Never a sign of disease or indeed even stress, she may just be garden royalty.

I don't know who Mrs. Dudley Cross was one hundred-odd years ago, but she must have had a sunny, carefree disposition. Here in a protected site against a wall in my Zone 5b-6 garden, she was rather shy at first, taking a good 3 years to take off. But boy did she ever take off! Throwing out thornless, almost vine-like maroon growth and big, veined leaves, she is also producing HUGE blooms from very large upright, pointy buds that look like rocket cones wrapped in pink silk. Her new growth indeed is a strange thing to look at--like a vine-maple's--but who would trade her cheerful, thornless easygoing nature away? Hey, did I mention she was thornless? She's grown almost two feet here this year, in only two months. And she's thornless!

So far here it's a perfect rose in every way for a no-spray yard. It even works well where there's less than ideal levels of direct sunlight. Not a spec of blackspot, cercospora, or powdery mildew here where other roses can and do have some of those problems.

And what a beauty it is! If possible, try to get General Schablikine to sit alongside your Mrs. Dudley Cross. The color of General Schablikine mirrors exactly the edge coloring on Mrs. Dudley Cross, almost as if a Designer had created them as a duo.