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• "Purple Poly Seedling"

27 favorite votes.  
Average rating: EXCELLENT-.  

Mauve or mauve blend Polyantha.
Exhibition name: Lauren

Bred by Kim L. Rupert (United States, before 2003).

Polyantha.  

Violet and red.  None to mild, spice fragrance.  10 to 15 petals.  Average diameter 0.5".  Small, double (17-25 petals), cluster-flowered, cupped, cupped-to-flat bloom form.  Continuous (perpetual) bloom throughout the season.  

Medium, bushy, compact, upright.  Medium, semi-glossy, dark green foliage.  

Height: 2' to 4' (60 to 120cm).  Width: 2' to 4' (60 to 120cm).

USDA zone 2a through 10b.  Can be used for beds and borders, container rose, exhibition, garden, hedge, landscape, rock garden, shrub or specimen.  Flowers drop off cleanly.  heat tolerant.  Disease susceptibility: very disease resistant.  Remove spent blooms to encourage re-bloom.  Remove old canes and dead or diseased wood..  Can be grown in the ground or in a container (container requires winter protection).  Can be pruned to maintain a shorter habit.  Cut back one-half every year..  Needs little care; relatively disease-free and quite hardy.  Prune dead wood.  Prune lightly or not at all.  

Ralph Moore told me some years ago he'd not continued breeding with Baby Faurax becaue it yielded colors other than the violet he sought. He chose Violette, the multiflora rambler. I wondered what self seedlings of Baby Faurax may look like, so I raised a group of them. "Purple Poly Seedling" came out of this population.

Julia Cooper, of San Diego, has two daughters. The younger, Kathleen, had a rose named for her, the Hybrid Musk, Kathleen. Her older daughter, Lauren, wanted a rose named for her as it wasn't suitable that the "dreaded little sister" had one named for her. Julia is a member of the HOM, Hooked on Mauve, group, so I suggested she try Purple Poly Seedling to see how she liked it and if Lauren liked it. They both did, as do I, and since Lauren is also my middle name, I offered it to her for her daughter's name.

Baby Faurax is a stumpy polyantha. The flowers are gorgeous violet, but the plant is not graceful. Lauren continues this sought after coloring, but the flowers are held in more open, graceful clusters, more widely spaced. The plant has thinner wood than Baby Faurax, more like Mr. Bluebird, only with more dense clusters, more open flowers.

2013 amendment: Lauren is now enjoying its second year in the open ground in full sun. The plant is generally about three by four feet with a new flowering shoot right through the center which is breaking into buds at about four feet in height. No spotting, no mildew, no chlorosis in my no spray garden of mildew and chlorosis. A very satisfying rose in every respect!

2014: Lauren has her feet under her and is showing it! There is one, five foot tall spike with clusters of blooms along it with two new "Jack and the Beanstalk" shoots pushing up through the canopy. This rose does NOT stop flowering here!

'Lauren' is a small to medium shrub in most growing conditions, but can grow large in favorable conditions.