Rosa laevigata

What a cool and healthy rose species! It's mid-summer and most roses are showing lots of disease issues but Rosa laevigata is still super clean. It's near our garage door so I've had to hack it back twice already this season and it's sending out six foot (2m) shoots in all directions again. First picture shows one of the shoots bent down for the picture - plant is in the background. The second picture is of the older foliage near the ground at the base of the plant. I hope I get a bunch of blooms in Spring 2014, because I'd really like to try some more crosses with this one. Did I mention that it has big white sweet smelling flowers? The scent reminds me of those orange marshmallow "circus peanuts". If you've had these and also have Rosa laevigata to smell, see if you don't think so too. Apparently it's an artificial banana flavor.