Thanks for the reply,smivies. I suppose there may have been an excess of fertilizer in the container, but it certainly wasn't obvious. No additional fertilizer was used at any time over the summer. As for delayed dormancy, it certainly did not seem that way. 'Daybreak' did not retain its foliage late in the fall; it was completely in synch with other plants. The only other thing I can think of is wind. On a number of occassions this past winter, we had unusually high winds combined with sub-freezing - but not sub-zero - temperatures. I realize magnolias are thin barked and can lose excessive moisture that way. Other magnolias - seiboldii, 'Riki", stellata, for example show no signs of wind or any other kind of damage even though they were equally exposed. Only difference is length of time in the ground.

I'm in a totally different part of the country. Daybreak is one of my best (healthiest) hybrid musks. It has gotten established in my garden, survived several attacks from beavers, and is doing what it should do...except it doesn't bloom much in the heat of the summer...but most of my roses don't bloom in this heat. I put Thisbe in this year. It was a band and still looks like one. I'm looking forward to Thisbe doing as well as Daybreak, especially after hearing Catrose's comments. Robert

I love the Pemberton Hybrid Musks and grow many of them. My growing conditions are somewhat different from yours, but this is my experience: 'Cornelia' is one of the most beautiful roses ever bred, in my opinion. She is a rather large, lax-growing shrub with red canes, few thorns, excellent dark foliage, with a sweet musky perfume that floats in the air. She flowers in two main periods, spring and fall, with large clusters of double pale strawberry-pink flowers, darker in the bud, brighter in cooler weather: 'Cornelia' is extraordinarily lovely in the fall. I think she's best with some support, or grown as a small, repeat-flowering rambler. We have very heavy alkaline clay soil on our property, with hot dry summers and chilly winters. In these conditions, the Hybrid Musks like the cooler and moister parts of our property and the areas with looser soil. I've also read that they don't like to be in windy, exposed spots, but that's true for all roses, I suspect. The Hybrid Musks don't mind winter cold, I think they probably grow bigger in warm-summer areas, without necessarily needing them to thrive. 'Thisbe' is a pretty and fragrant rose with small, double, pale yellow flowers, healthy in my garden. (Susceptible roses get mildew here, but blackspot rarely.) For me it grows somewhat smaller and stiffer than 'Cornelia', but still with a fairly lax habit. It's a good rose. I just bought 'Daybreak' myself, so am waiting to see how it will be. I've never grown or seen 'Callisto' 'Francesca' is another favorite of mine. It grows to be a large shrub in my garden and would make a good small--or not so small--repeat-flowering climber. Its canes are stiffer than those of 'Cornelia' but I think still trainable. It has lovely healthy foliage and large (for a Hybrid Musk) semi-double wide soft buffy-yellow fragrant flowers, which I've heard don't last long, but they are so beautiful! Of all the Hybrid Musks 'Francesca' in my eyes has the most look of a Tea, though I looked up its genealogy once and there's no Tea rose among its immediate ancestors. Now, you asked about pink and white Hybrid Musks. 'Moonlight' has clusters of small semi-double while flowers, dark shining foliage and a lax habit--it's another of the potential pocket ramblers, like 'Cornelia'--and, also like 'Cornelia', has a sweet fragrance that floats on the air. I think I've seen it get a touch of mildew, though it was growing in a good deal of shade. I bought 'Pax' two or three years ago and nearly lost it the first year to drought. This fall it's just starting to grow, and I think it's going to be a winner, with typical lax growth and lush, shining foliage, starred with relatively large, semidouble white blooms. My sister has seen it trained as a very beautiful rambler/climber. The pinks are a little more difficult, if you don't count 'Cornelia', which is salmon-pink, not yellow. 'Felicia' is more upright and shrubby than most HMs; according to report more disease prone than other varieties, and in my experience generally more fussy than others; it does have one of the loveliest perfumes in rosedom. 'Ballerina' is scentless, but bright, cheerful, and a good tough rose; it's less elegant than many of the Hybrid Musks, but a happy rose to have in the garden. My favorite pink is 'Vanity'. This is a rose with its own character, a tall, wide, open, leggy rose with single flowers of bright shocking pink, with a sweet, China-like scent that doesn't seem strong but can be detected from several feet away. I know this because there have been times when 'Vanity' was the only rose in flower in the whole garden. The color goes splendidly with all the pale tints of the other Hybrid Musks and with Teas, and it's a tough rose. I deal with the openness by letting other plants grow through and around it. Another darker Hybrid Musk is 'Nur Mahal', shrubby but not rigid, deep cherry-pink/red, and fragrant. A lot of people love this rose, but I think there's something wrong with my plant, and got cuttings of it this fall from another gardener. So I can't judge from my own experience. The Hybrid Musks as a group are very beautiful plants, in and out of flower; they're healthy without spraying; almost all of them are fragrant, scented of Tea or musk or China; they're easy, tolerant plants to grow. They should be pruned at least once a year, better twice, in winter and if possible after the spring flowering, though I never get around to that. Many of them set hips, which are very pretty in late fall and winter. Oh! I forgot the lovely 'Penelope': white single or semi-double fragrant blooms in clusters, shrubby but not rigid, good hips, the customary good foliage. All these roses root easily from cuttings, and grow extremely well on their own roots. I hope this is helpful. Melissa

Wood Ducks are so pretty, glad you got to see them. Wow that river is thick! Thanks for sharing. Donna