You've done nothing wrong with this rose. It just simply doesn't bloom well in some climates. It does exactly the same for me and for some other folks.

Yup, that's our girl. Brown balls of mush in the spring, but usually quite a luscious show for the second flush after all the rains are history. Here it only rains in the winter, so once it stops it stops for good this rose gets a chance, and when she does she is still a heartstopper. Still, she likes it HOT, and the climate here (50 miles north of SF and 30 miles from the Pacific) is a bit on the moderate side for her. I think she'd like it better hotter.

See, I've never gotten really anything from this rose,even though this climate is hot and dry! Which is why I was wondering about the soil, etc.Would you say go ahead and shovel-prune it? Thanks, bart

I had E. Veyrat Hermanos and it never balled and bloomed very well. I garden on decomposed granite which has been enriched and it may be that it likes a lighter soil AND heat. At any rate, and please don't shoot me, it wasn't a great favorite of mine and was much too large for its spot, so I no longer have it. It faced more or less east and only had sun for half a day and that didn't seem to bother it. There are too many other beautiful climbers to hang onto one that doesn't make you happy.

Ingrid

I have no experience with this rose, but I had a similar problem with one of my "The Fairy" rose. I had purchased two and liked them so much that I bought a third. The third one which was purchased from a different vendor would develop flower buds which would never open. I don't think I ever saw a single flower from this rose. Someone told me there is a bad clone of this rose. I don't know if it's some kind of virus or mutation or what. I shovel pruned it.

Bart, mine started out having an excellent spring which was early and quite warm. It was covered in buds, and the buds started opening into magnificent flowers. Then we had a rain, and that was the end of that. All those buds just froze in time. We got hit with thrips at about the same time. This rose is really too big for my garden and I don't think chopping it to keep it smaller is the way to go, so I'm at the same point as you. This weekend may be when I cut it down. I do believe that it needs HEAT and doesn't mind humidity which we have plenty of here in the summer. Perhaps the combination of wet and cool is bad for it. It balled last spring, too. The spring before it got thrips. I don't remember how it did last summer. I just know I had never seen blooms on it like I did this spring. Mine is 2-1/2 years old. How old is yours? Could maturity have anything to do with it? But probably that doesn't matter. It's a thrips magnet.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

The old blooms look like dirty toilet paper. I planted this GIANT of a rose on a fence line to cover the neighbors ugly shed. In three years it achieved the size of the shed 10X15. The blooms are pretty only in bud and early bloom. After that.....YUK!

Bart if you have had the rose for several (4-5) unsuccessful seasons, it may never be a good rose in your climate. If you have given it a reasonable amount of time for success and it has not come through for you, don't feel bad about shoveling it and trying something new.

Not all roses work in every climate, even grand OGRs.