I have all 3, but of course note I'm in 9b. Chrysler Imperial - has to-die for fragrance. But, of the 3, blows the fastest. Each bloom lasts on the bush only a few days. To me, it's a rose to have for fragrance alone, but in trying to compare to Ingrid or VH as far as longevity or form - no where close. Ingrid Bergman - no fragrance for me. Blooms last longer than any rose I have - they'll last weeks on the bush. From a general bush look, I think it's my favorite of over 100 roses. The foliage is super healthy and dark green. Blooms are HUGE, and don't lose color, or fry in the heat. Color is slightly darker/deeper than VH Veterans Honor - also no fragrance for me. Blooms are the "most perfect" of the three in terms of form. Blood Red, do last a long time on the bush. Bush has more of the - blooms on the top of bush rather than throughout look. Bush is not as healthy for me as Ingrid, but it's still darned healthy. Size of bushes is all pretty similar - about 4' high. Both Ingrid and VH are wider than CI. I wouldn't be without any of the three. Each is phenomenal in its own right.

Thanks, Michaelg! I just noticed some leaf photos on HMF and compared them and mine are exactly as pictured so I think it really is the Chrysler Imperial, even some of the buds that are opening this morning are darker looking. How exciting to have so much variation with one bush!

Frances, For all my roses I spray Ortho Rose Pride once every 10 days. Everyone usually tells me spray once a week but that's just too often for my busy schedule so I figure 3 times a month is fine. I buy the 16 oz concentrate liquid form from Home Depot for $13.97 and it lasts forever! I mix 1 TBSP of the liquid concentrate with 1 gallon of water and 1 TSP of Spreader Sticker to make sure the stuff sticks to the leaves. I always spray super early in the morning like around 6 am or early in the cool evening around 6 pm because you don't want the hot sun to burn the solution onto the leaves. Using a hand-held spray bottle I spray a nice heavy mist onto the top of all the leaves and a light spray beneath the leaves as well. On average it takes me about 30 to 40 minutes to spray all 69 rose bushes in my back and front garden. For you and your 6 roses you should be done in 5 minutes. Easy peasy :) Now if you want to be an extremist and go the extra route for show quality roses then you can also grab a systemic formula like Bayer Advanced All-In-One. It comes in liquid form and slow-release granular form. If you're interested I wrote a thorough review of the liquid product on Lowe's website that you can read here. This stuff is absolutely amazing for older (18+ month) roses but not to b eused on younger roses. DO NOT whatsoever use that stuff on newly planted roses or container roses. This stuff will severely burn or kill them. I made the mistake of using this stuff on all my roses and ended up murdering 3 of my newer roses which I feel horrible for :( Also I recommend cutting the dosage in half for your first application, then 75% on your 2nd, and 100% thereafter. If you want to go the organic route I've read that insecticide soap is pretty good but I have no experience with it yet. So far my biggest headache with growing roses in Florida are thrips. OMG I hate them !!! If you find that your roses have rusty brown edges those are thrips munching away on the petals, NOM NOM NOM - I tried using Bayer's $5 insect control for the thrips but it's a joke because I go through one bottle so fast. The systemic release formula seemed to be the only thing that worked for me. I would love to hear from others though if anyone else has advice on thrips! Last but not least during the hot summer months I water all my roses twice a day. Once in the morning when I wake up and let the dogs out around 8 am and again in the evening when I get home from work around 6. From late fall until February I then back down to 2 times a week. I can go on and on about my feeding and fertilizing as well but you specifically asked about black spot and rose disease so I figured I'd answer that question directly first. My apologies for the long-winded response. Hopefully some of that info was helpful :) OH! I almost forgot, Most of my advice I got from Mr. Nelson, the owner of Nelsons Florida Roses and my friend Jim who tends to the roses at Leu Gardens. If you can't find Rose Pride at your local nursery or a box store, Nelsons Florida Roses recommends these products for fungicide: - Ortho Rose Pride ( Triforine ) - Ortho Orethenex - Valent Triforine - Copper and Maneb Combination Sprays - Fertilome Lawn and Garden Fungicide - Fertilome HALT Fungicide For monthly Thrips control they recommend: - Spinosad or Conserve - Orthene - Cygon - Bayer Advanced Rose and Flower Insect Killer For Spider Mite Control ( Upon appearance ) - Organocide

Beautiful red roses Sam. I still do like this one very much. The pic above the dog, the two CI's, the rose on the left. That's a pretty good pic over all but the one on the left looks like red velvet and it appears again in the photo below with the dog. That's a great camera to get that red like that in the sun. The last one of him/her smelling the rose is priceless, that's pretty funny. The very last pic is also excellent. So, which rose is closer to the real color of Chrysler Imperial and what's your good looking dog's name? Leslie