I absolutely love blue girl. It takes on genuine sky blue tones in the high noon. It also has the best rose fragrance I've ever smelled. It's a wonderful soapy smell. Not an old lady's rose. The color, form, and fragrance are identical to blue moon. Except, blue moon has lighter green foliage while blue girl has wide, dark blue green foliage. Both have good enough disease resistance. Use a systemic insecticide and antifungal. They don't like being sprayed with water on the leaves. Water them from the base. The bushes don't always survive a really hard winter, so replace them every 3 years or so, or deeply mulch and cover in the fall. I would love to use both of these roses for hybridizing. They are by far the bluest. To my eye, they take on actual blue tones. Neptune is a shrubbier plant but the flower form is not as pretty, and the fragrance is mediocre. There are other lavender but these are the best.

This and Blue Moon are probably my least favorite mauves out there. They take on a very hard color. Some other mauves from this era do, too, but theyre not commercial. The tone tends to be rather harsh, hard, and so loses a lot of the qualities mauve roses can bring that other colors cannot.

I've tried growing this rose several times, and always have lost it to winter (no protection). It's such a great rose that I'm now trying it on its own roots, hoping it will survive the cold better. The years I lost this rose weren't especially cold (never below zero), so I suggest that those who expect temperatures below about 15 F use winter protection on the grafted version. My own-root rose survived a 3-week cold spell this winter, with lows slightly below zero and highs around 15, so I'm encouraged.