Lovely rose. I take it you like the Easy Elegance roses. I have never grown any so know nothing about them--except that that bloom is lovely. Kate

If you could see the bug, then it's not rose midge. Rose midge is entirely too small to see. Nothing about grafted v. own root makes one more susceptible to midge than another. Bare root plants can still be carrying midge, our local pest expert recommends that any rose from a garden harboring midge be bare rooted and then the roots dipped in an insecticide solution before moving it to another garden. You can lose an entire bloom cycle to midge. I have. The first year I had significant midge problem in my garden, I didn't realize it until I realized it was way past time for the roses to start blooming and I had almost no flowers still. They grew fine, but no blooms. The subsequent bloom cycles usually are better, the midge mainly seems to hit the first cycle but that's the most highly anticipated flowers and the ones you need for any exhibitions. From what I recall, it was a certain ownroot rose nursery in NorCal that was the locus of the first confirmed rose midge populations on the west coast (it's an east coast native) and it was plants from this nursery that were spreading it around and introduced it to the PNW. Or was that how it was introduced into California gardens? don't remember but it was definitely an ownroot rose nursery spreading it. Rose midge shows no preference for living in the ground over living in potting soil.

Hi Sophia, I can give little input on repetition. I don't pay attention to that here in non-winter land. Poor Abraham Darby got suckers from his Dr. Huey root stock after 4 yrs. and I thought they were the octopus canes I'd read about. By the time I figured it out they had taken over. I battle them every year (difficult access). Poor Abe is now only 3 feet high but in my climate grows easily to 6 feet +. Dr Huey is stealing nutrients and water. Large petal packed wafting uber fragrant blooms. Some blackspot in a non-spray garden. Evelyn is in the path of the wind. She has a lovely spring flush (no winds) and sporadic bloom thereafter (regular winds). No blackspot this year on either as yet. Disease wise I'd say they're equal here (very little). Evelyn's blooms are probably the same diameter as Abe's but not as deep. I keep her under 5 feet with pruning. A 7 ft. arching cane appeared after 6 or 8 years. Colors - Abe is usually a pink fully infused with peach-yellow-mango. Full bodied oomphy color. Lasts no more than 3 days in a bouquet. In Sept. mine changes to a warm medium pink, not as peachy as spring but never bluey-pink. A boring everyday color. In Nov. it is back to a prettier peachy pink. Evelyn, ah Evelyn. The pink dawn touched by sunlight? Not pink, not peach, but a sophisticated blend on gossamer satin petals. I think it is the delicate iridescence that captivates. If I could only have one rose bloom a year it would be her. So you see I am terribly prejudiced and pay little attention to the bush.

Hi, bart, I'm glad to hear you obsessing over your roses as I obsess over my plants. Wow, you have 'Annie Laurie McDowall'?? I'm impressed! I never know whether my plants are puny because they're own-root rather than grafted, or because of the conditions in which the individual plant is growing. The plant of 'Noella Nabonnand' that I rooted is puny compared to the grafted plant I bought, but is that the reason, or the ground? On the other hand, I have two 'Archduke Joseph's, one enormous, one rather small. However, both are own-root, so the reason IS evidently different growing conditions. Good luck with your roses, in any case. I'm enjoying the pergola now that we've rebuilt it (it's not perfect, but is less rickety than the old one), have been admiring 'Mrs. B.R. Cant' all this month in its improbably sumptuous flowering, and am looking forward to 'Mme. Alfred Carrière' once she gets going. I didn't haul all of her over the pergola, but enough to make a good show. She looks rather awkward now, as just-tied roses generally do, and probably I could have pruned away more of the older growth. Oh, well: patience. I do need to continue cleaning up the terrace: the roses won't look nearly as fine if the plants underneath them aren't tidied and nicely arranged. And the potted plants need repotting anyway: I'm not sure if I did it last year, what with the Covid. The terrace will change as the year proceeds and the three trees of the terrace, two oaks, one columnar and one semi-columnar, and the two-trunked flowering ash growing out of the terrace wall, all leaf out: they're still bare now. A festival, I hope, to look forward to. More plants!