I haven't grown any of the ones you've mentioned, Bart, but when I was selecting what violet moderns I wanted to play with, Wild Rover lost out to Blue for You because WR is stated to have black spot issues in some places. Blue for You (which is a largish shrub and not a climber) doesn't seem to and definitely not in mine. If black spot is an issue where you are, and you don't want to spray (or don't spray), perhaps you should see if anyone else in your area has experience with it. Kim

Thanks, Kim, I was hoping to hear from you on this,knowing of your expertise, coupled with your liking of the mauves and purples. I've become quite addicted to this colour myself,and having looked up Blue for You on HMF,I'm guessing that eventually I'll have to try that, too! I have some bspot issues,but am hoping to improve the situation by improving my soil ; I've decided to go no spray at this point, after reading stuff on this forum and Paul Zimmerman's forum. After all, both of you are "rose experts" and if neither of you spray...that tells me something! Oddly, I see on HMF that neither of these two are given an "excellent" vote for health,but I'm finding that these ratings are only of relative value...hope someone else will weigh in here! bart
P.S. I thinkI'm going to get Ixl as well...

Hi Bart, you're welcome! Black spot resistance is going to be hit and miss with recommendations from outside of your area. We ONLY have five of the fifteen races of the fungi here, and they're different from those you have in Europe. Resistance to any of ours may, or may not indicate resistance to any of yours, and vice versa. It's a pain in the neck, isn't it? Kim

I'm in a totally different zone from you, so my input might not apply to your zone, but Wild Rover has been very wimpy for me. It didn't put on any growth that I could see in the two summers I have tried plants from two different suppliers, and it didn't even pretend to survive our winters. Stormy Weather grew better with relatively healthy foliage, but it didn't survive our winters either. Night Owl I haven't tried but I've seen it in multiple locations and it's a real survivor. From what I've seen, it's a prolific bloomer when it blooms, but isn't a great rebloomer.

FWIW, my new Blue for You from Chamblees has sneaked in a bloom on me and it's every bit as haunting a dusky lavender as the pictures would show. I have my doubts about its winter survival, but it's a keeper if it does.

Just my two cents.

Cynthia

I have been thinking about WR. I have been growing him for four seasons and he just bloomed for the first time about a month ago. The growth has been healthy but slow. It seems to be forming a climber shape w/ canes of 7' to 8' long. I was beginning to think my WR was some other rose. Surprisingly- no black spot so far. This spring I gave him two heavy doses of fertilizer and a lot of water- finally blooms to confirm his identity! A friend grows 'Night Owl' - she is happy with it's health, but disappointed in the rebloom. I grow 'Purple Splash' in Austin. The health and repeat have been fantastic, but the purples really lighten up in the heat.

Thank you,people! Night Owl definitely sounds good; I don't worry too much about the re-bloom issue, since my roses can only re-bloom well if we get rain in summer...though I DO like ones with the potential of re-bloom,simply because there's a good chance that these ones at least will give me a fairly long-lasting flush. Stormy Weather also sounds worth a try; here in Italy winter survival isn't really a problem. It's surviving the heat and drought of summer that is the challenge!
I can see trying Blue For You in the future, though it's colour is not in the range that I am seeking just now.From the photos, it is a much lighter, lavender type "mauve", whereas I'm looking for dark colours.Purple Splash does sound like a good rose...too bad I'm not a fan of striped roses! bart

Bart. can you get Rhapsody in Blue there? It isn't a "bush", but wants to be a semi climber. Here, it halts flowering in high heat (non issue there), otherwise repeating regularly. Great scent and DEEP mauve (violet tones). I initially chose Blue for You because of the "dove gray" tones it was capable of and its continued performance even when triple digits hit; its bush habit as opposed to climbing and its seeming (so far continuing!) freedom from black spot where Rhapsody is supposedly less resistant. However, who knows what it will do with your brands of the fungi? Jiminshermanoaks found it stopped flowering for him when the worst of the heat hit, but after a few years, it seemed to want to continue, so I guess I have to give it a try. Check it out. It might solve your problem. Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: Rhapsody in Blue

Kim, I already do have RinB. It's maybe in it's 3rd year,repeating nicely (but the weather has been quite clement so far; only one week of loathsome heat, and we even got...RAIN!!!!!!!!). For some reason, I don't like it as much as I think I should; a certain lack of delicacy in overall colour effect? not sure,but it doesn't make me almost "swoon" with delight the way Purple Skyliner does,or General Stefanik (too bad that's a once-bloomer. Other favourites: Excellenz Von Schubert, Raymond Privat...I'm trying Lavender Friendship, too, but plants too young still for me to have an opinion.Also, this Rosengarten Zweibrucken looks like a winner,colour-wise at least,but again, plants too young for me to form a real opinion. Instead, I think Perennial Blue may end up as a candidate for The Shovel. Healthy and vigorous, but the flowers lasted so briefly and were fried and ugly-ish; kind of stunted even...and the temperatures were basically pretty moderate here, by recent standards.
There are still so many on my wish list,especially if you start counting the once-bloomers... bart