This nameless lavender beauty was holding on tight in the wind and rain yesterday. The scent on it is just incredible.
The nursery only had the one plant, and of course nobody there knew anything about roses....one clueless helper suggested "knock out?" Um, no.
The other roses there were just the basic line from Weeks. Only new ones they had were Love Song and Sparkle and Shine, so this has to be a common rose.
Toni? I'm sure you have this one....it's very distinctive with the darker outer petals on the buds.

This photo has a better angle on the bloom, showing the form better.
My phone did a heavy duty update this morning and it scrambled all my photos and lost the tags! I rely on the order of photo to recall names when I have multiples. It is possible that top bloom photo up above is Love Song, since I took photos of it at the same time.
Here is one that I know is the untagged rose:

My only guess is Simply Marvelous but I don't know lavenders really.
Rose (Rosa 'Simply Marvelous!')

That would certainly be a good name for that rose!

Honestly, looks like a Neptune. http://www.helpmefind.com/rose... The trick is to find a rose that starts out dark like that in bud form, then lightens up. I'm betting dollars to donuts that's who it is, though. Neptune.

Here's some runner ups though. But I'm still betting the farm it's Neptune.

These are my guesses based on availability & commonness
Simply Marvelous http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...
Lagerfeld http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...
Orchid Masterpiece http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...
Barbra Streisand http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

there's too big of a list to reject. if you look at this thread you can see what I have The thread "Favorite Fragrant 'Blue' Roses" in Roses forum

Thanks, guys! I did a search on our database and also checked DG and HMF. I wish more photos included buds and maybe even flowers that have blown a bit.
This rose is really large and heavily scented. The buds could possibly be darker because the last few nights here have been down below freezing.
I'm leaning towards Neptune as the identity because all the local nurseries are carrying it this year. They also have Barbra Streisand again. What I'm not seeing in stores anymore is Simply Marvelous, which is too bad, because that was a nice rose.
Our local nurseries don't carry very many HTs or Grandifloras.
The good news is, I bought Neptune this year from Palatine or was it Edmunds? But i have it, so hopefully it will look and smell as nice as the mystery rose.

Cindi - If you want, I can keep my eyeballs open for at Simply Marvelous. I've seen it locally quite often I believe.

Tomorrow night is my official start of the Hunt. Tagawa's has their annual Night of Wine & Roses (http://www.calendarwiz.com/cal...). I'll be picking up a LoveSong during that event. Rose (Rosa 'Love Song 2011')

I ordered Love Song from Edmunds, but I think it cooked on the way here because all the canes are black and lifeless. i bought another one from a local nursery that is big and beautiful. It has a fabulous scent.
Toni, I did have Simply Marvelous at one time. I still have the tag...which actually says "Simply Mauvelous".
I keep all my purple/mauve/lavender roses in one area and I have a high kill rate there. Don't know if it's the roses, or the soil or exposure in that area, but I'm taking more care with them this year.
Once I get a replacement Purple Splash, that area is FULL.
I have an Arizona Cypress, a Tamarisk, a Van der Wolf pine and blue and white siberian iris in that area too. Oh and white peonies, vitex, mini roses, clematis, and Iberis. To me, it's a cool and relaxing area.
Have fun on your Night of Wine and Roses!
Possibly, tomorrow, I'm headed to Stillwater OK then on to OKC with a friend to hunt viburnums and Japanese maples!

Looking at the 2013 Weeks wholesale catalog, the mauve roses they are distributing this year are listed below.

From the the description, I think your rose is 'Fragrant Plum', but possibly 'Blue Girl'

2013 mauve roses:

Barbra Streisand http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...
Blue Girl http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...
Fragrant Plum http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...
Heirloom http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...
Royal Amethyst http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

I left off 'Neptune' , 'Love Song'... already mentioned ... 'Memorial Day' ... doesn't look close.

But.. a rose not listed in the 2013 catalog that does look close is 'Blue Moon' http://www.helpmefind.com/rose..., which has been sold as 'Blue Girl' by some nurseries.

Smiles,
Lyn

Fragrant Plum is way darker. This rose is too light to be FP. Blue Girl does not have dark buds. The buds are much lighter. Definitely not Heirloom or Royal Amethyst.. too light. Was thinking Babs, but probably too light for that one as well. And there's not guarantee that it's a Weeks rose. Could be a JP rose, or a Star, or some other producer.

Bud from BlueGirl.

Yup... mauve roses vary a lot. There are a couple of photos with dark colored buds for FP,

This is just the list of Weeks mauve roses in their 2013 catalog. That doesn't mean the nursery did not get stock somewhere else.

Lyn

Another possibility (not leaning more towards this, I'd still call it Neptune) would be Singin' the Blues. One thing I didn't notice before was that it was ruffled slightly. If it's ruffled, then we can add Singin' the Blues into the mix http://www.helpmefind.com/rose... http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

Mine


or Angel Face (much longer shot)
http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

but I'm not leaning too much that way because of the very mauvy color of the buds versus yours that are definitely more magenta.

A very uncommon rose is Florence Delattre (http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...) I got it from RU a few years ago and it's gorgeous. But I'm thinking that yours is more of a HT shape & Florence is almost an English. Same with English Perfume http://www.helpmefind.com/gard.... HEAVENLY rose.. one of my absolute favorites, but, once again, has light buds & not those distinctive magenta colored ones. Natasha Monet is too white. Memorial day is too pink. Paradise has no scent, Paradise Found is too dark. Macho Man is not a common rose at all & all the pictures I have of it shows lighter colored buds. *MAYBE* Poseidon.. but yours the buds look pointed & these are rounded. http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

I'm still thinking Neptune, especially after looking at Zuzu's picture here:


Specifically how it fades to that silver color, and the cabbage-like effect in the center.

I am no expert on Hybrid teas - or any roses fore that matter - but I vote for Neptune.

Well now I'm wishing I wasn't such a tightwad. I didn't buy the rose because they wanted $29.99 for it, and around here that's about $8 too high. I also WON'T pay full price for a plant without a tag. Dang. The Neptune I received bare root this year doesn't look alive.
It's possible I'll never find a rose that looks just like that because the dark buds may just have been caused by the freeze the night before.

Thanks for your suggestions, everyone! If you do see a Neptune with darker buds, let me know!

When mine buds out I'll definitely take pix.

I vote for Neptune too, I have one and I love the fragrance of my Neptune rose. I actually have a picture similar to the top one, I'll post it when I can find it!

Cindi - I'm gonna confirm my early mentioning of Neptune on this one. Here's a pic of a bud from this morning



I'll get a picture of the actual flower this afternoon so you can see how it starts out so dark &, when it opens up, is much lighter in color.

I agree! My Poseidon didn't make it. I had Neptune and Poseidon next to each other, hehe. Neptune has a permanent nametag now.

Poseidon didn't make it? Mine's about the same size of all my other blue roses in my pond area, which gets no protection from wind/snow/ice and has less than an inch of mulch on it. But it's also from Palatine, too. This is year 2 for it.

Several from the Palatine order last fall didn't survive the winter. Probably, they weren't planted right. The few that I overwintered bare root in my garage are blooming already. I'll order another this fall, but I think I'll go back to spring delivery. It wasn't the winter that hurt them last fall, though, it was my broken ankle! Lots of plants didn't get planted. They just sat in the shade house, waiting for me to recover.