I've grown Big Purple for a long time, and it's very fragrant for me. Plenty purple enough, but certainly no Ebb Tide, Midnight Blue or Twilight Zone in terms of true deep purple. I bought another in 2019 from Heirloom. My original one is growing in a narrow bed under my laundry room window, next to Sun Flare, Brass Band, and Honey Bouquet. Yellow, orange and any version of purple is my favorite combo :-D

I bought a Blue Girl last week from Lowe's, but nothing else caught my eye. I've never seen Lambert Closse around here, that would've been nice to get for my friend with the last name Lambert. He got a Double Delight @ Home Depot per my recommendation. It does great here.

I found a Julie Andrews last year @ HD & am very pleased with it. Very healthy, no rust or bs, and the blooms last forever. I'd get another, but neither store carries it this year. I've visited 6 locations to peruse the varieties.

Diane, what a beautiful photo, although I must say, all your pics are. What rose is that?

It's Ebb Tide, Soozie, and thank you. I'm sorry for offending the Big Purple fans. Diane

Aww Diane, I was afraid it was going to be Ebb Tide. I got rid of mine years ago, when it first became available here. It was just too messy, shedding petals after just a day, and never looked as good as yours. Still looking for a good deep purple, but with bigger blooms. I'm experimenting with lavenders this year. We'll see.

Soozie, Twilight Zone, might be one to fit you requirements. The blooms are a little bigger than those of Ebb Tide, and darker most of the time. TZ holds its color better than ET, but I like them both and have multiples. My two favorite lavenders remain Love Song and Angel Face. Don't know if you've tried them. Below is Twilight Zone. Diane

I have Love Song on order from Northland, as a sub for the elusive Poseidon. I had Angel Face but this was so many years ago when I was a newbie with roses. I'm not a fan, but I'm sure you could change my mind with a pic of one of your own Diane 😄

Soozie, if you live in an area with black spot problems, Angel Face is not for you. Here all is dry, and my favorite local rose place even sells Sterling Silver, Neptune, Poseidon, Angel Face, not to mention Stainless Steel, Silver Lining, and Quick Silver. I'd put Love Song up against Poseidon any day. I hope yours does well for you. You asked for it--here's Angel Face. Diane

with Young Lycidas

I am a fan of Lambert Closse, it's a beautifully tidy shrub with lavish blooms. Not much fragrance but I like everything else about it.

Diane, I live in s. CA, dry as a bone. Ha! I knew it! Had I seen your pics before I had actually grown AF, I would've bought it ha ha. Nope, mine never looked like yours. How beautiful 😍.

Yes I have high hopes for Love Song in my climate. Can't wait till it arrives. I wouldn't mind Quicksilver too, but I can't find it locally, I'll have to wait to order online again. Thanks for the photos.

I've lived in So Cal, too, where it wasn't quite so dry--Redondo Beach, and in the SF Bay area. That was a long time ago. Love Song does well in heat, I think (we have really hot summers. Diane

Soozie Q -- I have Love Song in Santa Barbara -- it's a beautiful rose, big healthy bush, pretty good repeat -- my only complaint is that it's not fragrant. But I put it toward the back of the border and don't prune it as hard as the roses in front of it. The combo of DA Poets Wife and Love Song is just glorious. Diane -- I'm stillwaiting for my TZ to look like yours...

Deborah, I told you on a couple of other threads I'd found Potomac lavender snaps seed (Hazzards Seeds and Johnny's). If you still want them. Do you have a photo of your TZ? Is it magenta instead of purple? Give Lilly Miller organic granular fertilizer for acid loving plants and see what happens. Good luck tomorrow in class. My poor granddaughter returns to class tomorrow in the midst of a plague here in plaque ridden Idaho. Diane

Carla - I never would have thought that hardy roses (Theresa Bugnet is zone 2!!) would be sold in California. I would think that TB would get HUGE in California!

Those boxed roses are from Canada. That's why they've got many of the hardy roses in the assortment. I got MORDEN BLUSH at the Lowes in Chico. Was most excited to get the pink HT ROYAL KATE there as well. I had gotten her from Hortico before the Camp Fire hit. They never got her back in again.

Ah, I see. :):) I really loved Morden Blush when I grew it at my old place. Super fabulous...always blooming in huge swathes of blooms!! No fragrance.

Therese looks kind of cute--is she that frilly in person??
Carla

Yes, but I had a real problem with the wind with TB. In zone 2 she only bloomed twice...and every single time she bloomed, we'd get a wind storm and she'd lose all of her petals. It was very frustrating. I'd see them for one day...that's it.

Carol, that sounds like my hollyhocks, only the wind would blow them down just when they were at their peak, and I refuse to stake hollyhocks. TB does look lovely with the ruffles, and I so like a rose with ruffles. Diane

So I went to another Lowe's, which did not have any nice Big Purples, but did have these two lovelies (sitting in my car ὠ1)
On Beth's recommendation I got Royal Kate (reviews say it smells like strawberries!) And I've always wanted Blossomtime.
Carla in Sac

Great score Carla! I wouldn't mind a Blossomtime, I'm looking for another climber, pink or purple. Let us know how it does for you. Is the grower Pan America? Most of not all the roses in the big box stores here come from them. I peeked at their website & saw a couple roses I would like but have not found in any store so far: Le Petit Prince & Moonlight in Paris. I picked up Mother of Pearl though, couldn't resist the price.

I scored Le Petit Prince and Moonlight in Paris from Home Depot last year. I do remember seeing Therese Bugnet at Lowe's then too, but passed on it since I'd already bought one own-root. Still about 3 months until the box stores get their roses in around here. Not that I plan to buy any this year but it sure is nice to look, JUST incase something surprising is in there.

Diane - yes, I agree about not doing extra things for my nonrose plants. I refuse to winter proof my perennials. So I only buy zone 3 or lower.

Lovely looking plant. You are an addict, Carla. Diane

I freely confess, Diane!
Now I need to just decide which of the old needs to go out to make room for the new!
Blossomtime will go in a pulp pot because it's going to be partially blocked by a fence, so it needs to get bigger before I can plant it.
Kate is probably replacing bloom-once Savannah.
Big Purple is pretty thorny, so I need to think about it....
Carla

I "just happened" to pop into my local Lowes to see if any new bare roots came in, after my grocery shopping was done. Happy to see lots more, with a few more varieties but none I especially wanted. They also now have potted(2 gal?) bare roots from another vendor, lots of Gypsy, and several pots missing the name with only a small label saying Yellow Rose, so who knows what they are. These pots were around $16.99, not such a wow deal as they looked to be the same size as the regular bare roots that were not potted up in the larger pots.

Planning to visit another Lowe's this week, plus HD. Just looking...

Went to the HD in Red Bluff yesterday. Not much left. Mostly EUROPEANA and a few others. Did see one they label as "CARNIVAL" which is ROSIE O'DONNELL. Also stopped in at the Grocery Outlet in Chico today. They carry Certified Roses. Had a big nearly-empty display table out front with only a few HEIRLOOM, FIRST PRIZE and MR LINCOLN in peat pots for $7.99. The $6.99 bagged bareroots were mostly OKLAHOMA, MR LINCOLN, FIRST PRIZE, OREGOLD, SCARLET KNIGHT and a few others like BROADWAY, MON CHERI and SHREVEPORT. I bought one of each of the last two. Wanted to replace those because I lost them in the fire. I did pick up a MON CHERI last yr, but I'm not convinced it's the correct rose, so... we'll see...

Looks like people are really buying them up this yr tho. Hopefully WalMart might get in something unusual like last yr. I found BENGALI there last yr.

Carla - I would NEVER find such a lovely boxed bare root rose here! They're usually just awful looking. Gorgeous!!

Beth how are you liking your new place? Has it been 2 years since the fire? Do you still have chickens? :) :)

I got a petite prince last year too. Beautiful rose. Looking forward to this year to see how it does here.

are these bare root? or are they called "band" rose? the box fits the "band" description....

No, these are nothing like bands. Bands are basically just rooting cuttings. They are not thick-caned grafted plants like these. These just fit in a box because their roots have been severely cut, and they are usually in a moist medium like peat in these pots, they're not growing in soil. So yes, they are bare roots that are packaged to survive short term in the stores until they get planted, since normally bare roots need to be stored in cold, humid conditions to survive longer term storage.

Are these bareroot or "band"? I thought the so-called "band" rose looks like coming in this kind of container?

These are what the big box stores do now instead of body bags.

Thanks @sautesmom Sacramento! Learn sth everyday!

So does it mean that these bareroot may be "older" than the "band"? I understand "band" is <=1yr old.

What's the "age" of the bareroot rose that are typically sold in the big box stores?

The kind of bare roots you would receive, say, from David Austin, or Palatine, are two years old. In fact all the good online sellers send two year old plants. I don't know about big box stores. I'd have to see a photo at least. Diane

@Diane Brakefield there are many photos at the beginning of this thread and more in the thread. I had thought these are "bands". But just learned that these are actually barefoot sold in Lowe's and Homedepot.

I saw those photos. In fact, I was posting at the beginning of this thread. The photos are of bare roots as you just learned. I meant photos of bands.

I sure hope our Lowes carries some of these beauties. They didn’t have squat last year.

Carol, we are settling in to our new place, but it's still just not "home." I miss Paradise all the time. It's actually over 3yrs now. Nov 8, 2018. Changed our lives forever. Only good things are... the property is almost 3 acres, where we had 1/3 acre in Paradise.. and we now have over 50 chickens. LOL Roosters were not allowed in Paradise, and we have about a dozen now. Have to find homes for some of them asap! Too many...

@Beth Hana -- I'm glad you're finding a way to make the new place feel more like home with the roses you love. I don't often see Red Bluff or Chico on these forums! My sister is in the Redding area, so I go through Red Bluff whenever I visit her. I rented a house by the river in Red Bluff one year. Loved the swimming pool there! And an amazing BBQ place in town.

T Y -- I think you've got it all figured out now -- but just in case -- a "band" rose is when someone has started a new rose from a cutting, it's rooted out, and now is its own tiny plant, with roots in-tact in the soil. The "band" is a tiny pot. Heirloom roses sells one-gallon plants, which are basically what happens when the bands have more time and get bigger and fill in the one-gallon size pot. Bare roots are roses that have been grown in the ground (probably more usually from being grafted onto rootstock, but sometimes also grown on own-roots from cuttings -- esp. climbers), then dug up, defoliated, trimmed, and ready for you to take home and plant immediately (after soaking first for a couple of hours or overnight). A good bare-root rose has very thick canes and good, sturdy looking roots. By thick, I mean thicker than your index finger. As folks said above, big box stores will sell bare-roots in peat pots or plastic bags.

Often, nurseries will plant their bare-root roses in January into 5-gallon cans with potting soil, and then sell you that rose in the spring for about 2-4x the amount of a bare-root rose (because now you're buying the water, the soil, the pot, the growing time, the space in the nursery).

As I say, you probably know all that now, but just in case...

Thanks, @Diane Brakefield, for clarifying!

I am thinking of buying some "bands" from Burlington. I had thought "band" by definition is <=1 yr old. But sounds like you can tell the age from the photo?

For people with experience buying from Burlington in spring, are the plants typically 1 yr old or couple of months old? Feel like I am talking about babies....

I would prefer putting them into ground directly (SF bay area, zone 9b), instead of potting into 1g and then transplant into the group. I hope our local climate can be warm enough for them to establish within the first year....

I bought some bands from Burling in early summer. One was very tiny, and she was reluctant to part with it, but I'd come a long way to be there in person, so she sold it to me at a discount. The others seemed like well-rooted little plants. I took them home and put them in 1-gallon pots. After a few months, I put them in 3 gallon pots. One I put in a 5 gallon pot. I just planted them in their new HUGE POTS and Barrels (and the tiny one is now in the ground). I'd say now they are about as a big as a typical one-gallon Heirloom rose. But I don't do a ton of bands, so I can't say for sure how old they are. I would be very surprised if any of them were over a year old, and I'd think the tiny one was probably a couple of months old. But they all did well for me. I picked them up in person while driving from Northern California to Southern California. I was there when her well was drying up and she was carting water over from her brother-in-law's property! She was fantastic. Very personable and hospitable and sooo knowledgeable.

This is what bands generally look like, give or take a few inches of growth. Yes, they are roses that have only been rooted and actively growing for a few months. As mentioned, once they get older they are planted up and likely sold as a 1 gal own-root, it will no longer be called a band at that point.

TY, it would be safer for the bands from Burling to pot them up in 1-2 gal pots and plant them in the ground in the Fall if you get them this Spring. They will do better.

also, bareroot can refer to own root OR grafted plants. In the case the the latter, the rootstock itself is often 2 years old. Ive had amazingly good luck with BR grafted in the plastic packages from Menards, but they are increasingly misnamed. STill good roses if bought fresh.

Made it to Green Thumb in Lake Forest today to check out the bare roots. They had a lot from 22-27 dollars! I picked up an Ebb Tide (replacing the one I left at my old house), Bolero (same) and on a whim picked up Silver Linings floribunda. It looks nice; I usually do a lot more research on roses before buying, but my son was encouraging me, so I got that one too. =)

Beth - Oh, that's a shame that it's still just the "new place" and not "home." Has it been 3 years already? My goodness! You've shown such resiliency to get past that devasting fire and build a new life. I'm so proud of you! Fifty chickens!! That's a lot of chickens!! :) :)

C

Beth
Did you move back to Paradise or some other place in NorCal?
Since you were shopping in Chico I assumed it was close!
Carla in Sac