Strike It Rich rose, a Grandiflora, looks like a winner. I have little patience for any plant that needs coddling and many roses need diligent spraying for diseases such as blackspot.
While the Knockout roses are superb in growth habit and disease resistance, they are the ubiquitous plant of now. Thankfully, there seem to be some roses out there that are of tougher fiber than in the past, and I am hopeful that Strike It Rich rose is strong in this regard. Initial reports are that disease resistance is good to excellent, but only time will tell in my garden.
I like Grandiflora roses at the back of borders where a tallish plant is needed. The knees (gawky lower third) of the rose can be hidden by plants, while the flowers peek through or soar above.
Strike It Rich rose has strong upright growth and is a great choice for those who want a taller rose in their garden.
Modern roses such as Strike It Rich are achingly beautiful. Many are heartbreakingly fragile.
Strike It Rich is a spectacular soft golden cantaloupe-ish color that is gorgeous when paired with light blue flowers (think Delphiniums). While one hopes for disease resistance, I can’t help note the telltale signs of spraying for blackspot prevention on the leaves of the rose pictured below.
Yellow roses, in particular, have been ridden with disease problems.
The story, so it goes, is that the parent of most of today’s yellow roses (whose name escapes me) was bred in France and exhibited no problems with blackspot. When exported to other regions commercially, however, the yellow roses were blackspot magnets to the extreme. The apparent reason that the yellow roses in France had no blackspot is that pollution was so bad that blackspot could not take hold. Different times.