Calsurf73 said:Uh oh...I'm really liking "Brown Velvet'..........a LOT !
Such a great color.
Here's a quote from a series of articles written by my rose mentor, Kim Rupert about 'Brown Velvet':
"Sam McGredy brought out his luscious floribunda BROWN VELVET in 1982. This has been nearly disease free and a strong grower for me, producing canes which seem to want to climb. The dense foliage is very glossy and very dark green. The ruffled blooms have about 35 petals with little fragrance in the garden. Opening the flowers in a warm room allows a very sweet, quite masculine, scent to develop. I had grown this for many years before a friend with whom I had shared a plant, introduced me to its fragrance. Warm weather gives you loads of bright orange blooms in large, very full clusters. At this stage it is pretty. But, when the nights start to cool and the days get short, the bloom and cluster sizes increase, the dark foliage intensifies and the new growth turns a delicious cranberry. The bright orange petals develop a purple velvet over the surfaces while the bases remain orange blending to yellow at the center with bright yellow stamen. The way I see them at this stage is Hershey-bar chocolate brown velvet petals swirling around a glowing ember. There is no describing the rarity and depth of a mature, developed cluster in a vase."
He also says it is very easy to root and grows very well own root in southern California.
Just in case you might want some extra info, Mike. At the time this article was written, he was growing the rose in Santa Clarita.
Oh, I think I should caution you ... along with Zuzu, Kim is the most capable rose enabler I have ever known in my whole rose life. He makes you drool over every single rose he talks or writes about.
. A couple are on the small side but appear to have a good root system so I think they'll be fine. The other 7 are bigger than I expected and look great. Abraham Darby has blooms and I've been enjoying that wonderful fragrance! The Austins and one of the Kordes plants are in larger pots than the others and fill them out nicely- that was especially nice to see considering those cost a little more. I planted 2 of them and will get the rest in the ground this weekend. Beautiful weather in the forecast for the next few days and playing in the dirt and planting roses will be my fun-unwind time (or should I say "funwind" 
Are they all fragrant as well?
