I am so interested in knowing more about your dry farmed rose garden! I can't find that you have posted much here about how you approach this no-water woodland, but it's really the direction I'm heading and I would love to hear about it! I don't wish to hijack this thread but I hope to learn more - or if you've already had a thread about this here, help me find it?

Purple Eden/Ebb Tide does seem to be commonly sold on its own roots here in the US, but I don't have it/don't know how vigorous or thirsty it is. I've become a fan of mixing grafted plants and own-root plants so you get that instant gratification while waiting for the own-root plants to grow, so that would be my vote.

I saw the most glorious Purple Eden/Ebb Tide in a nursery yesterday - it was a huge standard/tree rose, jaw droppingly beautiful!! $100 and it could have been mine but since it was taller than I am, it wouldn't have even fit in my car!

@ElfRosa, I was stopped in my tracks yesterday by an Ebb Tide standard blooming at my local park. It looked really ROUGH all last season (its first in the ground), but the dusky purple blooms I saw yesterday were stunning, large, and smelled amazing. The plant is admittedly a bit lop-sided looking, but maybe they'll shape it after its first flush.

Ebb Tide/Purple Eden is a beautiful but deeply frustrating rose for me. Notorious for being a slow grower in the UK and here, even grafted, so I could see it being even wimpier own root. Mine was hopeless in the ground in sun - stunted plant, small blooms with few petals and bright magenta. I moved it to a pot where it did improve a lot after a couple of seasons. But it still only has two canes. It refuses to put out new basals no matter how well I feed and water it, so congratulations for getting them! It does now produce lovely large clusters on those two canes, so I just hide the base behind another rose on the north-east corner of my house, where it gets the shade needed to retain moisture, be watered frequently (which it needs) and be purple, at least in Spring:

If I were you Bart, given how inexpensive roses are here in Europe, I would go for more grafted and ditch the own root, but unlike Sheila, I don’t have much patience with laggards! I only persevered with ET because of the promise of that colour!

In my very different climate, there are a lot of roses that just don't perform satisfactorily own-root. The combination of winterkill and not enough vigor to overcome the winterkill isn't good. However, there is a strong sentiment here that own-roots are 'better'. How many times has someone said 'they'll catch up', 'they just need patience', or something like that. Sometimes it does run deeper.

@windowsill_gardener isn't that a pretty thing! The one I saw was covered in roses in that same stage of bloom, perfectly symmetrical and round. I should have taken photos but I was just stunned by it!

Since this seems to be turning into an own-root debate, to be clear, I vastly prefer own-root plants and will always choose them first.

I'm with Sheila (which doesn't answer your question). Sensibility before sense, when it comes to living things.

I don't think it's stupid to have an attachment to a plant you've been nurturing. They're living things after all. I guess there's not necessarily a "right" or "wrong" answer, it just depends on your overall gardening philosophy. Are you in favor of culling any plants that don't grow quickly enough to live up to your initial vision for them in your garden? No judgement behind that, we all have a vision for what we want, as a garden is crafted by intentional choices after all. If you look at your plants as a means to an end, them yeah maybe get rid of it unless you have lots and lots of patience, as it may never fulfill your initial vision. If you prefer to enjoy what the plants give when they give it, and you value your sentimental attachment to this little plant that you've looked after all this time, then keep it, and maybe one day it will have a very good year and it will be all that much more delightful for the surprise.

@bart bart Purple Eden is Ebb Tide. It isn't a very good plant own root unless it's planted in an ideal position and provided "high culture". It won't ever compare to the budded plants as the roots aren't comparable. The stocks provide the "oomph" Ebb Tide's roots can never supply. If you want three plants which resemble each other in vigor, size and productivity, get three budded ones and make a gift of the own root, or cull it. It may make it in your garden, but it won't ever look AS good as the other budded budded plants.

Thank you all so much. I think I'm going with Nollie's,mad gallica's and roseseek's advice. Magpie's comment is very good, but in this case sort of doesn't apply; in this, it's a question of sustainability. It seems probable that, in order to keep the own-root one going, it will continue to require a great deal of TLC-water and liquid fert. The plant could well be ten years old or so,and though with all the water and liquid fert it's been recieving this year it IS putting out a new basal, this basal, as are the other 2 canes, is thin.The leaves are very sparse. The grafted one-planted out LAST FALL- is putting out 2or 3 fat basals, even as it flowers, and is thickly covered in luscious leaves. There's just no comparison. I realize that floribundas may never be able to get by just on rainfall,but these new bare-roots are looking so good that they may well be able to eventually flourish just with drip irrigation and normal fertilization.

I've been "breaking my back" this spring,trying to build on the glorious base that the rains have provided this past fall and winter (and even now we are still getting some!) by applying liquid fert once a week to the new implants and even watering if a week goes by without rain. In my situation, since I have to bring in water myself, this is EXHAUSTING. I can't do this every year-no way. I'm trying to make up for these past 2-3 years of relative drought and extreme heat and it DOES seem to be paying off. For example, my older Tradescant, which had been reduced to one sad cane thanks to heat and drought has 3 vigorous new basals. (thank you, Diane Brakefield, for putting me on the right track about fertilizing really, really early in the year) I've improved my drip system (it's not yet completely finished, but is functional) . But I don't want to ,I CAN'T-keep this up every year,and I am afraid with wimpy own-roots I would have to do so to coax them into being even somewhat decent. The water and fert should be saved for plants that are going to show their gratitude with warmth and generosity.

So I guess own-root PE has got to go. I may put it into a pot,just out of sentimentality. In any case, there are other own-root wimps in my garden that are not easily available (Gloire de Ducher, for example) over which I will continue to fuss. But in this case, there's a difference. GdD is an old rose,not a floribunda. It may eventually overcome weakness and turn into something worthwhile.