I know that I've lamented in the past about how I dislike J&P roses as they don't do well for me. I'm going to through Star in that bucket too. Every "Star" brand rose I bought last year (only like 6) croaked this winter.. if they made it that far. Is it that I'm just prejudiced towards Weeks & ownroots? Or is it my incompetence. Or maybe both?

It might be due to the places you're buying the Star roses. A couple of my local nurseries carry beautiful Star roses, but the Star roses at the big box stores, like Home Depot, aren't as good. In your case, even the Star roses at the local nursery might not be that good because Conard-Pyle grows the Star roses in California and might routinely send the pick of the litter to nearby nurseries for bare-root sales and the second-best to other states for container sales.

I think also it's because the only Star Roses I've gotten were from Tagawa's.. and I've already established that Tagawa's roses don't do well for me. Went there today, lots and lots of roses had been sold during their "Night of Wines & Roses". They were sold out of Sterling Silver & Pope John Paul II. Found 1 Scentamental that had been labeled as Perfect Moment.. not even close! LOL

I do know that J&P are not as good. Got 1 J+P Sunsprite & 1 HD-brand (probably Armstrong) Sunsprite & planted them literally like 6 ft from each other. The J&P didn't bloom as much nor did it grow as big.

I guess Star Roses focuses on roses bred by Meilland. Meilland's landscape roses - such as Bonica I think of as being really tough and cold-hardy. But somehow I think of most of the hybrid tea Meilland roses as being not very cold hardy, zone 6b at best. I'm putting Gina Lolobrigida and Papa Meilland to the test and will report back as soon as I know something useful.