For me KL reblooms faster and bloomed earlier. Both are about the same as far as BS resistance which is not good. Maybe DD is slightly better.

I have DD. Not bs resistant here. If it is NJ, the size will not match. P is a far taller rose. They will not love good together, I suspect, due to differences in size

Of course, if that's the case, you could always stagger them and place the shorter one in front and in between the taller ones if you have space. That might look really good. Sorry to hear neither is very BS resistant. : (

Is Posiedon really that big? Seems to be listed as around 3 feet.

Yeah, that's not going to work. I'd rather deal w blackspot than have to constantly prune off clumps of dirty TP.

I was really hoping to be able to use something in the lavender color range since the deck and accompanying pergola will be driftwood and an ebony shade, but every lavender seems to have some fatal flaw.

What about Violets Pride? The guy who hybridized it at Weeks said it was his best ever.

I'm interested to see how this idea turns out for you. It the color mixture sounds fabulous. :-) Good luck!

Thanks for suggesting Violets Pride, it looks very similar to Lavender Veranda (which I was considering) in color but a larger bush. I would have forever ignored it in the Weeks catalog on account of the stern-looking elderly woman in the photo....

Hahahahaha That would get to me too, Ebharvey. But then I never watched Downtown Abbey. I can see how it would add extra appeal to fans thoug. Are there GoT, Law & Order, or Outlander roses?? tic

And your tp comment has me both giggling and terrified for the fate of my purples in my heat and sun... and I haven't even planted them yet! :-( I can totally see my adult daughters saying "Mom, why'd you plant a tp bush by the pool?" :facepalm:

I'm a lavender lover and was originally afraid that Violet's Pride would be too pink. But the lovely lady is what sold me, LOL! And they turned out to be great too, thank goodness.

I agree, and it should go well with goldflame honeysuckle, which I was hoping to use on a trellis bordering the deck. Thanks for all the replies.

LOL! Someone needs to tell Weeks that the stern looking lady is forbidding rose lovers from buying Violet's Pride!

Well it is a bit odd. I had never even heard of Downtown Abbey and I'm looking through the catalog wondering why these new roses are accompanied by strange people in period-clothing. Even now I don't quite get the connection - seems like arbitrary cross-marketing, like when they advertise a superhero movie and pizza hut together in the same commercial.

Kordes Plum Perfect is nice and doesn't get brown edges like Poseidon. It's a deeper mauve purple like Lavender Veranda but the flowers are larger. I saw Violet's Pride at a local nursery and it had black spot and the roses were tiny, maybe 2.5 inches across. I have read so many great comments about this rose. Maybe the ones they had were suffering from neglect? I had Distant Drums years ago. It was a black spot nightmare!

Sharon

ebharvey- it's Downton Abbey!! Get it right or my daughter will surely correct you as she did me!! ;-)

Sharon

Oops! My bad too. I thought it was DowntoWn. Sorry Enchantedrose.

I don't know BenT, I think it could be helping encourage sales with the show's fans. I was planning to order Anna's Promise, but it sold out super fast. I gather it's a Downton Abbey rose too.

Ebharvey- Gold Flame Honeysuckle is so pretty and unique. I almost picked some up this spring at the nursery, but the price didn't seem right. Kicking myself a little since, but not so bad because the regular honeysuckle grows wild in our yard. I think Gold Flame would look awesome with Distant Drums.

~Shannon :-)

They should just call the rose Maggie Smith. Violet's Pride is just cringe inducing and put people on alert for marketing gimmicks. Oh, the whole business of naming roses. Btw, maybe weeks think that the stern look is how a countess should look, hahaha. What Maggie Smith has done to deserve suffering this royal treatment!!!

I don't watch the show but my daughter is a fan and SHE corrected ME when I got it wrong!! They just love it when they know more than their parents, lol.

Sharon

Here's an explanation of Violet's Pride Rose-

From Week's Downton Abby collections, we bring you Violet’s Pride, a floribunda rose from 2017. Resilience from diseases and a sophisticated grapefruit and fruit-like fragrance worthy of any noblewoman. As Lady Violet was particularly proud of her garden for producing Best in Show blossoms, the prolific blooming rose Violet’s Pride generates some of the most elegant buds and flowers that are worthy of first prize. The flowers are held proudly on top of a vigorous and even rounded bush.

I guess the grumpy, sour puss loved roses ;-)

Sharon

Lady Violet is a strong lady who is the best part of the whole show! She's hysterical and I can't think of many period pieces where we have to press pause so that we can laugh.

Or is this a generational thing? Sharon, would you mind asking your daughter what she thinks about her? Perhaps the younger generation is not laughing at the same things we are!

lavender lace- I'll ask her. She loves the show and recommends that I watch it on Amazon. Sarah was born in 1978 and has a quirky sense of humor and loves old comedy like I Love Lucy and the Honeymooners. She named on elf her dogs Gracie after George Burns wife and her other dog Benny after Jack Benny. She loves the movie 'It's A Wonderful Life' so atypical of most from her generation. She also loves Doctor Who and Harry Potter. The actress who plays Violet also played Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter movies.

Sharon

Just to chime in on the downton abby topic. I'm 39 years old and loved the show! I loved Violet's character, she was very fitting for the era and her age at the time in the show.

I'm not into the whole naming roses after celebrities and characters either. But if it's a good rose I will grow it no matter what the name. I'm not keen on Dick Clark, but I have the rose. I'm not a chef but you can't go wrong growing Julia Child. I do not have any of the downton roses, because I have not seen them locally and I'm not sure what hardiness zone they are rated for. But at least it's fitting to name roses after an english show that takes place in a time period of english gentry and gardens. Unlike many of the modern celebrity names on roses.

Anyways, back to the topic of colour coordination. I love poseidon in my garden so far. Hoping to not encounter the tp look often. I've read Poseidon is not a lover of heat, zone 5-6 kind of rose. So if it's in all day sun spot in zone 7 and up, it probably will suffer ugly heat fried blooms. If you have afternoon shade, it will do well. Mine has no black spot. I love the look of distant drums and koko loco, but no experience with them. Violet's pride is getting a lot of rave reviews so far, despite the naming confusion! It looks very promising. Good luck with it!

My Poseidon and Plum perfect are both healthy and 3 ft tall as second year own roots. My Lavender veranda is completely defoliated. I don't recommend LV in climates with lots of humidity. I don't spray and I'm in Maryland.

modest- Poseidon looks good but her flowers have been horrible this year, Plum Perfect is too new so I don't know how she'll be for bs. I grew one last year but can't remember bs resistance and it was eaten by voles over winter. Plum Perfect has less fussy blooms than Poseidon. I think I've only gotten one Poseidon bloom that's near perfect. This year has been genuinely horrible for my Massachusetts garden. I think we've had way too much rain coupled with cooler temps. Most of my roses have some kind of fungal disease, anthracnose or the one that begins with C, (the name escapes me right now), so it hasn't been a great year.

Sharon