Thanks for the info on Darcy Bussel. I'm such a terrible rose gardener that I think I might avoid slow growers for a while. That may be a mistake. Claire Martin complains that in the American West too many of DA's rose suffer from 'Jolly Green Giant Syndrome' where the plants get huge quickly but simply do not blossom. I saw that when I planted Graham Thomas in Texas. I got an 8 ft tall plant that looked lush and gorgeous, but nary a bloom. Sound familiar?
What I mean when I say shrubby is not 'big' but 'well branched.' A complaint I have with many HTs is that they don't branch very much and you get these ugly stick-like plants in the garden. David Austin roses are not quite so stick like, but some don't branch very much. Crocus Rose, for example has very straight, unbranched canes. So too Falstaff. When I grew six Tamora I don't recall seeing a single branch; it was six sticks in the garden! By comparison many polyanthas and minis are very well branched: Rise 'n' Shine, Katharina Zeimet, Caldwell Pink, etc. Sophy's rose is pretty well branched, but the branching angle is small which creates a very vertical plant, despite branching.
