It’s new to my place this year but has performed very nicely forming a 3ft x 2ft plant in its first season with no particular intervention and has flowered non-stop with very little disease. HMF says it’s triploid but it seems to be forming OP hips. I notice, on HMF, that it is used only as a pollen parent by Louis Lens to make some nice looking roses (see link - you’ll need to be logged in to see it). I was thinking of using it next season after seeing how well it has done this season. Mine is a grafted plant. Does anyone grow it own-root? Is it strong on it’s own roots? Anyone used it in their programs? The perfume is beautiful… it would be nice to get a few more nicely perfumed hybrid musk-type seedlings.
Link: www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.1770&tab=21&lstTyp=256
Hi Simon
i bought Felicia a few years from MD and it died as with a lot of others I had purchaced from them. Penelope is still ok, did some crossing with it last year but with the numbers I have in the ground , I have’nt come accross them for a while.
Its a classic. I’d be sure to match it with something that is resistant to mildew. If you can get Aurora, I am willing to bet it could produce some interesting roses. Almost all of these roses from this class/era are prone to mildew at one level or another. They often have great vigor. Another route to go with is to just start with Trier. It grows like a weed.
I am using ‘Trier’ already… as I am using ‘Cornelia’ and multiflora as well… I am keen to make a wide base to start with. ‘Felicia’ has turned out better than I thought it would, given some people have reported it isn’t much good in Australia, and it is meant to be triploid, so I thought I’d enquire about it 
I’ve never seen any mildew on any of teh HM I have here… maybe I have a different race of mildew??? I have acquired ‘Goldfinch’ for this purpose as well.
Warren, I wsa looking at ‘Penelope’ today actually. I might get this one to use as well.
Interesting. Even Danae and Buff Beauty will mildew some here when others will not. I dont think its about race, but it could be about cultural conditions or types of weather patterns there.
Buff Beauty, Cornelia, Felicia, Trier, multiflora (and its seedlings), Pax… none get mildew here that I have noticed. I can see the seedlings from the hips on Trier developing mildew next year though (from Marie Van Houtte, Monsieur Tillier, Safrano, Lorraine Lee, Ebb Tide, Mutabilis, etc).
I have not worked with Felicia, but have with Nur Mahal (I hope that is what I had - lost it to DM last week, after 10 years). Many seedlings had good resistance to PM.
Having a bad run with DM here in Griffith, have lost nearly a third of my roses.
Rod
So sorry to hear about the DM attack, Rod! Oh dear!!!
Hi Rod , your up in Griffith, Iam down in Deniliquin, we should get together one day and talk roses and breeding?
Cheers Warren
I’ve reports from SA that downy is there again and it’s back here too now it’s cooling down… think I might grow plastic roses intead…
Simon PLASTIC ROSES don’t your dare , I was talking to the rose people up in Sydney, they do fungicide combo’s . I know you dont like spraying unless you are in dire straites, but if you get it earlier enough it saves a lot of work down the tracks.
And if it dies… then it won’t get it any more and will cause me no more work either 
I didn’t end up spraying the last outbreak either… I’m committed to the survival of the fittest regime. It’s not all bad… some are showing no signs of it at all
Im a ding dong. I should have taken a note from Lambert, Lens, and Bentall. I should have tried using Trier instead of Rosa multiflora for trying to create a canina and multiflora hybrid, and used Trier as the female parent. Trier is pretty awesome. It will make a perfect 5’ ball if left alone. I have seen it abandoned at old homesteads where it has done this, lol.
Yeah, if DM hits here, too bad, anything that gets it can deal with it!
On HMF, in the pictures section for Felicia, there is a picture of an orange hip, and against this picture the member (from Australia), notes her ‘Felicia’ to be (direct quote): …“a weak grower in my gardens, zone 9 and 9b…”.
I got in Felicia, lasted one year flowered and then died, I think Penelope Is much nicer overall and tougher. felicia’s flowers seemed a little untidy, where as penelope’s are more uniformed and nicely shaped.
Simon I bred a rose one year using Wendy as a seed parent, it sent up flower canes very much like Cecile Brunner, you would’nt believe it one growing season it put out this cane which had 180 flowers on it, they were apricoty pink semi doubles and very tiny. I didnt really go for it so I shovelled pruned it. Suppose I could have put it on a vigorous rootstock and try and push more sap up , and seen what happened
I would go for Penelope.
You should get ‘Trier’, Warren. It’s everything Michael has said. Possibly the most beautiful rose I have ever seen photos of is Paul’s ‘Jeri Jennings’. It is just breath-taking IMO. In one year ‘Trier’ has formed the framework for a 5ft shrub already. From here on it will lay stems down and fill in. It’s just great (but a major pain to pollinate as it selfs many days before it opens… you gotta get in real early) and accepts a wide array of pollen. Mine has accepted pollen from ‘Brindabella Bouquet’, ‘Papageno’, Marie Van Houtte’, ‘Monsieur Tillier’, ‘Safrano’, ‘Mutabilis’ and a few other things that escape my memory. I think ‘Trier’ would be good with mini blood on it next season and I have plans to get it and ‘Sweet Chariot’ together… might even try a really late season cross this weekend doing this cross… really like the sound of it.
I grow ‘Pax’ too and have been unimpressed with it so far… maybe it just needs time to get going from a cutting (and is meant to be sterile or almost so… and triploid as well).
I think ‘Cornelia’ has a few tricks up her sleeve too. My ‘Cornelia’ did terribly here until I accidently broke the main stem below the graft. I stuck stems in the ground near the decapitated plant and they struck and are looking a hundred times better own-root. I definately want to help encourage grafters to find alternative employment too
‘Felicia’ is not as good as ‘Cornelia’ but is still better than a lot and I think it could do something good matched with Teas or Chinas for our warm climate. The loose flower seems to stand up to the weather pretty well here and it flushes quickly. I haven’t used it yet because it is a triploid (and I was focusing on ‘Trier’) but maybe it could result in tetraploid HM??? Just not sure how to use it yet…
Oh yeah… I also want to try some of the DAs like ‘Ab. Darby’ and ‘Grahan Thomas’ with ‘Trier’ too… might be something good come out of them yet
Trier also works on tetraploids as pollen. It’s a lot easier to manage. I’ve gotten a few germinations with it this year on Chuckles and on one of my own.