Roses can be extremely variable due to temperature, light, water and nutrients. Currently, there is a thread on another forum about Gruss an Aachen flowering different colors than is used to. Watch them once they are planted out in the garden. They should be more of the color you expected, if not, perhaps it sported (mutated), but you won't know that until it continues flowering that darker color out doors. Kim

Thanks Kim. It is the weirdest thing because they were 2 separate bushes on different houses both within a few blocks from my mine. It can't be the temp. since that hasn't changed for them, probably the soil. We'll see, maybe when they grow more ,though they are about a foot tall and branched. I was so looking forward to the deep red.

You're welcome. Is the foliage on your plants exactly the same color as the more established plants or is it also lighter? You could have a nitrogen or iron deficiency as well as in other nutrients. Even though the other plants are within a few blocks of yours, the actual climate zone could easily be different at your home for a variety of reasons. My front garden is much more humid than the back yard. The back is several degrees hotter and much more arid. Colors will vary with temperatures quite a bit. Your new plants could also not be absorbing as many nutrients as the established plants, nor making as much food due to less foliage and a significantly smaller root system. Your plant may be situated on top of a chunk of concrete which leaches out alkalinity causing chlorosis, iron deficiency, where the older plants aren't. Are yours near a side walk, drive or house foundation where cement could be leaching into the soil they grow in? That increases alkalinity which locks up iron and causes lighter foliage and loss of color depth. Your plants could easily be colder or hotter than the older plants a few blocks away and that could cause a color change.

You could play with fertilizer to see if that helps, or you could just wait until they are more established and the weather warms. You really won't know, though, until they are mature and developing the root system and foliage mass they are programmed to produce. Kim