Hi Margaret, My those raggedy flower edges are pretty indeed! I've never seen that look before. No wonder they followed you home; I suspect the same would have happened to me (& I'm pretty resistent to that happening most of the time). I'll have to go check my own supermarkets & see if they're around. Thanks for posting!

HF Young is a common type 2, and both the petal color and shape and the stamen color is consistent with your photo. Mine won't bloom for a couple of weeks yet, so timing is reasonable as well. Violet Charm is supposed to have red stamens, so I don't think that this is VC.

Nick, my favorite mezzo in trouser roles was (the late) Tatyana Troyanos, an American with the origin from your beautiful country. Carol, I don't know how far back early music you like, but in opera I think someone like Cavalli might fit the bill and this performance by a fab French countertenor Damaux is as good as it gets, I think. Seeing him at the Met's Giulio Cesare a couple of years ago made me a (albeit, somewhat reluctant) convert to countertenors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWWsHP7OooM One day, I hope we might have a thread about roses and classical music/opera. In my garden, I have a little "Richard Strauss corner" recreating flowers from his last song including a rose, though, like you, I prefer Italian (Verdi!).

Oh wow - I had no idea this thread had come back to life! Philipatx - I found Della Reese locally at an Armstrong Garden Center. Amanda - Stainless Steel is a champ. Has no mildew, and no disease at all. Thank you to all for the kind words. Right now I look into my garden and sigh. We're getting bombarded with rain - more than usual for us, everything is soggy and mucky, grass is now about 10" high and in this wet there isn't much I can do about it, I keep wanting to spray my pruned rose nubbins but can't get a break in the weather to do it, and it's just kind of downright depressing. And then I feel bad for complaining knowing how mild even our more extreme winters are here compared with the rest of the country. Seeing this thread revived reminds me that wonderful things are ahead (and a LOT of work). Hopefully this will be another good rose year, and I'm hoping after having the worst cane borer year last year I can get somewhat a handle on them with some dormant oil spray - at some point! Thank you for the encouragement!