Sterling Silver has travelled far on its name.

I have seen isolated plants of SS which were vigorous and floriferous, but for the most part, this rose has a Death
Wish. Far too many roses of this breeding line DO.

I think it's got one of the lowest ratings of any rose in ARS's "Handbook For Selecting Roses," indicating
that it is a dog in every climate.
There are other, newer, roses in this color class which I am told are better.

Jeri

Hi - I really want a silvery rose and was actually thinking about getting Sterling Silver too. I do this knowing that this is a very tempermental rose.
I do grow Angel Face and Blue Girl without problems. I love these colors and am willing to give SS a try.

If anyone has any other silvery recommendations, bring them on!

roses for dummies lists it under the 10 roses to avoid.
"...compared to the new mauves it looks washed out and unattractive...it's not very vigorous and is a disease hound..."it recommends stainless steel instead

Ugh. I can't say any more than that.

Try Lagerfeld (fussy, but great once established), Neptune, Cologne or Stainless Steel (although I killed Stainless too).

Stainless Steel is considered a MUCH improved version of Sterling Silver. Cool Roses in Palm Beach sells it on fortuniana root stock. I got one from them last year. Big, beautiful bush with lots of flowers. Langerfeld does great down here also.

LOL, Sterling Silver makes newer mauves look washed out and unattractive in our yard.
{{gwi:350811}}
It is the only mauve/lavender thang to make it to this former mauve hater's top 10 list. We are semi desert here with very low humidity. I realize our experience does not apply to your area.
We ignore ARS ratings of roses.

The scent is strong and sweet and perfume like.

Has to be the worst rose you could possibly choose to grow...unless you like banging your head against a wall. It's full of every disease, the plant has poor vigor and the flowers last a good 3 hours, if you're lucky.

My mom had a beautiful Sterling Silver when I was young. It was incredible. I've seen gorgeous Sterling Silvers, it can be done. (diggerdave!)
I really like Stainless Steel. They carry both Sterling Silver and Stainless Steel grafted at our local Raft Island Roses.
I probably will go with Stainless Steel from Raft Island Roses. Thank you for the recommendation!

Stainless Steel has a duller color than Sterling does. Don't cut Sterling back too hard, she's a slower grower. The flowers are so amazing! The perfume is distinctive and refined. I have 4 plants and I give them the best care. Why? the flowers are so elegant and nothing can touch the fragrance. I have Lagerfield/Starlight as well. Thats a huge bush that is a blooming machine, but the fragrance isn't the same at all. Sterling's star decendent Angel Face has a sweet fruit influenced perfume. So many other recent great roses have superior fragrance and color due to Angel Face as a parent. I don't think they outshine the perfume of Sterling Silver.

Recently I got an own root copy of a more vigorous growing Sterling from Vintage. They sell it as the florist's form. I can understand that it is a fussy rose for most people. For me it's completely worth it and that's why I have so many in the yard. My sister always wants to take some home when she visits. I have lots of fragrance medal winning varieties but that is the one she always asks for.

Distant Drums in the fall has a beautiful mauve center surrounded by amber/pale yellow petals. It is beautiful at every season, ever-changing in its colors, and easy to grow big healthy blooming shrub. If you prefer more of a challenge, grow Paradise-- it has a deep rose edge so is a lavender bicolor. Not lots of blooms, but the ones you get will stop you in your tracks. I've never grown it, but am entranced with pix of Lavender Pinocchio. Love those lavenders!!

If you are insisting on having it, then get it from Vintage, as kittymoonbeam recommends. Any others would be too virused (rose mosaic virus) which I (and others) suspect has led to the decline of this rose over time.

I suspect Digger has one of those rare standout SS specimens. But I completely agree with Diane. If you're going to get one, Vintage's stock has a good reputation.
I grew this rose for one year as a teenager living in Western Washington State. Cool, humid climate. It looked great all summer long; no particular disease problems, good blooming. I was taking good care of it; didn't "do anything wrong." But it up and died unexpectedly come fall. It wasn't even winter yet, not too cold or anything. This rose has a spotty track record.

But I understand the attraction, too. The color really pops! Much more eye-catching than Stainless Steel, which looks rather pale grey. I just got Lagerfeld last spring. Still waiting for that maturing process to bring bigger bloom size and stiffer stems, but so far so good. The color is paler and more delicate than Sterling Silver, so I don't consider it a substitute. Both have great fragrance. Actually, Lagerfeld is the one that is silvery. Sterling Silver is truly pastel lavender (is "pastel" redundent when speaking of lavender? lol)
Here's my recommendation for an alternative lavender mauve, though. GET BLUE SKIES!!! It is the closest in color to Sterling Silver that I have seen yet, is a Buck rose but has very good hybrid tea bloom form, can get a little blackspot, but for a mauve its one of the most resistant. I spray preventively almost all my roses. Only down-side is it's barely fragrant. With that caveat, I'd strongly recommend this as an easy-care healthy alternative to Sterling Silver. Get Lagerfeld for the fragrance and Blue Skies for the color.

Even though we're in the Gulf Coast, the Buck roses seem to do great here; they're NOT just cold-weather roses. By the way, Blue Skies has a complicated breeding pedigree that includes Sterling Silver prominently.

Digger Dave's picture of Sterling Silver is striking. I have seen some that were quite pretty and have even had some that had show quality looks. I wonder if anyone out there has given Sterling Silver the Messenger spray treatment. I would guess that since Messenger does quite well with my other mauve/purple/lavender roses, that there might be some interesting results if used with Sterling Silver. Has anyone tried? Should we, just to see?

My mother grew SS as a standard, many years ago. It was straggly compared to her other standard roses (read chloratic, non vigorous and slow growing), but when it bloomed---watch out!!! It had the most terrific scent imaginable and was my favorite for that reason. Her climate in San Diego was coastal and summers were warm, not hot. Hope this helps. BTW, I tried SS here in the hot inland valley of Southern CA and the blooms fried (lasted less than one day!) in the heat, and that was in part shade; also couldn't detect any scent at all on that particular specimen. Took the plant back to the nursery. I've heard Blue Girl is the way to go for scent and color, etc.
BEcky

If it gets hot where you are the heat will wash out the color. I have Stainless Steel and I regret buying it only because the blooms look so washed out in our desert sun. I SP'd Angel face because of this same problem. These colors just don't look good in areas where the hot sun is so intense.
Carrie

As others said, it is very slow growing and not very vigorous. It is the shortest and scrawniest rose I grow.
The flowers are very pretty, but they open very quickly and
the petals fall off. The main reason to grow this rose is
for the scent, although the day after the blooms open they
are gorgeous. If you like purple HT roses a with strong
scent then grow it. Otherwise, pass.

Just to followup my own post, I have posted a picture of a
bloom my plant had this week in the Gallery. The blooms are
fantastic in the current weather (70 degrees every day and
dry) so maybe that's the climate this rose thrives in. How
such a skinny bush can product flowers like this I dunno.