I a lot of you south of the 49th. seem to like to use Winnipeg Parks and I don’t understand why? I grew this rose in Edmonton AB for 5 or 6 years. It was not hardy about the same as that of Morden blush. The unopened flower look rather too tight like a cigar and the never open to something special. the colour is rather unimpressive Grey pink and it opens to lighter Gary pink. Disease was the final straw. I did not have to shovel prune it it just died. And thank god. J perhaps it just does better Southfieldv
I loved the color. I called it sort of a melon pink. It set fat hips and had interesting and often lovely offspring.
But a combination of low vigor, poor disease resistance, and iffy winter hardiness made it die out for me, too.
When I give talks on growing roses around here, I show a picture of a row of Winnipeg Parks in the field, nearly defoliated and barely visible against the dirt, as a reason why I am no longer a fan of the Parkland roses. The next slide is of some lovely Sunrise Sunset just down the row.
In Calgary over at least six years it was healthy, vigorous, winter hardy, with big well-formed flowers. I found the colour maybe a bit garish but it was overall a real winner for me.