First year bush was very impressive. The bush has moderate green foliage that is of excellent size compared to the blooms and it stays clean of blackspot and powdery mildew so far. It grew rather vigorously to about 4 1/2' tall and had plenty of canes to produce lots of blooms on.
The blooms start off as very elegant buds and slowly open to good high centered form of a wonderful medium apricot color that holds well and doesn't fade as the bloom ages. The blooms are good sized and have good substance to the petal so they hold well on the bush or when cut. The fragrance is fruity and light but very definitely there and pleasing to the senses.
I think this rose will make a fine garden rose for it's ease of care and disease resistance as well of it's vigorous growth and amount of bloom and speed of rebloom. The form and holding power will also make it enticing to the exhibitor as well. It should hold it's own on the head table with some of the best exhibition HT's out there today.
I highly recommend this to any rosarian as they will enjoy it immensely.
John
UPDATE 9/2010--I need to add a comment or two about this rose. It made it through a very cold and nasty winter here in 2009/2010 and broke dormancy quite early and easily in Spring 2010. The nice wet Spring brought on lots of very beautiful large apricot blooms that were quite stunning. However, in June the temperatures turned unseasonably warm and July and July, August, and beginning of September were blistering hot with little rain and high humidity. This rose and many others really suffered through the heat. It almost completely defoliated and completely stopped blooming because of the heat even though I continued to keep my roses watered with my drip irrigation systems that I have installed on all my rose beds. We finally had a break from the heat and some much needed rain and the bush immediately started re-foliating quickly and putting on new flowers that were smallish at first but seem to be gaining in size and petal density. SO, I would have to say this rose is definitely not heat tolerant and wouldn't recommend it to rosarians who live where very hot and dry summers are the norm. I think they would be very disappointed with the performance during those very hot and dry months. Just my opinion from my experiences.....
ANOTHER UPDATE 10/22/2010----Just to let all know, the bus has really rebounded quickly since the Fall season weather has cooled and we have had some much needed rain. The bush has really added foliage that is very beautiful and the blooms are coming back by the dozens and they are once again stunning and the repeat is super quick so I am getting lots of them. The form and color are beautiful and they are quite large. The foliage on the bottom of the bush is still quite thin so it has "bare knees" but from 1/2 way up it looks pretty normal and the medium green foliage is very healthy and shiny of good size and so far shows no blackspot or powdery mildew.
Still, I just don't think this rose would be a very good rose for the deep south, southwest areas like Arizona and California, and the hot southeastern states as well. I don't think the heat agrees with this bush at all. The damp wet weather we had for an entire week had all positive effects on the rose. The blooms had no trouble opening with no balling or bullnossing at all and no fungal disease.
I hope this helps other rosarians when deciding whether or not to purchase this rose for their part of the country.
John
JOhn