Omar, I have 3 Dee-Lish bushes in my garden. I like them, although they do get some late season black spot, if my memory serves me well, even though Dee-Lish has been awarded an ADR. Black spot at that time is still not good, but marginally acceptable if the bush otherwise is a good performer, which D-L is. The majority of the season 's growing is over come September, here, and if the bush shows vigor and good flower production it's a keeper, which I assess it to be under my growing conditions and care.

Dee-Lish is very columnar in growth habit. The flowers are a nice shade of deep salmon/mauve, and fragrant. It gets tall, easily getting 5-6+ feet tall when mature. It needs no winter protection here, and since your growing zone is about the same as mine, it should perform the same for you as it does for me.

I would get the grafted as long as it is in a pot now. If not, get the Heirloom, 1 gal. version. If the grafted bush is a potted mail order bush, make sure it gets to you lickity split by mail because it will most likely suffer some in transit if it takes week or more to get to you.

Remember the old adage, " the first year it sleeps, the next year it creeps, the third year it leaps." This applies to own root roses primarily.

The grafted Dee-Lish will give you the nicest bush in the end, IMHO. The general consensus in our zone is to plant a grafted rose deep, with the crown/graft union 4" below soil level to protect it over winter. All my Dee-Lish bushes are own root and when planted I paid no attention to planting extra deep, and they are doing very well taking winter in stride with no protection.

Moses

I know that 'Dee-lish' is grown successfully on its own roots at Freedom Gardens, in NE Ohio. (If you haven't been, I'd highly recommend a visit. Lots of very rare roses there, and it's enlightening to see what can be done in similar climates to one's own.) But I couldn't say whether or not it will have *no* winter dieback...

My Dee-Lish survived about 6 years own root but never got above knee high. I'm trying it again grafted, and I'm hoping for better height. Mine didn't have much dieback but it also didn't have a lot of top growth. I think if you let it grow on it its pot for a while before planting out it might be more robust, as I used to always plant directly in the garden and it might have stunted the growth somewhat.

Cynthia