Yes, Connie, any bloom counts. I've just been oohing and ahing over a quarter-inch flower on the windowsill cactus. Catrose, this is a great time of the year to live in Texas, but when your roses are peaking, ours will be sad, brown-edged crispy critters. I love crocus, too, Kate, but they're something else Dallas doesn't do well. They'll last maybe a couple of years here before deciding it's too darn hot. Molly, how big does Spice get for you? I'd love to be able to shoehorn it in somewhere. I agree, Melissa, that not all zone 8's are created equal. Even the pros here can't grow roses to the perfection that you do, or the lucky folks who in Oregon and Washington. Maybe summer temperatures should be taken into consideration as well. Kathy, Martha G was my first OGR. I went to the nursery to get a Knockout but saw her instead, and that led me to this forum. How lucky was that!

Mike, I've been around. I guess i just haven't had much to say. I don't know how good of a job i have done at fighting the thrips. I found three crawling on the open bloom earlier. Plumygirl, I bought mine as a rooted cutting earlier this year. Some of the leaves are getting huge, I'm worried that it may outgrow me. That pic was in the bright sun. I was able to snap one in the evening light and it looks quite different. I'll post the pic as soon as i get it on my computer.

I don't know of any true blues or true blacks. Some roses have several diff colors in them like pinks, yellows, oranges, etc but no full out rainbows, colors diff on every petal or anything like that. There are striped roses. There is really an all green rose. I would only buy it from a reputable nursery though, not ebay lol. "Blue" roses seem to really run in the different colored purple ranges. Some are more lavender with grey tones like Blue Girl (my favorite rose) there is Wild Blue Yonder, and Blue For You that are darker blu-ish purple tones. Some look bluer than others. There are a lot of good purple toned roses. Some seem to get more true purple or darker hues in cooler weather. Some people say soil acidity plays a role. "Blacks" are usually dark burgundys that with the right environmental conditions look black. There is a ongoing thread over on the gw rose forum with much discussion on black roses.

Described as "carmine red" by the 2014 Hillier manual when I grew this I never thought of this 'Bristol Ruby' sport as anything other than a red weigela with yellow leaves - the marked redness of the flowers, in comparison to say 'Looymansii Aurea' appeared at the time to be the point of it. https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=rubidor&qpvt=rubidor&form=IGRE&first=1&cw=1129&ch=614