If you could see the bug, then it's not rose midge. Rose midge is entirely too small to see. Nothing about grafted v. own root makes one more susceptible to midge than another. Bare root plants can still be carrying midge, our local pest expert recommends that any rose from a garden harboring midge be bare rooted and then the roots dipped in an insecticide solution before moving it to another garden. You can lose an entire bloom cycle to midge. I have. The first year I had significant midge problem in my garden, I didn't realize it until I realized it was way past time for the roses to start blooming and I had almost no flowers still. They grew fine, but no blooms. The subsequent bloom cycles usually are better, the midge mainly seems to hit the first cycle but that's the most highly anticipated flowers and the ones you need for any exhibitions. From what I recall, it was a certain ownroot rose nursery in NorCal that was the locus of the first confirmed rose midge populations on the west coast (it's an east coast native) and it was plants from this nursery that were spreading it around and introduced it to the PNW. Or was that how it was introduced into California gardens? don't remember but it was definitely an ownroot rose nursery spreading it. Rose midge shows no preference for living in the ground over living in potting soil.

Thank you, David! It's a big flower (check), great smell (check), not a huge plant so far (check), nice petal shape (check), good contrast on the colors (check)--yes, keeper! Dave, the outer stripe color seems a bit more intense than the original, though the petals are lacking that charming point and inner ruffling so far. Hard to tell until more blooms open up. The tree is just a hair under 4 feet tall, not fat or thin, and the growth has been steady each year. All my VCR seedlings exhibited strong growth that first year, but the leaf nodes on this are pretty evenly spaced. The foliage is nothing special and kinda sparse, unlike the one other VCR seedling I kept. But I think it may grow a bit less gigantic. The new branches off this inflo are not even starting yet, so it will probably always grow slowly.

You have beautiful bushes, Socks! At one time I had thirty tea roses in a big bed under our family room windows. First the deer came; they just love rose buds. I countered with pieces of Irish Spring bar soap impaled on stakes just the same height as the roses. Then a nursery near our home evidently imported some stock with Japanese Beetles. I was out there pickin' and pickin'. Then came a couple of hot, damp summers and mildew that would have require constant spraying. I gave up! When my mother's leukemia was sill just a 'blood disorder', she needed regular visits with a hematologist. The receptionist always had huge, perfect roses in a vase on her desk. (Guess why her roses did so well...)

Hello there Miss Mary. I also think the drift rose series would make a wonderful rose for the area you have. They bloom a lot and stay compact. I specially love the sweet drift. I am not certain if it is a soft enough shade of pink. If you prefer something lighter, then the Fawn/Faun rose would be a wonderful pale pink rose. Petal pusher is another good one. the Fawn/faun on front of the border closed up of the little bloom for reference Sweet drift closed up for reference. I apologize they don’t look perfect anymore more like the did during the spring, we have a million thrips and Japanese beetles right now petal pusher has a medium pink color with lighter reverse. It is competing with sweet mint here and still manages to bloom. here is the darker color in the spring this is today. Lighter pink.