I really love mine. I've had it for years. There is a spotty bit of rebloom and not a lot of disease here. It isn't as vigorous as some ramblers. It takes up more the space of a Large Flowered Climber with fairly lax canes.

It is not "overly vigorous" at all here in my zone 9 garden in No California. As a matter of fact, I owned it for 20 years before I even found out it was a climber! When we moved into our 1905 house, there were 3 of them growing in various parts of the garden. All were in what was now deep shade. I loved it, but had no idea what it was. One died, I moved one, rooted another, and ended up with 2 in the sun. I know it can be controlled easily, because that was what I did without thinking much about it.

Then I finally found out what it was, and my DH built me a climbing structure for one of them, and I left the long canes and tied them along a fence on the other one. However, it is still just climbing slowly, not rampant at all. Here is a pic of mine, still in the bottom half of its structure:

Jackie

P.S. If you want more, it tip roots easily - one of mine had made 2 extra plants before I noticed.

Thank you so much for your input, Mendocino Rose! It sounds like a good endorsement to me. With our mild winters, I am hoping it keeps good foliage year-round since I would like to have a little bit of privacy in that corner of the property. Do you think it will tolerate some shade in the summer when the oaks are leafed out, or should I assure that it gets full sun?
Molly

Though in a different climate from you, I love mine! It is fanned out along an 8' trellis if that helps for size. It has very good disease resistance here, large and beautiful flowers that smell good at certain stages and faint at others, but no repeat bloom here.

Thanks, Jackie and Lori. I appreciate your sharing your thoughts on American Beauty. Now, I feel completely comfortable placing my young rose in the garden. I had a choice between American Pillar and American Beauty and I choice AB because I was fearful of American Pillar becoming too vigorous and massive. Looks like I made a good choice. Seeing photos of Anne Belovich's roses (guest speaker at RoseDango) made me yearn for once-bloomers.
Molly

I think it likes sun Molly but could be grown with some shade , if you must. I actually have ended up with two because the found rose Jose Africa appears to be Climbing American Beauty. I planted it in a spot that became more shady with time. It's more disease prone in the shade, but has bloomed well.

Thank you, Pam. This is the corner where I think I will plant American Beauty cl. I have a heavy-duty 8 foot iron fence section that I plan to place cater-corner about 10 feet in front of the corner posts of the fence. Hopefully, the rose will then continue up the cedar tree.
Molly

I found a nice picture of mine with Etoile Violette.