I've had Out of the Night for several years and while it was never a fast grower, it's a tough little plant. Winter before last, the deer ate it into a U-shape. It did nothing to grow into its original shape all of last summer. This winter was a hard one and I lost a lot of roses, but this one came through losing only part of a cane. It is finally growing a center, slowly but surely. I am removing most of the buds to maybe help it regain some size but allowed two to bloom, one on an original cane and one on the new growth in the center. They were two different colors!

The flower on the original cane was typical of past flowers: white with a lemon yellow center upon opening. Normally the center will turn whiter as the rose ages but right now our weather has been cooler and we are getting a lot of rain so the center stayed yellow till the petals fell. However, the rose on the new central growth was pure white, from bud to shattering. It was very white, not showing any yellow at all. It seemed to be a bit less full, too, a good thing as far as I'm concerned, since this particular rose has a tendency to ball in humid weather.

Is this normal for this rose? Will roses on the new growth eventually mature to look like those on the original plant? It was fun to watch both buds open and compare them as they aged.