I was just looking at the color of the TZ I picked this morning. I think it has shifted again! The color on the edges are slightly deeper violet and the center remains glowy deep magenta-pink and the rest a burgundy plum combination. Hard to explain the luminous color the center has. Sort of like the glow through stained glass late in the afternoon if that helps. Fragrance is holding as a cut flower. How I wish Patrick was here to describe it in his wonderful way.

I live in Phoenix, AZ. Currently my beloved Olympiad is 5-petaled. It's been that way since before the 4th of July. It looks like most of the other red roses in my garden and is typical of roses in the sustained hot days of my climate. In my opinion, alive is better than dead, which is what happens to roses that can't survive. Fortunately, I'll have some beautiful roses from October thru June. If the rose isn't beautiful during that time frame, it'll be replaced.

Don't go crazy, grab a shovel.

How long have you had Twilight Zone? It's a pretty new rose so it's probably under three years old. I almost always give a rose three solid years, sometimes longer, before I start thinking about removing it. So many of my roses haven't kicked in until their third year--Ebb Tide, TZ's parent took quite a while to establish itself. The size of bloom, number of petals, stability of color, at least in my garden, take some time to come about. My TZ was planted bareroot in March and has grown into a nice plant, but it's bloomed only twice, and they were the dark smoky plum most of us want. I know that burgundy plum combo you're talking about. Ascot produces a lot of blooms that color, especially in the spring. It's gorgeous. Diane

My roses tend to put out perfect flowers after I tell them that they're on my shovel list. It's like they know...

One of the things I love, love, about my old tea roses is that many of them have blooms of different colors, depending on the weather. Of course, these are very old roses, very elegant & graceful bushes, and any color they come up with is beautiful. Pale pinks, pale yellows, buff with brick reverse - that is all one rose - Anna Olivier. When my AO does this, it tends to produce an entire bush of whatever color it is in the mood for. When AO has done this for some other folks, they have told me they think they have the "wrong" rose, because it is 100% yellow, or whatever. I just tell them to wait until the next flush, when it will be another color altogether.

My Duchesse de Brabant is usually a pale pink with very cupped blooms, but in the Fall it gets much darker pink, and the blooms are not cupped. I enjoy and admire this changeability in the old roses - I am always watching to see what they will do next!

One of the things modern hybridizers evidently tried to breed out of roses in the 20th century was this tendency to variability of color (as well as fragrance and health, but that was not intentional).

So, I agree that if you have a brand new modern rose that is doing this, it is probably because it is still immature. I would let it alone until it is at least 5 years old.

Jackie

Keeps us from getting complacent.

Well here's hoping it never settles down into the dark purple because I like the burgundy plum color. Thanks for the mention about Ascot. Looks like something I'd love.

This is why I love fall and would never have just once blooming roses. I get the most amazing blooms on many of my roses in fall. I remember one year I had Mr. Lincoln blooms that were actually amethyst in color. Just gorgeous.

moroseaz, my Olympiad did the same as yours for most of the
summer.When i first saw the different blooms, i wondered
"what in the world?". It had to be the terribly hot summer
causing this because all other factors have been the same,
and now it is putting out it,s gorgeous blooms once again.

carol

I think it all depends on why you got the rose in the first place. I always get drawn to the subtle multi colored roses but then these are the ones that are likely to change. The person selling the rose displays the picture they like best. I am buying thinking that that is the flower I will get. Those are the risks you take buying newly released roses.