I was wondering the same thing, zuzu. I love soft pinks!
It is probably different in CA - land of the rose bowl parade. Lots of people in this area say "I can't grow roses" because they had no success growing body bag roses poorly grafted to borderline hardy Dr. Huey rootstock. The knockouts will at least bloom nonstop their first summer in the ground and survive the winter without protection. That is a whole new ballgame for cold climate gardeners - at least those that shop in your average garden center.
A couple of people asked me this year if my "pretty roses" - Grenada and Lagerfeld seem to be the most popular with passers by- are as easy to grow as the knockouts. I said that some like Honey Sweet are just as easy to grow. However, Grenada needs Bayer to prevent disease and protection in the winter. (I say Bayer because people like the idea of plant aspirin but are terrified of "chemicals" even though most have more "chemicals" in their grocery bags than I would ever tolerate in my garden). Lagerfeld is a total diva. He barely mad it thru last winter. He is overwintering in a muslin tepee this year. (Muslin teepees are overturned tomato cages covered with muslin and filled with crumpled newspaper on top of the peat moss and mulch winter protection. I do that to try to keep some canes alive). Tiffany gets a teepee also. My fussier hybrid teas had major cane dieback this spring - probably due to the severe ice storms last winter. Everything was coated with ice for weeks on end. Then we had two months of freeze thaw torture. Wet mud all day which froze solid again at night. This winter is surprisingly mild so far. We have had temperatures i the 50s until last week. I am just starting my winter protection routine because the ground has just frozen.
The most commented upon rose in my garden last summer was Carefree Celebration. I had it growing with Johnson's Blue geraniums. I like the coral/purple color combo. Both bloomed nonstop.
The big box stores take returns. I can't be the only person who showed up with receipts, body bags and dead sticks for store credit every spring. The computers must notice the plants that get returned and which ones don't. I returned a Floral Carpet "Appleblossom Pink" rose three times before finally giving up. It didn't even survive until winter. Floral Carpet roses get good reviews from other people. Maybe the pale pink one was less hardy or I got bad stock. I agree that most of us buy our roses elsewhere, but most novice gardeners start with plants from big box stores. (The rest of us wander thru the plant department just in case they have some treasures on the shelf.)
I don't understand why some savvy grower doesn't start marketing off patent own root old garden roses. They would have to come up with a catchy name and weird colored pot. That seems to be what it takes to sell these days.
Baby Blanket would be wonderful on a trellis with a dark purple clematis like Jackmani. At some point, my garden and I will move to larger accommodations and she will be able to get as big as she wants. In the meantime, she will have to remain a heavily pruned floribunda unless I decide to start building tuteurs. Pruning her this summer was like taming an octopus - a very prickly octopus.
I am going to try a couple of oso easy roses - I am just deciding which ones.
