Now you got me thinking. I have 3 roses I just know will always be there but I don't say a whole lot about them. Lady of the Dawn (FLOR), Whirlaway and Tiffany Lynn (both minifloras). I just take for granted that they will always be there in good shape with beautiful blooms at all times.

Good thread, Sara! I think we all probably have one or two of those in the garden. For me it would have to be my little English Sonnet. It's in a lousy spot that's dry and doesn't get a lot of sun and yet the thing keeps growing and blooming on happily with little or no help from me.

Good thread, Sara! I think we all probably have one or two of those in the garden. For me it would have to be my little English Sonnet. It's in a lousy spot that's dry and doesn't get a lot of sun and yet the thing keeps growing and blooming on happily with little or no help from me.

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Wow English Sonnet has a great color to it Seil!
I really like that one!

My Seven Sisters........it is one of my favorite and when it's in full bloom it's fragrance fills my entire back yard. I never worry about because it is always healthy and I know in the spring it is going to be full of blooms and will be gorgeous.

for me, it's Easy Going. I have two, and they are my most carefree roses...never need spraying, never without blooms, get fed last (in case I run out of fertilizer before I get to them...I know they will be fine without). No special attention, but never let me down.

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This is interesting - Thanks for sharing everyone. All those pictured are beautiful roses too. Seil, English Sonnet has such a pretty color combination. Boncrow, I've heard about Seven Sisters all my life, but have never seen it in person, yours is so pretty. Pat, Easy Going looks like a really good bloomer, I love the color.

Tiffany. No maintenance. Beautiful all the time, even the foliage.

Gold Medal. Stick it in the ground, water and forget. Magnificent yellow flowers with pink edges and underpetals.

Tamora, an Austin rose. Does not shrivel or blacken in heat (of which we have a lot in SoCal). I planted 3 of them and they are developing into lovely shrubs.

Pink Peace, Takes infinite levels of neglect, but blooms true and fragrant every year.

Everything else I have is too new to evaluate. One I would never buy again, though, is Double Delight. I moved it out of pitiless sun to a place where it gets afternoon shade, and the plant grew a little better -- still, however, few blooms and those are small and disappointing, especially when compared to the huge flowers it produced at first. Plant seems to have all sorts of problems, bugs love it, mildew, etc., which my other HTs don't. Doubly disappointed so far.

Sylvia

Gardens of the World. All it ever gets is hose water. It's planted in the most inhospitable spot there is, full southern exposure, extremely hot and bright with much reflected, radiated heat from lots of concrete and stucco. No disease, no pruning, it just fills a hole. Kim

Wow that Easy Going is GORGEOUS!

Stunning 'Easy Going'. Glorious. Here, it got too tall.

Kim my GOTW is such a dreadful Ruster. Yours is so beautiful.

I take 'Gourmet Popcorn' for granted. Flawless foliage, always, good but not great repeat. Whack to the ground, comes back perfect.

Roses taken for granted reminds me of my DH's family. DH was always the dutiful quiet straight-A student and completely ignored--his older sibling, vivacious but always in trouble, got all the attention.

Kim - Your GOTW looks like a very good rose.

Hoovb - Gourmet Popcorn must be a good rose, I've read good things about it.

Thanks, Sara Ann. It was a commercially available, first year bare root planted about 1993. The others around it succumbed to heat, drought, moles, gophers, rabbits, you name it. There is infrequently a bit of rust but no other diseases. As long as I only dead head it with the hose and otherwise ignore it, the plant just does its thing. I guess it really likes where it is other than the flowers frying off it this time of year, but they all do right now, so what's the difference? Thanks. Kim

My McCartney rose has been in the ground for a number of years, planted in rose limboland on the north side of my house. I've done absolutely nothing to it for those years, and it still keeps coming back in spite of the black spot that always decimates it. The canes are humongously thick. I'm so immune to this bush that I rarely notice it. It grows to about 7 ft before i even notice. The flowers are pretty enough, and it has bloomed well in spite of the neglect. This year I'm trying something new, I'm spraying it and feeding it. I really would like to get the size of the bush under control, though.

Secret. Repeats like crazy, ultra-fragrant, disease-free, perfect size. The reason I say I take it for granted is that it's maybe not on my top 20 favorite roses list, even though it should be. Go figure!

I was just having this discussion with a rose friend in emails. One of her family favorites is Pink Favorite. Jack Harkness wrote in, "Roses", that Pink Favorite was, from the nurseryman's point of view, a "boring rose". Healthy, vigorous, ever flowering and a real bore. Nearly every bud resulted in a Grade 1 bare root without any extra attention or coddling. Nothing about the rose made it "special" to the nurseryman because it was pretty much a guaranteed success. It seems those mentioned in this thread fit that bill in our gardens. Perhaps someone should be listing these so the next time someone asks about "no care successes", these can be posted? Kim