For an ultra-fragrant pure white HT, for me it's a tie between Pope John Paul II and Maria Shriver. For a pure white FL that blooms like crazy with great substance, it's Saratoga, hands down. Alas no fragrance on Saratoga. Pillow Fight is a nice FL with medium blooms that blooms a lot in nice clusters. Gourmet Popcorn has small blooms in large clusters. I love Marie Pavie, but it's not pure white.

PJPII:

Maria Shriver:

Saratoga:

Pillow Fight:

Gourmet Popcorn:

Kentucky, I got my Ashley from Grace Rose Farm in 2024, and I think that was the only year they were able to carry this rose. I think A&A sell a few of the newer Tantau roses that Tantau allows. I don't know about Canada. Hortico doesn't seem to carry Tantau Roses and other interesting roses like they did years ago. They are more conventional and limited in their offerings. A lot of forum members did not like Hortico, but I had no problems with their roses. I got several Bernstein-Roses and a Blue Bayou back around 2009 from Hortico, and in 2013, I got Augusta Luise and Royal Bonica from them. Those offerings are long gone, of course. I think I got my two Ascots about 2011 from Palatine. There weren't a lot of forum members buying from them, and I found out about this company and Pickering on my own. Palatine was very negative about selling Tantau roses, saying that Tantau had no US rep, etc, etc. I was trying to get them to sell Augusta because so many forum members wanted to grow her at the time. A few years later, I think they did sell AL briefly. Sorry for the digression, and thank you for your kind words. I hope someone will sell Pink Ashley because I don't think A&A does anymore.

Trish, I was mostly joking about Stumpy. I wouldn't try to take care of any of that type of bird. Elaine's granddaughter and her husband had a huge parrot with his own room, and he lived in a gigantic cage within the room. He was impressive, but sort of intimidating. When her husband passed away, she sold the parrot, Elaine told me. I don't blame her. OK, now I need to go outside and feed my pet birds--ha. The little guys that are total slobs and enable the quail to eat sunflower seeds, too, by dropping half the seeds they get from the feeder. So, I feed mine enemies by default. Arggh.

I'm trying to make comments on all posts above, and can't make much headway. Back later. Diane

Deer food last week--one of the last Evelyn blooms

Ballerina is still blooming. The deer don't like her.

Ashley--the last of these were deer food last week.

Jim,

Hyrerical! Sweet Gracie! Happy treat girl! Anastasia loves to get treats from the UPS man! She really gets excited & looses it barking if he drives by. He triwd her a treat! Today he keft ger a treat with the A&A package of roses! 76F today! Actually hot! I’ wearing a T-shirt!

Trish,

Hans Rostock is the most beautiful creamy peach colors! Yummy! Boo on those caterpillars! I’m done w/ insects! Tired if seeing munched leaves! Neem to the rescue! Actually most of my potted roses all are deleafed anyway, LOL! Getting cool here, 63F today.

Carol,

I think I will have 44 roses potted to move. I still need to dig up 2 roses-then done.

And… Francis Roses lists on website these partner nurseries…

The list starts:

56 Flowers, Milton, Ontario

All My Thyme

Berridge Nurseries

FL Sunshine Roses

Foxview Roses

Fuirk Roses

Otto & Sons

Raft Island

Sundrops Nursery

Redland Ranch Roses

Sweet Hilltop Farm & Nursery

The Rose Cove

Thorncrest Rose Farm

I saw Raft Island -it has a large Francis Roses Inventory, but not all. I looked at Foxview a week ago-they had some roses. . I looked at Fuirk this morning-they have a few Francis roses.

Elena,

The fairy tale was very enjoyable. Alas, the protagonist has been too sullied in farm dirt to make a credible Snow White.

You make a strong point Ken. Thank you, except that in spite of my advanced years my expectation is to still live many additional years in spite of my limitations. I have a lot more to accomplish. I'm not even a hundred yet!

Moses.

The abbreviated version:

Once upon a time two grifters named Ryan and Gracie-poo came up with the idea to sell overpriced and unhealthy roses by creating an online presence through filters and photoshop like many new "luxury" companies. They've been exposed, but somehow continue their grift 🥳

Thanks Ben, you beat me by answering my question before I could ask it! I thought I remembered the name Azout and Alexandra Farms as the folks who "bought" GRF not long ago. Funny how folks who do business with GRF end up being sued. I guess it's Grace's version of ETTD... EGRFTD, lol. I looked at their list of roses, and several look tempting. Going over to Rose Vendors to check now.

Thanks for checking with me Moses! Like many things with roses, my experiences with RRV have been a matter of managing rather than totally eliminating the problem.

For those of you unfamiliar with my recent RRV history, I had a massive pervasive spread of Rose Rosette in my garden that I detected too late. Our local public rose garden lost 90%+ of their roses to RRV the same year, and looking back it's possible that I could have conveyed that disease to my home garden after helping with the pruning. RRV expert Ann says that pruner or other mechanical transmission of RRV is slight however, so I don't know if the public garden timing was relevant. I combed my neighborhood to see if I could find a likely source and there really wasn't anything within a mile radius. Still, my garden was so infested with RRV that I ended up digging up all 850+ roses during 2022.

I left the garden fallow in 2023 and overwintered the new roses I'd bought in pots over that year. I have been planting roses again to refill those spots since then and I'm back over 1000 at this point. Yep, it's either dedicated or stupid, or both, but for me roses are the fun side of gardening, and gardening is an essential part of my life.

Back to Moses' question, I now am highly motivated and unfortunately highly experienced at recognizing RRV in my yard. I love the simple tips like "no larger canes should be growing out of smaller canes" that help me identify RRV and stop it before it gets established. I also love the successful reassurance of other knowledgeable gardeners that RRV travels down the cane in a progression and if you can catch it before it progresses you can stop the process in that rose. That means faithfully monitoring the ends of all my roses as I provide other maintenance, particularly the big roses and climbers that are more susceptible to catching those wind borne mites for RRV.

With that diligence, I've found clear indications of RRV at the tips of about 20 roses for sure, and another 20 that are maybes. Fortunately with cutting those canes down to the base as soon as I see it, and hair spraying the canes to bag and dispose, I haven't seen any recurrence on those affected roses. I now keep records of the roses for which I've seen one "strike" of RRV and if I ever get a second strike it's going to be dug out, however precious the rose. I'm to the point where this is such a relatively painless system that I cut back a cane if it looks suspicious because it doesn't hurt the rose and eases my mind.

What has been more troublesome and pervasive (and fatal) has been what I posted in another thread about what I now call "chlorotic ick", for lack of better identification. At largely random spots anywhere in the garden, I've seen roses have dramatically chlorotic foliage (outside of the usual chlorosis conditions) that are doomed to shrivel and die regardless of what I do once it gets started. Helpful contributors here on GW had suspected some new fertilizer from our rose society that might have trace elements clumped up but I've seen the effect on newly planted roses in 2026 that got no fertilizer, so that's not the primary or only cause I think. I'm still trying to get a soil test done but it's odd that one rose gets affected in the middle of perfectly healthy other roses, so it's not completely systemic. I dunno but I've lost at least 20 roses to chlorotic ick this year and several last year. I'll resurrect that thread if I get more information to share and ask for more theories of what this might be.

So the bottom line to your very thoughtful concern Moses is that in susceptible regions you're never done with monitoring for RRV. With watching for the signs and catching them early, there hasn't apparently been a spread that I can tell. A few roses are too tall for me to check the tips, and I'm going to have to take a ladder to check on the 10'+ monster canes of Peach Melba towering over an 8' arch to see if she's affected.

So far so good, and I'm finally enjoying a modest fall bloom on many roses as we're getting beyond the 90s here in LATE October - what is this? Halloween and 80 F with not a hint of frost warnings yet. Ah well, that's a topic for another time.

Cynthia

Elena, I agree -- "the name is the brand." I actually think that using the Francis name/brand to sell directly to consumers is a smart move. It's a longstanding business with name recognition, at least among some rose enthusiasts. "Francis Roses" sounds like an established company, whereas "April & Ashley" sounds a bit contrived (even though I know it's based on real people). Also, a simple thing -- but having "Roses" in the brand name is helpful, I think.

That said, I'm not sure why the brand transition is being handled as it is. Certainly, they've built up somewhat of a following with the A&A brand, so I think they could have at least hinted to A&A customers that similar roses will be available from the parent company, Francis. But maybe they want to create urgency around placing new A&A orders before they stop selling.

Elena,

Here is my reply from A&A:

The store credit is only valid for our online shop and is not transferable. We are currently having a "buy 3 get 1" sale + free shipping where you can use the store credit at checkout. Rose bushes will be available for purchase until October 30. Were you planning on placing an order sometime soon?

Kind regards,

Thelma

Guess I will be ordering.

2026 was not a stellar rose season for me. A lot of spring rain followed by the shockingly rapid onset of high temperatures in the middle of May meant that my ‘summer’ heat and humidity and the consequent high disease pressures arrived far earlier than usual. Many roses defoliated and their first flush was poor with many blooms frying early. Scattered blooms were the norm thereafter and plenty just gave up and entered summer dormancy from which they struggled to wake from.

So it’s my last season of buying roses by the dozen too. In fact I’m doing the opposite, reducing them by the dozen. I am replacing many roses and herbaceous perennials that are now really struggling in increasingly brutally hot summers. Out go the unnecessary duplicates, those now exposed to too much direct sun (due to the death of a large tree that used to provide some shade), the diseased, the bloomless and the meh. The potted roses also need a serious edit because they are relentless in their water demands in my climate. Despite my unlimited well water, it’s becoming really difficult to keep everything sufficiently hydrated. Advancing age doesn’t help either.

Instead I am planting tough flowering shrubs, more shrubby salvias, euphorbias and other more drought-tolerant plants. I am having to face up the fact that a simpler, easier care and less water-hungry garden now suits me and probably potential buyers when I finally face up to the fact that I need to get serious about downsizing in the next year or two!

I agree with others that knowing where your zone 9 friend is could make a big difference. Also, whether you're thinking of a classic HT or FL, or an Austin or similar rose.

Oh, what an interesting puzzle we have here! Based on the cultivar name:

Noa38121 = Showpiece Berry (Lakeview) = Timeless Purple= Flower Carpet Berry (Star)

Noa11356= Showpiece Purple = Eau de Parfum Berry (Wayside)

These should be correct based on cultivar name, unless the budwood also got messed up (as we saw earlier with Purple Lodge, lol!)

Below is Flower Carpet Berry / Timeless Purple that I saw in my local garden center, I thought it looked quite nice.

And while we are discussing new purple /magenta varieties, may I put in a plug for Light Years Away? New Bedard rose from Della Reese x Ebb Tide. Super high petal count, refined form, strong fragrance, disease resistant and almost thornless! I snagged below plant from my local garden center