The recent winds in Southern California stripped all of my rose bushes of their leaves. All are struggling to come back, and my Veteran's Honor (which had given me the largest, most beautiful rose in early October) decided to throw out a hot pink bloom after it had been worked over by the winds.

I posted to the rose forum and it was suggested it might be a "sport". I wasn't familiar with the term until I looked into it a bit more today, and I found a discussion on this forum (from 2004) about a hot pink sport of Veteran's Honor. This is all completely new to me....do I just let it grow on the same bush? What's the significance of a sport like this and how often does it happen? I've never seen it, but I've only been into roses for 5 years or so.

Sonja