Lovely story. Your climate (and that of much of the California coast) is among the most-loved in the world, for good reason. Mild winters, non-hot summers, no extremes--not so here in Santa Clarita, where every day's it's sunny and cloudless and Avg. 95, July through mid-October..
Because I am post-op and cant walk much or far, DH and I havent been able to get away this year. When we could, we gladly drove four days (with two dogs)to another coastal climate.. Whidbey Island, WA. Roses grow beautifully on picturesque Whidbey, although of course the winters are colder and rainier than Jacqueline's Bay Area haven.
Apologies for being OT. In penance I'm posting a picture of Princess Alexandra of Kent from 2024.

At my old house, I bought roses from nurseries and planted them almost at once in ridiculous heat.

One was Dark Knight. I tried that one twice. It was magnificent at the nursery, but failed, both times, not makon a west-facing wall painted light yellow.

failed, both times, on a west-facingw wall painted light yellow. And that was in the SFV, North Hollywood area, where the average summer temperature is maybe 86 at most, and there are clouds, and once in a while even a three-minute rainstorm..
I learned my lesson. I buy bare roots in the winters, anything potted before May 15 (not hard and fast rule but approximate), and plan in planting no roses during the heat endurance season.

From a reputable, mom and pop type mail order nursery, getting potted roses at any time during the growing season should be uneventful.

Not so from Amazon, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, etc. It has happened to me more times than I want to admit. I'm talking about nearly dead bushes you would pass on purchasing that were stting on Lowe's reduced rack, being sent to me. What a hassle it becomes to get reimbursement. Yet, most roses I received during no later than the end of May were beauties.

Roses I purchased during the heat of summer have come basically DOA.

Moses.

I always plant anything in the Fall - it is mild here by then, and our mild Winter rains water whatever-it-is for 4-5 months, so the plants grow roots, and then bloom well in the Spring. Location, location, location, is so important for roses, as well as most things. When I first inherited an old rose garden (without realizing what they were), I read a lot of roses books to learn about them, but I did not understand then that, as most of them were written in the UK or the Eastern US, the instructions for when to plant, when to prune, & how big the bushes would get, WERE ALL COMPLETELY WRONG for my climate and conditions. I finally figured that out by trial and error.

Jackie

Belle, I have ordered in heat from RVRs. Just up pot to a 1-2 gal and put in shade and they can be fine. One does have to take special care of course.

Belle -- Just received my Blessed Child from RVR, which had spent the last week traveling across the country, and it arrived looking great. Just removed one discolored leaf but no signs of heat stress. Soil was nice and moist. Enjoy your mystery box!

I'm jealous! RVR has the most amazing and interesting roses, you never know what's going to be in that box!

@ElfRosa -- LOL! Up until about 5 years ago or so, not knowing what was going to be in that box was all too literally true! Historically, I have received more wrong, mislabelled roses from RVR than any other vendor, hands down, bar none. "Help me figure out what I really got from RVR" was practically a regular feature on this forum. FORTUNATELY, the arrival of a new manager a while back has seemed to turn things around and ordering from RVR is no longer as much the roulette experience it used to be, in my experience anyway. Which is great, because they really do have a fine collection of roses, a bunch of them rare.

Yay, windowsill! I hope it does really well for you! As you know, Blessed Child is my darling rose.

@judijunebugarizonazn8 -- Yes! Your photos convinced me I had to grow it in whatever capacity I'm able to. If I get some blooms, I'll be thrilled.

@catspa_zone9sunset14 this is true, but honestly I was extremely happy with the mislabels I received! Of any place in the universe, if you could just order a big mystery box, I'd choose RVR :-)

Thanks everyone! I'm enjoying all your comments. The order arrived yesterday. Before I write anything else, let me say that I absolutely love Rogue Valley and will continue to order from them no matter what. This is not to complain. I find it hysterically funny, and thought I'd share the humor.

So the short version is I placed an order for Gruss an Coburg and Rene d'Anjou. Both were showing as in stock, but about a week later I got an email saying they were out of Rene, and did I want a refund or another rose. I chose Tiffany in place of Rene.

The box arrived yesterday and in it was one rose: Madame Alfred Carriere. LOL. I actually burst out laughing. I think this was probably a case of labels on the wrong boxes, and someone else got my Gruss and Tiffany. Anyway, most of my orders over the years have been correct, and I'm sure they'll fix this one.

Edit: They'll send the correct roses next week. I knew they would come through!

Nice roses! I've grown 'Gruss an Coburg' for something like 20 years now and it's always in my top ten -- enchanting scent, one of the best for cutting, and the foliage is flawless here, even now after some weeks of intense heat and general lousy conditions. My mother grew 'Tiffany' and it was a real classic, too.

Next week will be better weather, anyway. I'm sure MAC came through this hot trip just fine -- she's pretty much invincible, though not exactly a rose that can be grown in a pot...or even on less than like a 1/4 acre....she's a big one, with visions of world domination...

Despite everything, I too have always bought from RVR -- they've got the roses I want, don't go wrong most of the time, and fix it when they do.

It worked out great. I had one other rose on order that hadn't been shipped yet, so I said I would keep the Madame Alfred for the unshipped one if they would just send the Gruss and Tiffany. So RVR didn't lose anything. Yes, despite the occasional hiccup, I'll continue to order from them until the day they close--which I hope is never! They have so many wonderful roses.

Another RVR story that worked out: One time, years ago, I was planning a trip to Ashland, OR which is very near RVR. My next door neighbor asked me if I could order Perle d"Or for her, and pick it up on our trip and bring it back to her, and take it over to her house, and she would pay me for it (her husband was upset at the number of roses she had - 100+, and told her not to order any more, so she did not want one delivered to her house, or to appear on her cc. ). So, I called RVR, ordered the rose, talked to the owner, and made sure she understood that I was going to pick it up personally.

When I got there, the owner was not there, and the nice man working there could not find the order. He then spent 20 minutes looking for a potted plant of Perle d"Or, found one, and sold it to me. I took it back with me and delivered it to my neighbor (it is still growing in her garden). The funny thing is that about 2 weeks later, a plant of Perle d"Or from RVR was delivered to my house! I called them to explain that I had already picked up my order, and they just said it was OK, and to keep it without charge. I had never had a Perle d'Or in my garden, but there are 2 very old ones in my neighborhood. I planted it in my garden of course, and it has turned out to be one of my most favorite roses. It is lovely, healthy, and blooms almost constantly from ~ May to Nov. I would never have tried it if RVR had not "goofed".

Here is a pic:

Jackie

Beautiful pictures of Alexandra of Kent, Blessed Child (I recognize that black band pot!), and Perle d'Or.

Perle was actually one I considered when I was going through their in stock roses for the Rene substitute. I've had it before and was tempted to get it again. BUT it's so hot here for the majority of the year that the orangey apricot color fades immediately to very pale buff.

I've also been on an early/earlier Hybrid Tea kick lately, so Tiffany ended up being the more tempting choice for me.

bellegallica - do you grow 'Madame Caroline Testout' ( HT hybridized in the 1880s)? I have one which I grew from a cutting from my next door neighbor, who discovered she had two growing in the back yard of the 1910 house she bought next door (same neighbor who I got the Perle d"or for). It is the one which is famous in Portland for being planted all over the city years ago. Anyway, I love it, and its spherical sort of blowsy blooms - not at all like 20th century HT blooms. The one I have is a climber, although after our Fire Dept made us take it off of the house, it has been happy as a self supporting bush - we keep it about 6-7 ft high. Here is a pic of mine:

Not yet. I've considered buying Mme Caroline Testout many times. It will happen one day, I'm sure. I like the look of it and it's history. I've read about the ones planted all over Portland, and that some can still be found here and there.

I do have Mrs. Charles Bell, one the Radiance clan that remind me a lot of Mme Caroline T.

That is a perfect picture of the madame. Mine was killed way back to the ground But has come back strong. And seemingly healthier. Mine is the climbing version. It's canes are as big as my wrist and it thorns match the size.