I had Blue Chip and am replacing it. It died from the Easter 07 freeze. Plant is compact, repeat flowers fairly quickly, flowers prone to bull-nosing and burning in our hot summer heat. Otherwise, it is a nice florist's rose for the garden. Seven Seas almost perished from the freeze. It has many ruffled petals but is not very vigorous. Shocking Blue almost perished from the freeze, but it is trying to come back. It was doing fairly well. I actually did get some small sprays. Vol de Nuit I had at my other house in Washington. Flowers were okay; I thought it was an average rose for that climate. Can't speak to a hot, humid climate for that rose. Blue Bayou I had to plants. The grafted one perished in the big freeze; the own-root plant barely hung on. I am getting another one of these also. Flowers are very silvery and have more of a pale blue cast to them when compared to some of the other lavenders which have more red to their color. I have not seen any large sprays on this variety either. That is all the comments I have on your list.

I don't know if it's tall enough for you, or if it's a color you'll care for (it tends to be something one either loves or loathes with little in between), but Fragrant Cloud is definitely an orange rose. I don't know if it would be "tall" for you, but most likely it will be of at least medium height. I have an own root in zone 6 that I never protect (just the wood chip mulch the landscapers put down in the spring) & the only time I had trouble with it was in the freaky winter we had a few years ago where the temps. consistently remained in the 50's & 60's until a sudden brutal cold snap in early Feb. That killed it to the ground but since it was own root it's come back. (A normal winter here has temps. in Dec. in the low 40's or 30's during the day (except during a cold snap), and in the upper 20's or low 30's during the day in Jan. (except during a cold snap, where the high can be 10 for most of a week).) Tropicana is another famous orange rose. I don't have personal experience with it, but I know it has a reputation for growing tall when it's happy. As long as it was own root (so it came back true if it died to the roots) I wouldn't be reluctant to grow Tropicana if I had my own yard and enough sun to make it worthwhile. Both are strongly fragrant orange roses.

I'd second the choice of Love Song, which I think is an excellent lavender. LS blooms continuously, producing large, sumptuous blooms that are a lot tougher than they look. This rose grows into an attractive rounded bush--no gangly growth. I haven't detected any strong scent, though. I like Love Song so much I now have two plants. DianeLove Song Diane

I have read complaints of L.S. not performing well on its own roots. I grow 6 Love Song, half of which are own root. I have not noticed any major differences. Like you wrote... sometimes the plant we begin with can be a dud... or ??? Plum Perfect's bloom color is closer to Angel Face than Barbara Streisand, but different. I am finding it difficult to describe. All 3 are more mauve, versus true lavender, but Plum Perfect I find to be the closest to lavender of the 3. I keep B.S. pruned, but it can surpass 5' ....YMMV. Blue Girl is a really pretty lavender that skews toward that "blue". It could probably be kept at 4'. One concern is its 7b zone rating... Blue Girl Poseidon is a popular lavender. Here, Neptune reaches 6'.