Jeff, we only had our gorgeous Pink Rosettes a few weeks before I tossed them out due to Rose Rosette Disease, so I'm not really qualified to say anything here. But since it has been two years and no one else has replied to your question...
If you visit the Antique Rose Emporium webpage on Pink Rosette, they mention leathery leaves, and usually that quality does help with disease resistance. They also say that its large bloom clusters keep blooming throughout the growing season.
We had a terrible bout with Rose Rosette Disease here and lost both our Pink Rosettes.
Because my best guess is that the RRD problem originated with our deer bringing in the infected mites on their chins, I'm having to rethink landscape planning now, and thinking about trying some more Pink Rosettes in a shadier area than I'd originally planned (but protected from the deer). The new spot would get around 5-6 hours of mid-day sun in the middle of the summer, and somewhat less from mid-August onward.
Does anyone have experience with Pink Rosette under similar conditions?
Mine is a new ownroot rose in a gallon container, but the only blooms I've seen are perfectly beautiful tiny little blooms of very good substance on stout, fairly long stems that keep a long time in the vase and do that without appreciable fading. Noticeably tiny, but tall, blooms, so that they make what might approximate a .8" rounded flower that's about .7" deep. As the plant matures, the blooms will likely get a bit bigger.
I'm looking at Pink Rosette blooms next to some very much larger blooms from other roses, including a fairly large one from a Mrs. Dudley Cross, and imagining how nicely Pink Rosette will combine with larger flowers in an arrangement. It's a lovely, lovely rose that would make a breathtaking beauty of any flower arrangement.
We don't spray here in blackspot land, so I guess we'll see how it does. Fingers crossed, because this rose is a real beauty!
