i recently ordered two plants of sweet drift from amazon. They came rather sad looking about two months ago in late november, dried out with a few dessicated leaves and no buds. I planted them right away on two properties about three miles apart in houston tx. One is on the north side of a house in a spot which has no direct sun in winter at all; the other gets maybe an hour of morning sun at this time of year. Both will be in increasing sun through spring and pretty much full sun from may to august but really I expected nothing to happen before the sun hit them in april. However both leafed out beautifully right away turning into perfectly round green leafy shrubs and both got lots of buds. The one with a teeny bit of sun, which has some ground covering asiatic jasmine under it and is planted close to some other roses (thus less air circulation overall) has got mildew all over the top, and has fewer viable buds, but is still blooming. The one with no direct sun at all but more air circulation has zero mildew and is blooming quite well. Both have flowers much bigger and a much darker pink than I expected. The flowers are close to two inches across and seem to last a long time on the bush in the cool weather, days and days with hardly any fading. Note from one year later: what photos don't show (including my own) is that newly opened flowers are a warm orange-pink to coral color. This eventually fades to a more standard baby pink. Foliage is good year round and does not get much if any chili thrip damage.

I live in Zone 9a, Gulf Coast.

This is my MOST shade-tolerant rose. More shade-tolerant than The Fairy. More shade-tolerant than the Knock Out roses. It bloomed all winter in a spot with only about 2 hours of sun per day. However, if you do grow it in shade, the blooms will be hot pink. It has no fragrance, and I don’t love hot pink, so I’m going to tuck it in a spot in the back of my yard where few other things will bloom.

I am in Zone 6, (Michigan) and usually our summers are hot and humid. I have a 4-yr old Sweet Drift growing in a dry, afternoon sun location in a mixed border. Sweet is apt, because the blooms make me think of candy, although without fragrance and with substantial prickles, I seem to keep my distance. It has been tough as nails for me, though, even if somewhat neglected. Always seems to be healthy and happy. I haven't seen any mildew, sometimes a teeny bit of blackspot in late Sept. but I barely notice it. If I was to do it all over again, I would probably seek something with similar qualities but with fragrance and easier to get close to.