This is another one that flummoxes me. Currently the AARS rates this at 7.5, coincidentally it is marginally available any longer.....when it came out 37 years ago it was considered a FLOP and iin middle age/widely grown, I believe the rating was stuck at 6.1 for years. I have grown this one in Chico, CA and Columbus, OH and basically the result was the same: the plant is tall, the leaves are gorgeous, the stem is too big for the bloom and the bloom is way too small for the plant. There is absolutely no formal form and the color is "nice" but nothing unique. The plant as in canes and growth do remind me of, oddly, Fragrant Plum and with no leaves can be identified--the canes are really thick and it is not thorny. But this a good rose does not make. I have never detected much scent. This is a rose that I STILL want to love, I just want to get behind it but in all honesty it has nothing to offer..............nostalgia is as nostalgia gets blackspot even in Chico, CA..............

***5/16/12: I CAVED! I have a special place in my psyche for GRANDIFLORAS and roses from the the mid-century..............this one is now at Meijers in Columbus and I bought one and so far, so good this final time around..............bought it in small bud and in the past 3 weeks it has now bloomed and the blooms are much more attractive than I recall although still somewhat small..........has mildew but after this non-winter, a lot do and it is NOT the worst of the lot by any means and also a lot have BLACKSPOT and so far, gasp, NONE on this one.................

***10/13/12: No surprises. Despite a very dry and extremely hot summer in Columbus, Royal Highness got blackspot and passed it on to Arizona or vice versa........denuded, twice and maybe 3 times........strong plant this one, but denuded around mid-August and it just kept on going..........I grow a lot of "weak" roses as in Smoky, Vesper, Grey Pearl, Polynesian Sunset, Mint Julep, Marmalade, KokoLoko, Azure Sea and all of these were much more resistant to the blackspot even if they did fall eventually (or not--Mint Julep is a machine for me).....I will not discard AZ, just because I love it for evidentally emotional reasons only....but yeah, sigh, the same sick AZ I knew years ago.............

Available from - Locust Ave. Farm Inc.
982 Locust Ave; Bohemia,NY

i've only seen one bloom open so far (the bud is a hot peach-orange that is decidedly NOT salmon. it's gorgeous.) but i was not that impressed with the way it looked. generic comes to mind. i cannot smell it but my s.o. was entirely won over by the fragrance which she described as a sweet perfume unlike any rose she had smelled before.

time will tell on the color the roses tend to be. this one was mostly pinkish, with a slight tinge of that wonderful bud orange barely tracing it's center. i'm hoping for more orange with my pink. :p

south fl, zone 9b

I just want to mention that I grew Arizona from a bare root and it is by far the most prone to powdery mildew, and I happen to own over 40 different types. It is on an automatic watering system like all the rest and occupies a full sun area. It grows very vigorously but is nevertheless attacked regardless of treatment. I live in a zone where this variety should not experience PM to the degree that it does. It is particularly bad during the first flush of the season.