Zap, that zone on HMF is the default setting. What they use when they don't have any other info to put on there. If you look in the gardens section you'll see that it's been grown in some pretty cold places. I know Shmoopy and she really liked this rose in her zone 5 garden in Michigan. I'd say go for it!

I'm actually curious about where you think you can get this rose in any cold zone. As far as I know, it was only ever marketed in California, through Armstrong Garden Centers. I doubt if there is much, if any, experience, on it in cold zones.

But it's a tough rose to grow well -- even in California -- that much I know. Requires good care and spraying -- like most roses with unique colors that were chosen for introduction primarily because someone liked the color. Here's mine:

Its available through Heirloom Roses. Out of stock now, hopefully more available for spring. They say zone 6. Also, HMF lists as disease resistant. I take that to mean 'might blackspot a bit if not sprayed,' Is that an inaccurate assumption?

Hmmm -- are there any roses on HMF that do NOT say "disease resistant?" I think that is just a knee jerk marketing phrase applied by every marketer that ever tried to sell a rose.

From what I have learned over the years, I also think that many roses got relegated from Week's production facilities to Armstrong's "California only" introduction because they failed Week's tests for national introduction. There's no telling why that happened, but a decent guess is lack of blackspot resistance, since we don't have much blackspot pressure in California.

Whoops. Double posted.

This post was edited by zaphod42 on Sun, Oct 27, 13 at 17:00

My Paul Ecke is on its third year here in zone 5 Nebraska and it seems to be healthy enough. It survives our winters reasonably well, though it's in my zone 6 pocket on the sunny side of our house. It isn't cane hardy but it doesn't seem to need much protection. I have a high tolerance of blackspot but I don't seem to recall this rose having particular trouble with it. We have a dry climate but do get some blackspot.

In my yard it isn't a terrifically frequent bloomer, but it might be as it comes into maturity. I dearly love the deeply colored blooms and definitely think it's worth trying in Wisconsin.

Cynthia

Aha -- Heirloom now carries it. No doubt they got it when they took over Eurodesert's inventory.

Well, not all of California is blackspot free. I get a LOT of BS in spring especially if we have a lot of spring rain. Up here in Northern CA, we get winter temps (normally) as low as the 30's and at least one short snowstorm or two. I have PAUL ECKE JR in a bed in part shade, and it does ok. Not much disease that I've seen, including BS. It's not a great bloomer, but I didn't amend that bed until this spring, so it might do better next season. It's a nice rose. Probably one of my favorite singles.