Hi Patrick,

IHT has acceptable disease resistance here, but will BS with some regularity if conditions are right. It is quite winter hardy though for a Floribunda.

I would take Sweet Chariot or the Polyantha, Baby Faurax, well before IHT any day of the week. Both are hardier and more disease resistant for me and I have grown all of these for several years now. Baby Faurax has never exhibited disease of any sort, although some say she is prone to Chlorosis, though this has never manifested itself in my garden. Sweet Chariot can BS in the absolute worst conditions, but it never seems to do so badly, or with any apparent ill effects to health, vigour, hardiness or bloom production.

Question: Have you considered Ebb Tide? I purchased this for a friend of mine this spring and had it in a pot in my garden until July. No disease during that time and none as of yet in my friend's garden. I grew quite enchanted with it and will be getting a few for myself this upcoming spring. I can't say how it will do in coastal Virginia, but you may wish to consider it. The change in the bloom colouring with age and temps is strikingly beautiful. Sweet Chariot is one of its parents.

Good luck in your search.
Tim

Hi. What a lovely idea.

Both Lyda Rose and Escapade are very clean in my humid Maryland garden and would look lovely in a lavender garden. Escapade is more purple than Lyda, but in partial sun, Lyda's lavender edge doesn't fade to pink.

I have a 2 year Enchantress (the John Cook rose)and it is purpleish, sort of like Sweet Chariot but more purple, but it does get BS and it also balls in wet weather so it is not as reliable as my first 2 suggestions. Sweet Chariot is very clean in my garden, but I like it in a pot b/c it flopped everywhere when planted in the ground. It seems very cold hardy because i haven't protected the pot during the past several winters and it has come back w/ no damage.

Have fun!

Sweet Chariot is VERY cold hardy - it comes back year after year for me with some protection (not a lot). I potted mine though this year so that it can gain some height.

Carol

Rosyjennifer, does Lyda Rose has a strong fragrance? I've heard varying reports about its fragrance. (You have email.)

Chartreuse de Parme is purple (mauve) and very fragrant. So far it is clean but it is in its first year in my garden so I cannot vouch for its long term resistance yet.

Patrick, Blueberry Hill could be another option. It says on HMF that it is very disease resistant.

This is a great thing you are doing for your mum. I bet she and you both are getting a lot of pleasure out of it. Would love to see some photos in a year or so when it is becoming established. It sounds wonderful!

Pauline - Vancouver Island

A purple no spray...Bwwwwhhhhhaaaaa ahahahaha..No way.

Patrick,
Sweet Chariot is a tough bloom machine, but she did succumb to black spot this summer. SC will get sprayed in the future. I don't think a Virginia summer and a no-spray regimen is a success formula for a mauve rose. Not yet anyway.

My experience with lavender/purple/mauve roses is that they are very susceptible to blackspot no matter who or what they are. However, I will say that since I have been spraying some with Messenger this year that these roses have been helped the most. I don't know why, but the effect on Barbara Streisand, Chantilly Lace, Paradise, and Melody Parfumee has been rather dramatic. They actually have leaves. I am still in the process of watching this test unfold.

Blueberry Hill is fully susceptible to blackspot in my garden, but not extreme like most mauve bush roses.

You may find a blue rose, a green rose, a black rose,
or whatever before you can find a no spray purple rose.
I know that sounds nasty but, I have never seen one.
The blackspot demon flies over my house and attacts
any purple rose he sees. I'm talking early June.

John

Yesterday is about 3 1/2 x 3 1/2' in my garden, and makes a pretty rounded, dense plant. I spray but still, there are some roses that are more bs prone, and I don't find Yesterday especially bs prone. It has good rebloom.

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Also, my Midnight Blue, which is in its first year is looking very clean. Haven't sprayed in about a month due to extreme drought and heat. Some other roses are developing some bs though, even in the heat.

Cardinal de Richelieu may get too big for what you want but I skip it when spraying pretty often. It's not humongous..mine are about 5'x 4'. Very grapey and blooms a long time.

Linda

Midnight blue totally defoliated here last year and I sprayed more regularly than I could this year. Right now it has leaves and a few flowers that fry in half a day but if we get some rain I doubt that it will go on without spraying.

It might be OK inland but it isn't in the coastal southeast.

We live near the ocean in California where blackspot defoliated "Ebb Tide" by mid-July.
"Escapade" does well in a local no-spray garden, but here its' petals are colored 90% pink and 10% lilac.
"Outta the Blue" has the least blackspot of the purple roses in our organic rose garden, and it is more of a violet-red, and it requires spraying twice a season with Cornell or Neem.

Luxrosa

Krista - sorry for the delay - I didn't see a private email, but I could have deleted it in error thinking it was spam.

I think Lyda is nicely fragrant - and I am a fragrance snob. : ) It smells very sweet and fresh like rosy green apples. The fragrance also carries in the air more than any of my other fragrant roses. Perhaps b/c there are so many blooms the fragrance can't help but float in the air?

Linda, that is a beautiful pic of Yesterday. I had never heard
of it, but it looks awesome, very purpley. Thank's for posting
the pic!

Indigo is a wonderful old Portland that needs no spraying in my garden. It is a great rebloomer, with wonderful purple/raspberry very double blooms. It blooms in 4 good flushes each year for me here in zone 5. It's hardy, needs little to no protection, and gets along without spray, although it gets a little mildew in late summer, which it just grows through. If you click on the link below you can see the variety of purple colors it exhibits. Paul Zimmerman of Ashdown Roses recommended it to me when I visited his nursery a few years ago in early spring. I bought a potted Indigo, took it home and planted it and have loved it ever since.

{{gwi:317762}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Indigo on Helpmefind

THanks, Devon. According to Botanica's Roses it has received a whole string of awards and is described as disease free. Sometimes it has more reddish tones than this picture..I think there is a bluish cast to the rose campion leaves beside it which makes the blooms look more violet. But it's fairly purpley. I have been interested in Lavender Dream as well but have heard it described here as much bigger than Yesterday.
I also grow INt. Herald Tribune and like it, though it is looking deep bluish pink today. It has neat little white streaks like Veilchenblau. Not particularly bs prone here, and it's a good bloomer and compact.

Linda

Looks like I'm putting Yesterday on my list for next season.
I think it's a nice change up, since I tend to get many roses
that are double. And it has that English garden look.
Thank's for helping me discover this one. Hope all is well
for you. Take good care, Linda!

The following mauve roses grow here without disease:

neptune
shocking blue
Winsome
midnight blue
Reine des Violettes
saint mary
Purple Heart
Eugene de Beauharnais
Rose du Roi à Fleurs Pourpres
sweet chariot
veilchenblau
ebbtide
baby faurax
cardinal de richelieu
Cotillion
violet Mist
lavender pinocchio
ernie

Patrick,
sorry for chiming in here on 2 roses I haven't actually grown. But for my half-a-cent's worth, I am intrigued by Ebb Tide, like Tim, have seen it around, doing very well. I just don't know if the people growing it were spraying or not. But I'm planning on getting it this coming spring, too. For color and fragrance alone, it seems worth a try, since it has a reputation of being quite healthy and a reliable bloomer.
As for rose #2, does Magenta count as purple? If so, consider Incense Indigo from Roses Unlimited. It's perhaps a little shorter than you described, but was bred for trouble-free growth in southern conditions (one of Viraraghaven's creations from India, using only tropical and Asian species in the breeding line. I would think that would genetically give it quite a defense against blackspot. As for cold-hardiness, if the Chinas and noisettes are surviving there, I would think II will too. Oh yeah, this one's supposed to be very very fragrant, too. I don't have it yet, mostly because I am reeeeally ambivalent about the color Magenta.

Good luck with the search!

Mike

Take a look at the China 'Eugene de Beauharnais' and Basye's Purple. In hot coastal SE VA, Lyda Rose is lovely...WHITE, starts with a pink edge and fades to white. Plant Lyda Rose anyway-- it blends with other colors, has a lovely full shape, and blooms and blooms. Only problem I have with my Lyda Rose is that it is about to SWALLOW Escapade! From a fellow purple-lover... (oh, and I second Sweet Chariot grown in a pot. What colors!)

Patrick, my Blueberry Hill is extremely hardy, blooms often and has very little bs w/o spraying. ~bb

Need wise teenager.

Need good solution for the situation in Iraq.

I live in coastal Va too. My experience is with floribundas and HT's though. For me Purple passion is an extremely fragrant and spray free wonderfully healthy rose. It is blooming it's fool head off right now and it is great for cutting. Ebb Tide is spray free for me too but is just now turning it's dark purple color now that it is cooler.

And might Violet Hood work (as its parentage includes Baby Faraux)?

I need to check more into Yesterday & Ebb Tide.