re: "The mauve/lavender rose on the test panel hasn't been named yet but I really think it deserves to be commercialized as well as the other two." Check this out... They named it Sweetness and are introducing it for 2009. Here is a link that might be useful: JP Wholesale

Well, considering how much a fan of own-root roses here in my cold zone, this was an eye-opening exercise. I went through my entire alphabetical list of 800 or so roses, a majority of which are flori/HT/grandiflora roses, and noted any that I considered excellent on own roots. It turns out a lot of outstanding bloomers that I vaguely had considered floris or HTs were actually shrubs, and many of my best HTs were in fact grafted. Dang. I have a bad survival rate with bare root roses, but it looks like I should be cautious with the HT own root roses on a second round. My impression was that the floribundas weren't particularly bothered by being own root and very few of mine were grafted, but by far my best bloomers among the HTs tended to be the grafted ones. Who knew?? Here's my list of the definite prolific or otherwise robust roses in these categories: Floribunda: - prolific Bolero Floral Fairy Tale LavaGlut Mandarin Ice Grand Duc Henri Occhi di Fata Pinocchio Suni Louisa Stone/Guinevere Pillow Talk Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale Impatient Roman Holiday Alice Pat Champagne Moment Bad Worishofen/Pink Emely Eutin Hot Cocoa HTs Beverly Francis Dubreuil Cubana Comtesse de Segur Dames de Chenonceau Acropolis Aloha Headliner Nigrette (no worse than it would do grafted) Papageno Lafter Maid of Honor Spiced Coffee Golden Buddha Birthday Girl Grandif �" Paloma Blanca Paw Maw Lagerfeld Earth Song (extremely well) Mother of Pearl I ended up needing an honorable mention for the HTs, with roses that are robust and vigorous growers, but not terribly prolific or frequent rebloomers. I figure that can be true of any of the HTs and it wouldn't depend on them grafted or not, so for what it's worth here are the good HTs on own roots, for me: Peggy Rockefeller Karl Herbst Intermezzo (surprisingly hardy for a lavender Dot rose) Neptune Henri Matisse Careless Love Charlotte Brownell Harry G Hastings Madame Delbard Break oâÂÂDay Sophisticate I agree that Double Delight is a very weak grower under any circumstances, but virtually microscopic if own root (and I've tried several times). It refuses to die before lingering several years, but never thrives own root. Cynthia

without a doubt---LOUISE ESTES. Everything I want in a HT. Good looking bush from top to bottom. Beautiful foliage, long cutting stems, one of the most beautiful blooms I have ever seen and it smells great. I have never seen a picture of this rose that does it any justice. You have to see it in person to understand what I mean. Now it gets tough. #2 would be MOONSTONE---Some good shots on HMF. #3 is BRINESSA---Beautiful smoky pink blooms on a good bush. Foliage like leather. Getting a little tough to find now aday.

I have all of those, except for RADIANT PERFUME. Keep in mind I have different temps and I haven't taken great care of some of these roses for several yrs. Many rarely get fertilized and I'm lucky if they don't die from not checking my sprinklers like I should. I need to down-size (yeah right)... I get 100+ temps most of the summer. HENRY FONDA I've had for a looong time and he's a tiny little thing. I think he doesn't like my heat. He almost died a few yrs ago and is taking forever to come back. This was the last bloom I got back in 2011.. yikes... AROMATHERAPY is planted in a bed that's badly in need of cleaning up. The last couple of yrs when it did bloom, it was very tall, like 5½ft. The blooms were large and pretty, but they didn't have all that strong of a scent as I recall. Thought with that name it would be really smelly! LOL Blooms blow fairly fast. GIRLS NIGHT OUT has been in a 16" pot for like 5yrs or so. Great bloomer. Long-lasting blooms in a really unusual plum-purple blend. Don't remember if it has a scent or not. Has stayed about 3½ft x 3ft. SHEER ELEGANCE has taken a few yrs to get going, but boy was it lovely last yr! Pretty big blooms that lasted a long time. It peaked out around 4ft x 2½ft. ABOUT FACE is great! Verrry tall. Mine often gets over 6ft if I let it. Lots of blooms. Not much scent that I remember. CAMARA is another one I've had for yrs and it's been neglected for quite a few of them. Reaches about 3ft x 2ft. Blooms are nice, but as I recall they blow kinda fast. MOTHER OF PEARL can get some really huge and lovely blooms, altho they do get some thrips sometimes. Mine got to be about 4½ft x 3ft. I had to move it because it was up near the chicken coop, and got in the way when I have to get up there to pull the plastic down when it rains, and the plastic would get caught on it in the wind. So right now the poor thing is in one of the raised veggie beds awaiting a new permanent home. SEDONA is gorgeous! Love the deep coloring. It was in a pot for a few yrs, and when it got in the ground it really took off. Grows about 4ft+ x 3ft. SUNSTRUCK is one that's in one of my worst beds. The first few yrs it was great, but right now the poor thing is overrun with blackberries and some horrific invasive grasses that I can't seem to get under control. I'm hoping to fix that this yr. Anyway, I remember it being very lovely. I like the "peacock" veining on the undersides. I seem to recall it fades very quickly. It got around 4ft x 3ft.