One of the best parts of planting new roses is watching them emerge from twigs (especially if you started them as bare root/own root plantings), and gradually build up into much more substantial shrubs. This is, of course, also a lesson in patience, even among the most vigorous examples.
As I have commented elsewhere in this site, Graham Thomas was my first. It has also been among the fastest growing of any variety in my garden. When it wakes up in the spring, there are times when each cane grows as much as 4″ per day — downright beanstalk-like performance, which led to my original example growing multiple canes in excess of 12ft tall.
This will be its third spring. As it approaches mature size, I can’t wait to see what it does this year. The waiting game continues.