Yes, thank you, Kim, I just found Blue For You earlier today and thought that it REALLY looked like my rose as well! I think it may be a match, although I agree, the timeline is strange. I took 3 years off of gardening so I KNOW it wasn't purchased in that timeframe and I did have the rose for a year or two before that, so I must have gotten it as soon as it crossed the pond. That must have been a lucky purchase b/c I had no idea I was purchasing a new introduction, much less one that still seems hard to find even now. I can't think that its anything else other than Blue For You, though. It is a dead ringer, even down to the white center and scent. It must be it! Very happy to have an ID, but seems like it would be impossible to replace, so I better take good care of it!

Personally, I find roses to be high maintenance plants. Though beautiful when grown well, they are subject to numerous diseases and bugs. And like most perennials/shrubs, yes they will look scruffy if dead flowers and leaves are not removed. (Which then brings you to the "fun" of dealing with the thorns.) This is simply what one accepts with any flowering shrub. Have you considered Hibiscus syriacus, aka Rose of Sharon? If you are unfamiliar with them, it is a specie of winter hardy hibiscus. Without trimming, and depending on the cultivar they can get 6-10feet tall and most of the ones I've seen get about 3 or 4 ft wide. (The one at my folks' place in northern Michigan has never gotten over 7 ft and they have never trimmed it.) They come in whites, pinks, reds, lavenders, "blues" (which really aren't) and bullseyes (white or pink with a red bullseye in the middle). My sis has a beautiful pure white one which also has never gotten over 7ft tall. Neither she nor my folks have found it to be at all bug or disease prone, and hummingbirds like them. (If you'd really like to do this on the cheap, and if you don't mind waiting a few years, you can grow them from seed. The one at my folks' is one I started from seed. It's been a long time, but if memory serves, it reached 4 or 5 ft by its 3rd or 4th year.) Flowers only last a day or two but healthy happy plants produce new flowers most of the summer into fall.

Thanks for the response, Seil. Didn't know about the variation in petal count, thanks for that. My thoughts were if they gave a petal count that is so specific, then logic would dictate the plant would most likely follow that. Guess logic doesn't enter in, LOL! I am showing my knowledge about roses, I'm afraid. Not exactly my specialty. Here is a pic of it today. This is the first day that a petal has dropped from this bloom, so only about 4 days (give or take a day) from full open until first petal drops. You can see, the bloom just gets more and more lavender and loses any hint of pink undertones as it ages.

Kathy, yours is absolutely beautiful. I remembered yours being huge. I do have a spot like your size on a plot btw my neighbor and me. I am still debating and have to amend soil there if I want it transferred there by Spring. Perma, I had some sort of greenish eggs underneath the leaves. So, I was washing Ebb Tide with soapy water then as I bend the the older branches a young shoot broke off from neighbouring branch. Now, it is a cutting. A good 8 inches long, I think maybe even 9. I will let you know how it turns out. That just happened like a few hours ago..haha