Here's something very, very exciting. Smoky is a rose I bought from Jackson & Perkins in the late 60's because its coloring was unique -- purple outer petals and a brick-colored center with an orange reverse. It grew to be huge, about 6 feet tall and quite bushy.
I lost Smoky in a divorce in 1972 and spent years and years trying to find it. I finally did, about 30 years later, and right down the street at Vintage Gardens. Since then, I've bought a couple from Vintage Gardens and a couple from other places. After growing them for years, most are still only between 2 and 3 feet tall and tend toward the "one-cane wonder" type of growth. Clearly, this is a rose that can't realize its full potential on its own roots.
Worst of all, though, is that most of the Smoky roses I've bought are not Smoky at all. Nurseries are selling a reddish-orange rose and calling it Smoky. I have only one (from Vintage) that resembles the real Smoky.
I asked Burling to grow a budded Smoky for me. She did. It arrived last year and it's already over 3 feet tall. Best of all, it's the real Smoky. It's the middle of the day, not the best time to take photographs, but you can see that this is not a reddish-orange rose. It has the purple external petals and an orange light in the center, which I couldn't capture properly because it's under a plum tree casting too much shade for a good photograph.
