Have you checked out Roses Unlimited? They carry FF too.

I bought Firefighter as own-root (gallon-size) from Roses Unlimited 3 times. The first time it was in an ideal soil mix in the ground, and it lived for 3 years. The second one died in spring flood. The 3rd one is band-size from HCR, it didn't survive winter inside my garage since I forgot to cover it with a thermal blanket when the temp. dipped to -10 inside my garage. CONCLUSION: Firefighter is best as grafted, rosarian Karl Bapst in zone 5a grew Firefighter as grafted for many years, and he buried the bud-union at least 4" below ground.

Straw: thank you for referencing Karl Bapst! Karl was my first introduction to the helpful rosarians here on GW.

I too enjoyed the reference to Karl. Miss Karl and his insightful posts.

I am a bit late to the party but wanted to mention that own root ’Firefighter’ has been an astoundingly good performer for me so far. I grow mine in a large pot and overwinter in the garage, so winter hardiness hasn’t been tested yet for me. My plant is extremely vigorous and produces massive flushes of beautifully scented blooms about every four weeks.