About 14 years ago a landscaping contractor put in two short hedges of this rose for us (three plants each). One hedge was in full sun and is still going fine, although it has gottten too tall for where it is (at about 4 1/2 feet it blocks drivers's view of the sidewalk as one is exiting our driveway - we have plans to chop it down to 2 feet).

The other group were in an area that became shadier and shadier, because of the neighbor's privet hedge right next to it, and because of a gigantic Cecile Brunner in our garden at the end of it which was trying to take over the world.

So, the three bushes got taller and taller ( to about 5 ft tall) and very top heavy, and one day a couple of years ago I noticed that two of them had fallen over in winter storms. They fell over towards the light, which was of course the direction in which they had been growing. That whole area was a mess, and I ignored it, other than cutting off the dead growth as I noticed it. Then the third bush fell over. Finally, the giant old Cecile Brunner died, and my DH spent 3 days cutting it up and digging it out. So, after he hauled it away, I was able to get into that area for the first time in years, and pull up the English ivy, which was rampant.

Amazing - all three of the original bushes were just dead stumps. However, where the quite bushy tops of them had touched the ground, they had all rooted, and brand new bushes had emerged. The new rose bushes were about 2 1/2 ft high and 2 ft wide, and look healthy. Two of them were still attached to the dead stumps by long canes. I detached them, and cleaned up around them, and realized that I now had 4 new bushes, not 3 - somehow another one had appeared about 18 inches away from one of them. All four of them are now in much more sun (when I thought about it, I decided that this had been their plan all along), and look happy. I had no idea that Gourmet Popcorn could do that! I think I thought of it as a boring shrub (or miniature, HMF calls it both). Now I find it much more interesting, and I promised the new bushes I would take better care of them!

Jackie

Jackie