Thank you everyone - I think Francis Meilland wins the day. It truly is a beautiful hybrid tea with that classic look and a wonderful fragrance, and seems to be disease resistant, you can't do better than that. For me it has taken a little patience, but it has been worth it. I think Andrea from Michigan had a bush shot of it last year, that might actually be a better climate for it. Hers was beautiful.

Did Blue Girl show other symptoms of RRD? Did the canes that started red turn green? Or did other symptoms arise on that bush? Transmission within a garden seldom has ever happend in that sort a period of time. The vector mite populations don't spike until September in zone 5 conditions (this from the juried scientific literature.) When the rose arrived at your home from Michigan Bulb, was it leafed out, or was it bare of leaves, and had it been dipped in wax? You may not have heard of RRD before this happened. Most people haven't. But you might want to consider that the disease has been to the north of you in Canada, to the south of you in Pennsylvania, in every county in Ohio to the west of you. And so far, I've seen it to the east of you in the BBG in Brooklyn...in the middle of the city. The vector mites are easily carried by winds and fall infections on hybrid teas show most often in new growth the following spring. This I know from my own garden experiences and it fits what others see, as well. There is no way to say where the vector mites came from that infected the rose in your garden that is near your new rose. (And there is no lab test to identify the disease; experienced plant pathologists depend on a collection of symptoms for identification.) There is NO reason to tear up an entire rose bed. As suggested above, remove the sick rose(s). That's what we do when other diseases strike and it works for RRD. Do look upwind of your home for Rosa multiflora. You may find it along stream beds or even growing up into trees. With the disease pressure on roses to the north west and south of your state, RRD is moving into New York, even though it doesn't get talked about. Good luck. Don't panic or make yourself ill about this. I can say this because I've been dealing with RRD in my garden for ten years. I continue to grow roses. I loose a couple of plants each year to RRD. There's RRD in wild roses three miles away. It's become a fact of life, but I can enjoy the ones that live and try to mourn the ones I loose....a lot like life, really. My E-book linked below has twelve chapters about rose rosette as well as a FAQ. It's based on a lot of visiting other gardens with RRD in them as well as a lot of research. The Bibliography at the back is up to date, science wise, if you can stand to read about the intentional spread of RRD to kill multiflora.

In my case things turned out fine. Even sticky survived and Tequila Supreme is one of my favorite roses. I would not want to order anything right now in this weather. Be sure to call them to specify when you would like delivery. In my case I place an order in Dec. I think. Went to grab the mail one day in Feb. and there was a tiny box sitting in the snow. Yes, it was the roses a full two and a half months to early. I mean who on earth would send rose plants to Illinois in February!

Lagerfeld is new for me this year, and just a baby plant at this point. Here is a mostly-spent bloom, but I'm really happy with the fragrance and form of these blooms from a juvenile plant. I think she has great potential. Here is a picture of Neptune. I mentioned earlier that she hasn't been the most prolific bloomer for me, but not every rose is happy with N. CA's intense dry heat.