Moved With Compassion

Compassion is an apricot/pink climbing rose that I planted a couple of years ago.  It has taken longer than some of my other roses to really take off, but I have great hopes for it this year.  It's got some nice new basal canes coming up and it's showing signs of upcoming vigor.  The blooms are semi-open, highly fragrant beauties that cheer the heart of anyone passing by.  Here are some bloom close-ups:

The plant has been slow to grow for me, but I've always heard that many roses don't take off until their third year.  It lost about 60% of its leaves to blackspot last summer, so I wouldn't call this a great no-spray rose where I live.  It's a large-flowered climber with pretty stiff canes, so you need to start training it young or the canes will resist trellissing.  Here are some shots that show the growth of my plant:

All in all, a beautiful rose, but one that will require some effort and patience.  It makes a nice spring flush and then blooms in flushes sporadically till first freeze.  I would recommend many other roses before this one if people asked me for advice, but I don't intend shovel-pruning mine any time soon.