Gertrude Jekyll

I'm at work out in the Gulf of Mexico and so cannot take new pictures for the next 2 weeks. That leaves me putting old pictures from last year. This picture was taken 04-27-08. It's a shot of one of the blooms on my Gertrude Jekyll rose. I'm hoping to see some blooms on this bush when I come home again. This rose was planted in May 2007. Here's the lowdown on this particular rose with, first, the good news:

1) It has the strongest most delectable fragrance of any rose that I've ever smelled. It's the hands down fragrance winner of all roses I've come across.
2) The bloom is perfect. It is very full with loads of petals and a deep, hot pink color.
3) The plant is very vigorous

The bad news:
1) The plant is VERY vigorous! It sends out long "octopus" canes that reach for the sky
2) It has the most vicious thorns of all my roses. This is especially bad since I have it planted in my little rock garden area right next to my house.
3) It gets blackspot terribly and must be sprayed to stay healthy.
4) Doesn't have very good re-bloom.

I've been told that this plant performs best if either kept pruned way back or else trained very horizontally on a trellis. Where mine is planted it must be pruned way back. It's certainly not a low-maintenance rose.