can come back to all of us here with your infectious enthusiasm for roses. I'll be thinking of you. Diane

Carol - I wish you the best too. You are a special lady. So hoping everything goes great and you will be back here soon. Will be thinking of you and your family.

Carol, good luck with your surgery! I had Dolly Parton years ago. The blooms were big and very fragrant. My dolly would get some powdery mildew and the bush grew some, but not great. I've thought about giving it another try, but haven't.

Good luck with your surgery. I hope they caught it in time.

I used to have a Dolly Parton. It had large flowers that were quite fragrant. I have Love's Promise now. It is a dark red that is better in cool temperatures. It does have a fragrance. It doesn't care for our heat all that much but isn't so poor that I would get rid of it although I have thought about it.

Carol, I am a 26-year survivor and wish you all the best in surgery and recovery.

Here on the west coast I had a similar experience to the others regarding Dolly Parton. Big, fragrant blooms on a smallish bush with too many disease problems for my no-spray garden.

Hey Carol,
Sending prayers your way for a quick recovery! Please check in when you feel up to it to let us know you are doing okay.
IâÂÂve been admiring Dee-lish in the catalogs and am really hoping none of my local nurseries have it this yearâ¦IâÂÂm trying to slow down, but really donâÂÂt think I could resist that one.
I know youâÂÂve heard me sing the praises of Dolly down here. She is a large, vigorous bush and is stellar in fragrance, beauty and rebloom in my climate.
IâÂÂve grown LoveâÂÂs Promise for 3 or 4 years now, and sheâÂÂs a good rose here. Starts out as an almost black bud and slowly opens to reveal rich velvety petals of non-fading true red with a very dark smoky edge. Blooms are very big and full, but rather flat, and as they age, eventually open fully to show bright yellow stamens. Fragrance seems to vary a lot in intensityâ¦from very strong to only moderate depending on time of year, day, weather, etc. I like the scent, thoughâ¦smells like berries to meâ¦different scent from most of my other roses. I have her in full sun all dayâ¦would probably benefit from a couple of hours of afternoon shade. She will bloom in hot weather here, but blooms are not as full (sometimes she will have barely double blooms in high heat). Hard to capture her color in pictures, but here are a few of my attempts:

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Newly opened bloom, a partially open one & a black bud

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Picture of the bush behind Peace

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Showing off her stamens

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Carol, blessings on successful surgery and complete, rapid recovery! I grew Love's Promise many years ago and never perceived any scent from it, but I seem immune to "raspberry scent" in anything other than over ripe raspberries. Dolly Parton received that name because Joe Winchell, who created it, said it was "big, buxom" and he loved holding "one in each hand and burying my nose between them". Yup, "dirty old man"! It did smell wonderfully to me. I haven't seen Dee Lish yet. Kim

Best wishes cold zoner !

Dolly Parton did well in CT (z6b) but is extremely prone to mildew here in SoCal. It is not a great repeat bloomer but the blooms are impressive and very fragrant. Good luck on your surgery.

My Dolly Parton doesn't seem to be too mildewy for me here, but I might have gotten lucky with where I put her. She's got a pretty fragrance, that's for sure.

Best to you and your recovery. I am very happy to read all the survivor stories.

Dolly is a beautiful rose. Years ago some members here wrote about Dolly's fine qualities -- comparing the rose to Dolly, voluptuous, etc.

I shovel pruned it when I stopped spraying. I am not sure what you zone would be like.

Good luck with your surgery.

Sammy

Thanks Diane for the kind words. I'm back now; but still not feeling great. They got all the cancer; but I've been in a lot of pain. Oh well, this too will pass. :)

Thanks Sara-Ann. I can't stay up for very long at a time - so where would I go on the internet? - the rose forum!!! Nice to be back.

Kentuckyrose - Thanks for you kind wishes. Sounds like the good outweighs the cons for Dolly.

Thanks Bustopher - Yeah, they said that they got everything, and it's clean as a whistle. :) Both roses seem worthy of a try. Love's Promise might like our cooler temps here.

Petaloid - 26 year cancer survivor!!! Awesome!!! That's beating the odds!! Dolly - disease - yeah, but then if it doesn't work out - gives me a chance to buy a different rose. I'm hearing the message from everyone - but I guess I don't want to listen. LOL

Thanks Pat - I am finding the recovery difficult. Getting up and down have me screaming away. LOL - but we finally found a way to accomplish the up and down with less pain. Wish I wasn't such a slow learner. :) Yeah, Dee-lish looks wonderful. We should both get it and compare. :) Really appreciate the different view points of Dolly - such lovely pictures. The bush shots are great - but I love the last one the most.

Thanks Kim - I sure do love to get prayers and blessings - so thanks!! I have The Alnwick rose and it's raspberry scent blows me away. So I'm soooo looking forward to another raspberry fragrance. Nice to hear the story of the Dolly Parton rose - I wonder if he checked with Dolly, herself, before he named it. She might have found this funny.

Thanks, Susan! It is pretty cold here - about minus 14.5 F without windchill. I really appreciate the kind thoughts.

Thanks, Henry - more disease info - oh well, I can't say that you guys didn't warn me! :) Thanks for your kind wishes.

Dr.Pekemon - Good disease! That's another one for Dolly. Thanks for the kind wishes - I too am glad to hear the survivor stories.

Thanks Sammy - I'm braced for the poor disease performance - but I'm going to try it. Who knows? I'll let you all know this summer how it does.

I'm so pooped now - I'm off to lie down. Hopefully the screaming is gone for good (lots of staples and it felt like I really tore something inside once - hoo boy that hurt)

Carol
:)

I'm so glad to hear things went well for you, Carol! Praying for a speedy reduction in pain and a quick recovery!

Dolly Parton is gorgeous! It has huge blooms and an intense color. It;s won Queen several times locally for different people so I can tell you it should be fairly hardy. But much like most HTs it's a little bit of a diva and will need spraying to stay clean. If you love the bloom go for it. If it flops or is too much of a problem you can always get something different next year.

I got Dee-Lish last fall from a friend but it was late in the season and it never got the chance to bloom so I can't really tell you anything about it yet. It's out there in the arctic cold pot ghetto and I'm hoping it survives!

I've been waiting with anticipation to hear from you. So happy that things are going well and second what Seil said for a speedy recovery and pain reduction! Praying for your good health and beautiful roses in abundance!

I ordered Dee-Lish from Edmund's but got a email back from them that it was not available due to a "crop failure". Anyone else having a problem getting this rose?

Welcome back, Carol! You're welcome! Absolutely, Dolly, or her representatitve, had to give permission in writing before the name could be used so the introducer was released from legal liability. Even if you wanted to register and commercially introduce a rose named for YOU, there would have to be a written permission to use the name. When Harkness introduced Margaret Merrill, "the ficticious beauty consultant for Oil of Olay", they had to find a lady with that name and obtain her permission to legally call the rose that name. The Howard Rose Company wanted to name a rose for Henry Ford in the forties. There had already been a Henry Ford rose in the twenties and Ford denied his permission, so they found another Henry Ford who gave HIS permission.

Before I could register the rose, "Anne Belovich", Anne had to send me an email granting me permission to name the rose for her, which I had to then submit to the IRAR/ ARS before they would accept the registration. So, you can be certain Dolly said, "yes", or the rose wouldn't have her name. Kim

Carol, SO glad to hear your surgery went well!!! I'll keep praying that you are feeling better soon.

Carol, glad you are now recuperating and they got all of the cancer!

Thanks, Seil! I think I'm doing a little better - but if I compared myself to Friday night (when I came home) - I would probably find myself in substantially less pain. Thanks for the nod to Dolly Parton - yay!! Dee-Lish - guess we'll have to see. This must be a new rose?

Thanks Sara-Ann - Prayers are soooo welcome! Thanks for your kind thoughts. :)

Wirosarian - oh, really?...hmmm...that's too bad. I haven't heard yet if mine is available. I think I ordered that one from Hortico.

Thanks, Kim! I guess I could have figured that one out by myself. :) Let's blame the pills (for pain) LOL

Thanks, Pat! Yay for prayer power!!

Kentucky-rose - Thanks so much!! Now I want to do as well as Petaloid!!
Carol

Hello. I hope you feel better and better every day!

I have Love's Promise - it's called Red Cross here. I bought it because of the hype about its supposed scent and continuous blooming. I love the look of the flower but it's barely scented and it's a sparse boomer so far. I'm thinking of replacing it with Firefighter.