Not a long story. Back in 1991, when I moved into an apartment in the University District in Seattle, my nice Croatian landlady planted some roses in front of my unit (she was celebrating, no doubt, the departure of the previous bad tenant). She allowed me to care for the roses, and I became particularly enamored with a very fragrant "blue" rose, which I later determined to be the hybrid tea rose named 'Blue Girl'. From then on, I was hooked on roses. To see pictures of this rose, search Google Images for "Blue Girl rose". Also, look below and you will see the plant that I am referring to, right in front of my Seattle apartment circa 1996 --
It's the rose on the right. But notice the smaller red flowers below the lavender/blue large blooms. The plant was shooting up suckers from its root-stock, which apparently was the great root-stock rose called 'Dr. Huey' (can also be seen on Google Images by searching for "Dr. Huey rose"). Needless to say, this kind of thing will NOT happen when you grow roses from seed !
