Nelson's Florida Roses are right around the corner from you (in Apopka). All of their roses are grafted onto fortuniana rootstock. Talk to one of the owners over there and tell them what is going on at the school. Ask them if you can purchase 4 roses so you can teach the children the difference between the different rootstocks and the difference in the growth habits of the roses. Get Mr. Lincoln, J.F. Kennedy, Pascali and a rose named Belinda's Dream (pink). Plant these roses close to their name sake from Dewar and Belinda's Dream with the pinks. Do a little home work on these two rootstocks. Now for disease's. Namely blackspot. It is a fungus disease that almost all hybrid tea's in Florida get. Hundreds of folks have tried different ways to keep roses clean. In Florida the best way is to spray the plants every two weeks with Bayer Disease Control for Roses and Shrubs. Do not use the All in 1 or anything like that. Remember water is the life of anything. This includes roses big time. Roses also like to be fed so they can perform at their best. Ask Nelson what they feed their roses. Always remember this, you can't sell roses to a childs mind if it is an ugly, disease covered bush with puny, ugly blooms. Remind the children that the rose is our National flower. Make them want to be proud to say that the rose is the Nations flower and they learned all about it from you're school. Now to answer some of you're other questions. Don't worry about the infected foliage. It will drop off in time. Don't feed anything until they have been in the ground for a least 2 months. Then just a small hand full of fert. per bush every month for 6 months. Then a big hand full every month after that. Don't prune anything this year. Next year do the major pruning. The rest of this school year water a lot and feed every month. They need to establish a good root system. Do yourself a favor and contact the Orlando Rose Society. They can help tremendously. Tell them I sent you over. Some of the older member know who I am. Enjoy and teach those children about our National flower. They're the ones who will be taking care of the roses after we're gone.

I had a grafted Mme PO and it was one of the best bloomers in my zone 10 garden (coastal Los Angeles). The first 3 years it rusted badly, but I kept it for the exquisite flowers. About year 4, it strengthened and only rusted during seasonal changes. I let mine grow out into an arching shape - it made a slender graceful shrub with arching 7-9ft canes in its prime. There's regular dieback, so I pruned back the dead wood eventually removing the cane when it really started to fail. My grafted shrub lost its vigor after about 9 years, and I started an ownroot one this summer. It's an exquisite rose for both coloring - the flowers blush beautifully - and scent. One of my favorites. My Bourbons must be planted in the sunniest spots to thrive here in the coastal belt, it's just a little too cloudy and cool for most of them.

I grow this rose, and love it. I have three Mme Pierre Ogers up by my front porch, and they perfume the front yard. They grow to about 5 feet tall by autumn, with a vase shaped growth habit. They repeat bloom nicely through summer and into autumn.

My Rosette Delizy is planted between two Le Vesuve which have not very shapely and rather blowsy blooms. In contrast my RD doesn't really have messy blooms except for the ones that need to be deadheaded. For me it's a good rose in every way, and in your zone may be better than the other two, which like more of a cool winter, I believe. I tried to grow Mme. Pierre Oger without much success years ago, when it was still cooler than it is now.