It's 93 degrees here today, but high temperatures this week & next. My TZ is still purple and the flowers last at least 7 days on the bush. I water it in the morning and again two hours before dusk. I especially double, or triple, water the darker colored roses when it's hot. All the roses are producing smaller blooms in this heat but will be back to normal if the weather ever cools down.

Mine isn't growing vigorously, but I suspect it may just be because it's recovering from transport shock. That said, I was slightly disappointed by the colour. I was hoping for a deep, rich purple midway between a garnet and an amethyst (which photos imply), but so far, mine is more of a dusty Bordeaux, with perhaps a hint of purple. Is there a richer dark purple out there?

TZ is at its best in the cooler spring & especially fall blooms. I really like its bloom color & high petal count but I shovel pruned my TZ's because they were very susceptible to BS.

@ wirosarian: Do you think I can expect a richer purple from my Twilight Zone? We've had cool days with heavy rain with the odd hot and sunny day here in Denmark this last week.

lauriescreams's ideas · More Info

Gosh, I think that's pretty. But for grape juice purple, I like Rhapsody in Blue. It doesn't have the petal count though.

lauriescreams.....I've had some absolutely fabulous dark, velvety blackish-purplish-blue blooms in the fall on my TZ's when Mother Nature has been kind to me in my zone 4 area & allowed me to have a good fall bloom. Part of this is due to cool weather but the main factor is that I'm in a Northern climate & the sun is low in the horizon that time of year which means the sun's rays must pass through a "lot of atmosphere" at a low angle which reduces their intensity. Your fall blooms should do the same being you're in Denmark but summer blooms probably not because you & I actually have "longer' daylight hours during the summer....which is why we plant "long day onions" & southern gardeners plant "short day onions".

I planted 7 TZ this spring from Breck's rose sale, 5 roses for $14.99, got 7 sets. I am not far from Rochester, I hope the blooms on mine would last more than a day,

Thanks wirosarian, jasminerose4u, and jjpeace. I don't mind a shift in colour, so long as the colours are lovely. It's not so much that my TZ isn't dark - it is - it's just more Bordeaux than purple.

I think alot of problem comes from the people's perception of the colour purple.

We have a wide range of names for colours in that spectrum. But most of them have been cast under the umbrella of "purple".

Purple is a much more red toned, muted colour than most people realise. What most people think of as purple today is actually a shade of violet, or amethyst. Where purple itself looks very much the colour of most wines.

However nowadays amethyst and violet are classified as types of purple. And since they are more attractive than a true purple to people, they are the image is slowly becoming the new "purple" in our society.

So what you get with Twilight Zone is, in my mind, a true purple. Sometimes in cooler weather it can border on amethyst.

However if you want that rich royal plum, bright violet, or amethyst colour in a rose. You'll have to wait till someone makes that breakthrough in breeding. We are certainly getting closer though.

Purple is an intermediate between red and blue, while violet is a spectral color. I think most would use the purple to describe the more reddish shades and violet to describe the bluer ones. My TZ might be described as purple, but a very red shade of purple, perhaps with brown mask (though dark, it's not intensely saturated).

Violet was originally a colour. Before a light spectrum. Coined after the intense blue red colour of violets.

And given a different name from purple because the intense blue hue was quite different than the much more red "purple".

I think that's where the issue for some of us is with this rose. My family and friends were really excited to see TZ bloom. And when it finally did they were all disappointed lol.

They said "I thought it was a purple rose". That's when I realised there's a big difference between each individual persons definition of the colour purple.

After all those years of art school and photography purple is firmly drilled in as a more red tone. But to my mother who collects crystals, purple is the bright colour of amythyst. So when it didn't match her expectation she was really let down.

The saturation on twilight zone can kinda be a problem too.

No matter how deep and purple you get the bloom the colour will always look a little desaturated and flat.

It lacks the richness and depth one expects from such a dark colour.

Stainless Steel and Poseidon are like that for me as well. Very lovely colours that are very flat.

Which I don't mind, but I personally think detracts from the colour. Imagine how great twilight zone would look with lots of depth!

How's it smell to you?

I've got a very good nose. And I can't smell it. Yet everyone else I know tells me it's intoxicating! It's so frustrating. I want to be able to smell it too. I'm not used to not being able to smell things :(

I have a similar thing happen with my bedroom alot actually. My room is a big mesh of brilliant turquoise, teal, and aquamarine hues. But everyone only ever remembers it as "blue" or "green". Even though neither of those colours are in my room lol.

Hmmm. I wonder if Twilight Zone doesn't mind the heat as long as it has high humidity. I am in Zone 10 in Florida and mine is staying dark purple. It has morning sun till about noon. It was looking kind of poorly, but I found the dredded mat (which I found to be Royal Palm Tree roots) was creeping over her roots. I dug that junk out and TZ rewarded me by putting on a growth spurt and nice dark flowers.

Wish someone who might know more jump in and explain why TZ might be light colored in some hot weather, while not in other places.

Mine was so gorgeous this spring, I had people who walk our road stop and ask me what it was. They didn't even know it was a rose. But now that summer has hit, not so gorgeous.

Exactly how I feel about Night Owl. If only more people would post disappointments (esp. in color) than just their triumphant best blooms!

I think we agree on the practical description of TZ's color, ordphien, if not the definition of purple (which for me is not a shade so much as a range). I've seen photos of TZ where the colour is not only more saturate, but also more midway between blue and red. But photos can be doctored, and purple and violet can be difficult to capture accurately on photographs (often showing up redder or bluer than what you actually see).

As for the smell, I detect a light, sweet, rosy smell from mine. Like many of my roses, the aroma seems weaker in the evening. I also grow Blue Moon, which to me has a hint of spicy sharpness which I can't quite classify. It's different from that of Heidi Klum, but similar in weight, if that makes sense. However, my uncle detects nothing from HK yet finds BM's aroma harsh. Perhaps we also perceive aromas differently?

I'm not an expert but I think I do know why rose colour is so affected by weather.

I believe the colour of a rose is dependant on the ph levels in its petals.

And the ph value in the petals is changed by the temperature. So as it gets warmer the ph changes in the petals, changing the colour.

And I seem to remember that the best colours come at lower ph, and lower ph levels come with cooler weather.

And if I remember that's why lavender roses are more blue in cold weather. And the genetically engineered "blue" rose is the colour of modern lavender roses. Because they can't get the ph low enough in the petals for the blue to appear.

I think this is why it happens. I could be wrong.

Lauriescreams - I think what I was driving at is that twilight zone is a classic paint chip purple. And I think I was saying is, I thought what you were asking not if it would get more purple, but more violet or amethyst in tone.

Which it certainly can.

Sorry. I was tired last night and my friend's grandmothers are in town from England. They managed to coherce me into a game of bridge and a bottle of whiskey.

I think I was rambling on about my internal frustration when it comes to umbrella terms for colours.

I do think fragrance is vastly different from person to person. I'm highly sensitive to "tea" fragrances. Which I know most people in my life can't smell.

That's why Grace is the most fragrant rose in my yard to me. It wafts intense black tea scent with a hint of peach. Most people I know say it's scentless.

I've never smelled heidi klum. But I have grown blue moon which I can smell. I guess I'll just have to imagine TZ smell.