At first I was pleased to see that she was making fat buds. When the first bud opened the following year, it was a pale vanilla colour with no stripes and was very ugly. I said to myself, poor rose, you didn't deserve that. Then the second flower came off, it was a pale colour but I could see it had stripes, what a nice surprise. I was delighted when it bloomed. It took the next flowers to show more vivid colours, but then I was really happy. And yes, we can never really predict which genes will dominate. The rose has the characteristics of the father, but the colour pattern is more than obvious from mother.