zuzu said:"...characteristics such as plant architecture, vigor, nutrient status, flower yield and quality of flowers."
Funny. I wouldn't separate all of these other characteristics from vigor. When I use the term "vigor," I think of it as embodying all of these other criteria. In my mind, a more vigorous rose is one with a sturdier and more pleasing architecture, superior nutrient status, and higher flower yield and quality.
Zuzu, in some ways you are absolutely right in lumping those characteristics together. That's how gardeners see garden plants. It makes sense to see the roses that way.
However, breeders have what I call "the breeder's eye". They typically are looking at roses differently than the average gardener. They are look at all of those characteristics from a different point of view. When you stop and think that they may have made hundreds or thousands of crosses in a given year and they have to decide which seedlings to bring forward and which ones to cull they often don't look at those individual characteristics the same way you do. Breeders often look at all of these characteristics separately and are, in a sense, testing the roses against their breeding goals.
The same is true when they are evaluating root stocks or whether or not a rose can grow well own root. They are also testing for ease of propagation, how long a rose takes to mature and more. They are looking at the plant in a very different way than how the average gardener looks at the rose that is finally brought to market.
Unfortunately, roses have always been marketed as if they would grow well in any climate or soil, with the exception of cold hardiness. In a way, that has mislead the average rose gardener.
You have the amazing experience of having grown far more different roses than the average rose gardener, and grown them well and that gives you and edge in evaluating how the rose will do in your garden. Most breeders do not have your "gardener's eye" or experience. Sure, they have handled a lot of rose, but often not in a garden setting. So what you bring to the table is of great value, too.
