In a bouquet.
And also an unopened Lavender Crush and the one Night Owl I get every year, LOL
Carla

How could I forget Purple Passion?

Thank you for a side by side comparison

How does Blue Girl perform for you ?

I LOVE Blue Girl, it's an enthusiastic bloomer and smells fabulous, probably second after Sterling Silver.
I will say, though, I hard pruned it a year ago and it's just now recovering. Which is difficult, because it grows to a 5 foot bush, and wide. Not one other rose was so unhappy with the January prune.
In future I will just trim as we go.
Carla

Thanks for the comparison of your purples, Carla. Purples and lavenders are my favorite colors. I'm doing a little pruning experiment this year. After decades of picky pruning, really time consuming, I decided not to prune 10 of my roses and see how they compare to the meticulously pruned ones. I would like to cut down on spring work at my age, but I don't want to cut down on the big spring flush. We'll see how this goes. Diane

@sautesmom Sacramento

Thank you so much for sharing that comparison pic!

It's difficult to find accurate pictures of the lilac/lavender roses. I feel like a lot of the pics on sellers sites seem to be edited to look bluer than they are, and even on HMF, tend to be taken in early morning light or in shade to catch them at their "bluest". So it often doesn't show what the rose actually looks like most of the time.

Comparison pics like the one you posted are very useful! Congratulations on your beautiful roses!

I bet your roses will bloom just as well unpruned, Diane.

Thanks Seaside!
The color in Spring is very different than in August here in Sacramento.
I will try to do a follow-up in the heat, if any are blooming, to show which ones wash out and which ones don't!
Carla

So cool that you show the comparisons. Lavenders can be stunning but hard to photograph. You can try adjusting the photos on your smartphone. Is this closer? maybe overkill.

I enjoyed the color comparison, thanks for putting it together. If only Houzz could find a way for you to post a ’scratch n sniff’ too, many of those lavender roses have a very nice scent. I just purchased a Sterling Silver and agree it smells amazing.

Ben, how is your new yard progressing? Did you bring anything with you ?

Which would you say is the most purple? as you said blues are hard to pick up in photos. my daughters favorite color is purple. id love to give her a purple rose bush one day..

Most purple rose for me is Twilight Zone with Ebb Tide a close runner up. If you're talking lavender, Love Song and Angel Face are beautiful lavenders. Wild Blue Yonder is purple and lavender and everything in between when the heat gets started. Diane

Above in order are: Twilight Zone, Ebb Tide, Angel Face, Love Song, and Wild Blue Yonder. Diane

I use a camera not a camera in a phone, and I don't find it hard to pick up blues or an accurate purple. It helps to take photos late or early in the day. Midday is awful with all its glare and fadeout of color. Below is Blue Bayou, the bluest rose I've ever grown, and I've posted this pic way too many times, but I never can resist. Diane

Diane, beautiful beautiful roses and photos. definitely some lovely purples. It would be impossible to pick just one!

I've grown Ebb Tide and Midnight Blue for many years (dark purple), but after circling around it for many years, Diane's pics of her Twilight Zone finally convinced me to get it last year. What was I waiting for... it's fabulous. Those three are tops in the dark purple range. I have lots of lavenders, but I'm always glad when Diane posts her Blue Bayou. Her pic is spot on. I grew it for many years, but in my zeal to cull the herd when I hit 375, I gave it away. It was always wimpy-ish, but now I so regret giving it away. Same with several others I let go.

Diane I love the purples!
Is Wild Blue Yonder always that ruffly?
And where did you buy it and Blue Bayou?
Carla in Sac

Thank you so much, Mamaham, Susan, and Carla. Purples and lavender roses are a favorite. Susan, I know what you mean about wimpy Blue Bayou, and 375 roses would be way too many for me to cope with. I'd still be pruning on Christmas Eve.

Carla, I bought Wild Blue Yonder, the first year it was sold, 2006. Carruth hit the trifecta that year with Julia Child, Ebb Tide, and WBY. But Wild Blue got all the honors from ARS, I'd read. I preferred Ebb Tide. I bought two Julias that year, and discovered that one had been mismarked and was really WBY, which I didn't want. I spent a lot of time driving over two counties to find the last Julia Child in stock the next county over. Now, I have no idea where WBY would be sold. It has not had the staying power of Ebb Tide or TZ. Yet it is a gorgeous rose, too. And yes, its blooms are pretty much always wavy. I seem to have lots of wavy rose blooms--must be the soil-ha. Blue Bayou is no longer available in the US to the best of my knowledge. It was available in Europe several years ago. It's a Kordes rose, which I bought from Hortico around 2006-7. I think that was the last year they had it. I haven't been very helpful and I wish I has better information. Diane

One other fave dark purple I forgot to mention last night that I've also grown for a long time is Intrigue. It's ultra-fragrant too. I remembered this morning when I went outside, and the two that are blooming gave me the stink-eye for forgetting them :-D

Diane, I got my first Blue Bayou from Vintage sometime <2003 (no date listed in my database), and since that one was wimpy, I got a second one from Regan's in 2003. More than likely, that one was from Hortico, since Regan has always carried a number of Hortico roses. According to my database, I gave them away in 2007 and 2010. Agree with Diane that it's no longer available in the US.

A few others I remember growing that didn't meet my standards. Usually our dry heat did the blooms in, but in the case of Big Purple, the large healthy plants didn't want to do much blooming and the blooms were magenta. But BP is very popular and it must do well in different climates from mine. I was warned that Blueberry Hill didn't like our dry heat, but I tried it anyway. After several years it met the shovel, but again, many like this rose. Heirloom blooms didn't like the dry, either, and so many do so well with Heirloom--but not me. Finally, one that isn't mentioned much is Sweetness, a lavender wimp, but some still like it. I checked out all of these roses on HMF, and was surprised at how popular some were. Diane

Blueberry Hill, BIg Purple, and Heirloom.

I love all your purples, Diane (well, to be honest I love all your roses). Wild Blue Yonder always particularly engages me. I just love it. Too bad they removed it from the public garden as they reworked the beds.

Love purple roses, but I only have one, Quicksilver. This is the start of its second year and it already seems like it will be floriferous.

Thank you, Nose. And I love all your roses, too. We garden under the challenge of awful dryness, which is strangely, a good thing, too, because so many diseases and pests hate that dryness. I wonder myself why Wild Blue Yonder isn't sold all over the place when Ebb Tide and Julia Child are still, after many years, so popular. To me, WBY is just as worthy, though it took me longer to adjust to some of its little quirks. Of course, Julia outblooms it, and ET's blooms are darker purple, but nothing beats it when the Clown Prince pops out.

Stephanie, you'll be hooked on purple soon, if not already. Yours is a lovely Quicksilver. More are waiting for your garden. Locally, Edwards was selling a lot of purple and lavender roses, including Sterling Silver and Angel Face oldies. Every rose in the purples and lavender range sold out first. For some reason, they didn't have Twilight Zone this year. I hope it isn't going to be hard to get. Diane

Just added to my collection!

Carla

I love purple roses, I have a lot of them. so far my favorite purple rose is Charles de Gaulle, I have 3 of them. the one in the shade is less pink.

QuickSilver bloomed last year for the first time.

Blue Girl only blooms occasionally, small plant, not frequent enough.

Carla, thank you very much. The side by side comparisons are always helpful, and are time consuming to put together. I'm surprised at the size of Koko Loco and Blue Girl. Lavenders don't like the conditions here, but the dark purples do fine. Thank you for the pruning advice on Blue Girl. I hope to find her this year. Lagerfeld is waiting in the garage, if he's still alive.

Sylvia, Memorial Day is absolutely gorgeous, and may be a bit more lavender up here in this northern soil. HTs don't love me, or I them - usually, but that is one I would make an exception for, especially since it's a Carruth rose.

Diane, I've left a few unpruned, usually because I run out of time, and the only difference is the legginess of the Austins. I actually think they appreciate a break periodically and allowed to just grow naturally. Yours may reach 12', though. My purples are dark like yours, but I wish Wild Blue Yonder would get with the program.

I don't think these have been mentioned.

Plum Perfect

Blue for You. Bluer in person.

Rhapsody in Blue

Poseidon

Hi Flowers

Thanks! Yes, my Blue Girl has huge flowers.

And the main problem wasn't time consumption, it was getting them to all bloom at the same time! 

LOL

Lavender Crush and Night Owl didn't cooperate!

Carla

Flowers, if you are considering Memorial Day I highly recommend that rose. It wants to be tall but not particularly wide

It is continually in bloom in the prettiest orchid pink .

Poseidon is very close to Blue Girl in color. Not as fragrant though. Poseidon thinks its a climber in FL. It climbed way up onto this three-way arch/gazebo. It was on its own roots too..from Heirloom Roses.