Jay-Jay I would love to have some cuttings of your pink sport of Salita with the quartered blooms. They are quite interesting to look at to be sure. If mine continues to grow and bloom true on that cane next spring I will try to contact you again and maybe send you some cuttings of my orange quartered blooms as well. As you said, they are packed with petals to be sure!!
To those who don't know, a sport is a mutation of the original plant usually occuring on one cane of the bush with one or maybe two distinct differences from the original plant. It could be bloom color, form, petalage, fragrance, etc....anything about the bloom. Sometimes the mutation happens on and off again on the cane and that is considered an "UNSTABLE" sport. IF the mutation is consistantly shown it is considered "STABLE" and you may actually have a whole new rose bush!! They can be quite fun!! It is always fun to find them so keep your eyes peeled.
A good example is my HT Elina rose bush. Elina usually blooms a light cream to light yellow bloom but this past Spring I had a new basal cane come up from the bud union in the ground and there were deep golden yellow blooms opening from the buds. The color was dramatically different than the normal lighter colored Elina blooms. This continued for about 8 weeks and then the cane started throwing a few of the lighter normal colored blooms right along with the deep yellow blooms on the same stems. So, this turns out to be an unstable sport. It is very interesting to look at though but since it is unstable could never really be considered a "new" variety of rose. It gets about 75% dark golden yellow blooms and 25% lighter yellow/cream colored blooms. Still, it is fun to see. Peter Alonso is a master of finding sports on his roses and propagates them wonderfully.
One thing else quickly. While the outward appearance or "phenotype" of the plant changes in a sport mutation, the inner workings or "genotype" generally does not and the rose will breed like the original mother bush the rose sported from. So, breeding the new color or form of the sported flower usually does not work.
Blessings,
John
Blessings and good gardening,
John