FLS has lovely deep green foliage and non-stop lavender blooms that fade to a beautiful silvery color, and quite an upright growing habit which is fine with me because I didn't want it to sprawl anyway. I love the fragrance, it reminds me of the Blue Moon rose my mom grew when I was a kid. I will see how it does over the winter before I have an opinion on hardiness. I don't spray and it has been very healthy for me. My soil type is acidic, zone 4b and altitude of 5000ft.
Editing to add that it survived my zone 4b winter with about five inches of good cane coming from the base. I'm happy with the hardiness seeing as I got it as a zone pushing experiment.
" FLS" is now available at SummerWinds Nursery on Mar 30 2010; it comes in a small black container for $10. Also "Yellow Simpl". is also offere there in the same size container.
I had alot of Blackspot with this rose - so much in fact that I shovel pruned it . Surprising given it's description . Do other people have the same experience?
Yes, I too had major blackspot. Also small blooms, more like 2 1/2" and NO fragrance to my nose. I SP'd about 12 of them. Sure looks good in the J&P photos though.
Awkward isn't it ? Jackson & Perkins chose to name the rose 'Fragrant Lavender Simplicity' rather name it 'Lavender Simplicity'. Please check the REFERENCES tab and you will see the registration reported in the American Rose Magazine. According to the registration policy of the ARS, if Jackson & Perkins decides to list an official synonym of the rose as 'Lavender Simplicity', HMF will add the accepted synonym to the HMF database.
I guess adding the word 'Fragrant' to the rose name must be a marketing kind of thing.
