Reem, Welcome to Gardenweb. I am very sorry to hear about your illness. I hope that growing beautiful roses and chatting with all of us here will give you some comfort and help you cope with it.

Of the roses you listed, I grow WS 2000 and Queen Elizabeth. WS is a wonderful rose that I can recommend highly. It is not in a very sunny spot in my garden(plan to change that this year) but has bloomed constantly all year, the blooms are purple and absolutely gorgeous. QE is a reliable and good rose, I can't say I find it very exciting, but it is good enough. I have ordered this year some of the others you mentioned, but don't have any experience as yet. Hope this helps.
Sanju

Compte de Chambord smells heavenly. Konigen von Danemark does well for me as (so far) albas seem totally blackspot-free in my garden. At least here, I don't know about your climate. I love my Reine des Violettes but have only had her for 2 years. She has gotten a bit bigger this past year and I am really looking forward to a nice show this June.

Chianti is one of my favorites, I grow it as a climber on my trellis fence. So you should plan on giving it LOTS of room in your climate. Does not repeat bloom, but is a hardy climber in the north, which is appreciated.

I also grow Eglantine, Othello, Sharifa, and WS 2000. Like them all, esp. Eglantine, and love the crimson of WS but the red does tend to "crisp up" in the hot sun. For me.

The only one on your list that I've grown that I don't like is William Baffin. It is always for sale around here as it is a very hardy climber (or large shrub if you keep it pruned). But I got rid of it (well, I had my husband dig it out because I wasn't able to). It is a real monster here in zone 5, I could imagine how it would perform in zone 8! The blooms are kind of a single, semi-double neon pink color. It has no fragrance whatsoever. And it really doesn't repeat at all. And grows like a weed.

Just my observations, although we live in completely different climates--veilchen (Cathleen)

Hi reem, your brother and I share the same birthdate.

I second that Comte de Chambord is probably the best rose as far as fragrance goes.

Queen Elizabeth, I have the climbing variety, which isn't as good as the bush form. I do think that QE has a perfect bloom form and the best pink color of any rose.

Reve d'Or is a great rose, very disease resistant and will cover a fence or wall or arbor in a short time and also has lovely blooms.

I haven WS 2000 and Reine d' Violette, but they haven't done that much yet, hopefully this year. But the color on WS 2000 is fantastic.

I have grown Clotilde Soupert, Reine de Violettes and Rose de Rescht from your list. All are tough, tough roses that needed no mollycoddling whatsoever in my zone 5 winters.

Clotilde used to ball for me sometimes in Spring but it was not very often. And she was extremely prolific with her blooms from the get go. Stays short and smells lovely. Has a cute appearance partly due to mounding shape and partly due to delicacy of blooms, thinner stems but is a tough as nails rose. Must buy!

Rose de Rescht is also tough as nails, very prolific bloomer. All my roses are own root and this guy sent out a little baby plant a foot away, which I potted up. Smells lovely, disease resistant. Stayed short for me although not as short as Clotilde above, cute mounding shape.

I didn't have Reine de Violettes very long but she was almost thornless so I placed her next to my armchair on the patio. Beautiful fragrant blooms, vigorous, lovely shape. Not as disease resistant as Clotilde and RdR but then again I had placed Reine in a slightly shaded spot due to her shade-tolerance. So that may have been an issue, I don't know.

I do not spray my roses ever. And these 3 roses certainly did very well for me without any kind of spraying in Zone 5, although your conditions may be very different.

I would recommend all three of these roses. They are all fantastic.

reem, I have several on your list but am in the process of evaluating them myself! I do have to comment on one that is very new - still a band, technically, and that is Smoky. It has produced one bloom and the bloom was really gorgeous. Very unusual color, beautiful shape and very fragrant. I think some on here have commented that it was a weak plant for them, and I will have to wait and see myself, but I'm going to be hopeful!

Are all the roses you listed in your pot ghetto? If it is, I'm going to have to come shopping in your ghetto....what a nice selection!

Lynn

THANK YOU so much for your invaluable feedback! I love gazing at the pictures and reading marketing blurbs on rose vendors' websites. However, there is no substitution for the knowledge professed by people (from novice to expert) who actually grow these roses in their garden. I love learning about roses!

Lynn - I truly wish all of these precious roses were in my pot ghetto! I am seeking feedback from Gardenweb Roses members so that I can buy roses that best suit my needs. :)

I forgot to include a few roses like Variegata di Bologna. :) I hope to include a few rare roses in my garden. Last year, my focus was on color (and hardiness by default). This year, I want to buy HIGHLY FRAGRANT roses (and hardiness is vital too).

I appreciate continued responses and feedback about these roses. And please feel free to include information about roses that I did not include in this list too.

Lynn - If you visit WA, you are welcome to see me and my pot ghetto of roses. We can chit-chat about roses while sipping on Indian tea and biscuits (I guess they are called crackers here). :) I currently have about 50 roses. :)

I had Nigrette, but only for a couple of years. It's a charming rose, but my situation was not good for it: The only sun my roses get is the afternoon sun of great intensity in Sacramento, CA. It just crisped Nigrette. From what I've seen posted on the forum here, this is not an uncommon problem with some red roses. I had Nigrette in a container - It's said to be good for growing in containers. I liked it, but it was one of several roses that I gave away because they were unhappy with the heat and intensity of the sun here - I felt that it was unfair to them to keep frying them like that (one of those was Oklahoma - love those dark reds!).

Laura

OK, let's see, I've got quite a few of those.

Brown Velvet -- like it alot -- strong plant, but no fragrance -- gorgeous blooms, though. Gets about 4 feet tall.
Darlow's Enigma -- have it and like it, but it's fairly unexciting visually as hybrid musks go. Big mother of a plant, though. Ten to twelve feet, easy. Plant it somewhere out of the way where it can climb something, and where you can go find it once in a while to cut and bring in frilly bouquets. The blooms actually last a week in the house and smell heavenly after they are cut.
Hannah Gordon -- this one gets about 6 feet here -- pretty vigorous plant. Pretty in the spring, but repeat is only fair here.
Lavaglut -- great little plant. Produces sprays of red roses that -- even without pinching off the lead bud -- form themselves into perfect bouquets for cutting. No fragrance though. Gets about 3 feet high and wide.
Lavender Pinocchio -- just got this one -- dunno yet.
Linda Campbell -- a friend has this -- it makes a glorious spring display along her chain link fence, used as a climber. About 7 feet high.
Midnight Blue - short little plant, but I love the color. Needs to be protected from too much sun in the hot part of the day -- or else the blooms will fry almost before they open. Dusk or dawn sun ONLY.
Out of Yesteryear -- hmmm -- not much to say about this one. Your weather is wetter than mine and I can rarely get it to open because my weather is too much moisture for it. It wants hot.
Queen Elizabeth -- boring but dependable pink grandiflora -- gets to about 7 feet tall here. Not good for cutting. Put it in the background somewhere.
Smoky -- had it, it died (needs the very best of care) and I like the color so much that I am replacing it this year.
Suntan Beauty -- new one for me this year too.
SWALK (Sealed with a loving kiss) -- love this little climber. Hot pink to red blooms in perfect form. Climbing habit, but only gets to about 5 feet or so.
The Dahlia Rose -- mine is a weak plant -- doesn't bloom much. One foot tall.
Wedding Cake -- this one's a problem. It wants full hot sun to bloom (at all) but then when the blooms are in the sun, they get ugly. So mine is in a pot -- left in the sun until the flush of blooms is about to happen, and then I move it under a patio cover to enjoy them. It gets to about 3 feet tall, and seems to be happy in its pot.
William Shakespeare 2000 - this turned into an 8 ft tall one cane wonder for me the first year in the ground, but now at year 3 has recovered and is a very nice rose. Ya gotta have a lot of patience with this one. I hated it at the beginning, but it has grown on me now. Now it seems to like to bloom at around 5 feet tall, unlike the first year when it just wanted to grow one cane, and keep on growing it up and more up -- to around the 9 foot mark and then it would only bloom at the top. Almost got the shovel that first year, but now I'm glad I kept it.

Good luck and take care,
Kathy

I only have three:

Buff Beauty - Excellent!
Pretty Jessica - smaller Austin - as good as everything I've heard.
Wm. Shakespeare 2k - one of my favorites!

Mary

This is my experience:
Alberic Barbier - wonderful, healthy, LOVE it

Barbara Oliva - still very young for me, gets BS, but in my climate almost everything does

Buff Beauty - love color, vigor and fragrance. Can be grown as a free standing bush o climber. Will get BS w/o spray here, but not loose its vigor.

Céline Forestier - very pretty, but not healthy here. Quite tender in my experience.

Chianti - love this one. Fragrance and color are to die for. Gets BS, but who cares, just ignore it, it will be wonderful next spring again

Clotilde Soupert - here it balls in spring like crazy, not resistant to BS

Comte de Chambord - wonderful fragrance, but very poor resistance to BS, need religious spraying.

Darlow's Enigma - very healthy. Gets huge. My DE was grown as a free standing bush approx 12x12 and this is with regular prunning. Got RRD last year, had to remove it, still feel sorry. Wonderful rose.

Indigo - gets damask brown crud, otherwise wonderful

Ispahan- healthy and beautiful. Fragrance is divine. Gets huge

Konigin von Danemark - healthy, very fragrant, very thorny. Great rose

Mrs. John Laing - BS disaster here even with spraying. Great repeat and fragrance, if only it can be healthy

Oshun- needs dryer climate. Here gets botrytis in spring really badly, balls too

Out of Yesteryear - didn't like my climate

Paul Ricault- great beauty and fragrance. Needs spraying here

Reine des Violettes - good repeat, great color and fragrance. Needs spraying

Rose de Rescht - very nice rose with great fragrance and repeat. Gets damask crud and is tTHE favorite roses for JBs.

Sharifa Asma - very good rose, fragrant, vigorous, good repeat. Needs sprayng here
Star of the Nile - one of my very favorite roses. Color andfragrance are like nothing else. Blooms non stop, beautiful bush. Needs spraying

William Shakespeare 2000 - great rose, gets huge. Great repeat, color and fragrance. Needs spraying here

Olga

Mrs. John Laing: A great rose in my dry climate. Perhaps may not do so well in wetter areas.

Othello: Very reliable for me. The thorns are amazing. Puts out long canes. The blooms are absolutely stunning.

Out of Yesteryear: Slow to grow in my garden. However, it puts out profuse blooms that are packed with snow white petals. The blooms look like large cotton balls from afar and are really stunning. However, the white flowers are very susceptible to thrips and turn brown as a result.

Pink Powderpuff: I'm thinking you are referring to the Moore climber. Slow to grow in my garden and very finicky. I may spade prune it this spring and replace with another rose.

Queen Elizabeth: So easy to grow. Blooms resistant to thrips. Best placed in the back of the border because it grows big and tall.

Rose de Rescht: Easy to grow in my garden and a profuse bloomer.

Sharifa Asma: Very reliable but blooms shatter easily.

William Shakespeare 2000: Does very well in my dry garden. Even then, it gets pm at the slightest moisture increase.

I have only grown three;

1) Crimson Glory (CL) - fantastic rose! It is the most fragrant rose I have ever grown. Gorgeous dark red velvety blooms - no disease problems here. It is just starting to bloom now, and blooms all summer.

2) Buff Beauty - I grow this in 2 different gardens. In one, it is a hedge and gets full sun. In the other, it is grown as a climber and only gets sun maybe 3-4 hours a day in the summer - less the rest of the year. In both places it is great - blooms & blooms.

3) Cloutilde Soupert - lovely blossoms, but I had to get rid of it because 100% of the blooms balled 100% of the time, and this is NOT a humid climate! (No Cal).

Jackie

reecook, thanks for the invite for tea and a roam around the "ghetto"! Not sure when I'll get up there but I'll be sure to look you up if I do :)

Good luck with your new garden; a new project is always exciting!

Lynn

You have a wonderful list of roses! So many beautiful ones.

Comte de Chambord is a lovely rose. Beautiful blooms and fragrance.

Eglantyne is an excellent rose, strong sweet fragrance, hardy.

Geoff Hamilton is a lovely rose; elegant foliage and blooms, the fragrance is sweet, reminds me a bit of fresh strawberries.

Mrs. John Laing, repeats well, easy to grow, wonderful color and fragrance to the blooms.

Reine des Violettes, beautiful blooms; it forms a graceful shrub, easy to grow. It has a sweet fragrance.

Sharifa Asma, lovely blooms and strong fragrance. Hardy, and easy to grow.

Stanwell Perpetual, lovely shrub rose with charming blooms and wonderful fragrance, hardy.

Clotilde Soupert is absolutely super lovely in my garden this spring - sorry she doesn't do well in the PNW.

Softee is new, loaded with buds, one flower so far, and so far nice and healthy. We'll talk again in August - or sooner.

Nur Mahal is coming along. He gets BS in my garden, but I'm going to put a clematis under him to cover him up. His flowers are spectacular.

Reve d'Or is almost 2 years old, getting big, pretty healthy hear and blooming beautifully.

Sherry

I used to live in Olympia (Washington) and I grew roses there in that Pacific Northwest climate. I haven't grown many of the roses on your list, and almost none of them when I was in Washington. Let's see what I can tell you.
Alberic Barbier is a great beauty, lovely foliage and blooms; gets pretty large and has one big flowering with scattered blooms following. I don't remember seeing AB growing in Washington but suspect it does well there. Easy to grow and superbly healthy.
Chianti: I've seen this rose a couple of times in Italy and it's spectacular in bloom. It's once-blooming and large and I don't know now it does in the PNW.
Konigin von Danemark: this is a beautiful rose, more deeply colored and thornier than most of the Albas, and harder to propagate from cuttings, at least in my experience; but a splendid variety. I had a lot of Albas in Olympia and they were every one of them beautiful fragrant roses, healthy and easy to grow: I recommend them all highly.
Nur Mahal: I've had this rose for years and it has never reached its potential, but I've heard (often) that it can be great. I didn't discover the Hybrid Musks until after I moved to Italy, but I bet that they're the PNW shrub roses par excellence. I love this class, especially the Pemberton musks, for their fine foliage and habit, beautiful and sweetly scented blooms, and overall air of grace and luxuriance. They're easy to grow.
Queen Elizabeth: this is a fine stout upstanding rose that was common in Washington when I lived there and grows all over here in Italy as well. I had it one time and got rid of it because I couldn't detect any scent. It's easy to turn up one's nose at QE because she grows everywhere and has no fragrance, but I bet she's still going to be around in a hundred years (the rose, not the monarch), and looking quite handsome in old age.
Rose de Rescht. I had it in Olympia and didn't love it, but it grew well and I don't remember any disease. I have it here too but my cutting-grown plants are still growing. Fragrant and a good dark color.
Sharifa Asma. A pretty rose, pale pink but I always think of it as white, with a superb scent, one of the best. I have SA for its fragrance; note also that it's easy to grow. I had a lot of DA roses in Olympia and adored them, but they were never vigorous for me. I suspect they needed fatter living--more water and nutrients--than I generally supplied my roses, and possibly a sunny warm spot in the garden.
Stanwell Perpetual. Had it there, have it here, suspect I've never brought the best out of it. Beautiful little shapely fragrant blooms, pale pink with a button eye, on a wiry thorny open very tough bush that has nifty Pimpinellia foliage and likes to sucker. One of the first and last to flower.

For me in Olympia many of my best roses were the once-blooming old roses: I had Albas, Gallicas, and Mosses, and loved them all. I didn't get around to Centifolias (except for Crested Moss, which was superb) and Damasks, but would certainly want to try them if I lived there. Bourbons didn't do much for me in Olympia. I suspect many of them needed more heat than they got: 'Louise Odier' is a far stronger plant here than in Olympia; and I'm finally allowing 'Mme. Pierre Oger' back in my garden here after suffering with her black-spotted wimpy predecessor in my Washington garden. As I mentioned above, I hadn't yet discovered Hybrid Musks when I was in Olympia, but think they would be wonderful. Another small group to look into would be 'Mlle. Cécile Bruenner' and related roses: they're a reasonable size, have enchanting little flowers and foliage, are healthy as can be and aren't like anything else in the rose world. And then there are Kordes's Fruehlings- roses, big fragrant once-blooming species hybrids of great character and beauty, and some of the early-flowering species yellows like 'Canary Bird' and R. hugonis, that bloom, I think, with the lilacs.
Most of the roses I've listed are shrubs, some quite large, and many are once-blooming; they're also informal in style and for garden design purposes best thought of as landscape shrubs. These are the kind of roses I love, but they may not be your taste in roses. More upright and contained varieties with large flowers and repeat bloom are more formal: they include most Hybrid Teas and Floribundas, many Hybrid Perpetuals, and the Portlands/Hybrid Damasks. I don't know much about these, but there will be some varieties that will be adapted to the mild wet winters, dry summers, and lack of summer heat of western Washington. I never had much trouble with disease in my garden, and would take with a grain of salt what eastern growers say about disease resistance of their roses. Olga knows exactly what she's talking about, but she has high blackspot pressure in her garden, and in my experience this isn't much of a problem in Washington; a rose that defoliates for her might do quite well for you. I never sprayed my roses. One hybrid Tea that does well in Washington I believe is the old variety 'Radiance', which also has numerous sports.
Melissa

I'm sure I grow a few I am not listing, off of the top of my head though, I can comment a little on these

Brown Velvet not bad here, does better on Fortuniana

Lavaglut one of my favorites, very hardy, had a trellis fall on it at least 10 times, still survives.

Midnight Blue would like colder weather I think than Tampa Bay , but does alright.

Othello a little blackspot ...pretty good, grows large in St. Pete

Pretty Jessica about a 5 here ...nothing great nothing to bad

Queen Elizabeth loves it here waaay better here grafted

Rose de Rescht hangs on in Fl. own root , of course it would do better with some chill. Kinda aheavy feeder, doesn't bloom enough for my area.

Russelliana does ok needed more chill than I have.

Smoky needs to be grafted on Fortuniana here. Good color, not a bloom machine here

Dahlia rose ...good color and form here easily roots from cuttings.

William Shakespeare 2000 needs shade in Fl, but is almost almost Always in bloom, good scent, above average black spot resistant.

Hope it helps a little, Tampa Bay 9b here.
Regards,
Andrew Grover

Thank you all for providing feedback on the roses based on your experience. I am positive that this post will aid others too in evaluating roses that suit their individual needs.

Please continue to add to this post!

Best regards,
Reem

My climate is very different from yours, but Alberic is one of my favorite roses. Light yellow flowers in profusion on a super healthy, vigorous climber. I love Buff Beauty, too and grow it pegged. I just wish it would make more new canes.
I've not had good luck with Gloire de Dijon, but when it flowers it is magnificent. I recommend buying from Pickering. Some disaster or other (weedwacker, voles, etc.) always seems to befall it and the healthiest plant I've had came from Pickering.
Konegin von D is gorgous with a lucious fragrance.
Rose de Rescht also has a superb scent, but gets BS and is attacked by japanese beetles here.
Sharifa has a gorgeous color, good bloomer, and a sweet, powder scent.
William S 2000 has a great color but has not been a very vigorous plant for me.
Hope this helps.

Hmmm, that's quite a list :)
My thoughts on the ones I grow:

Céline Forestier - I grow this rose in a zone 5 garden and with some winter protections, I find her to be quite tough and hardy. 3 winters now. I love the flower color, kind of white/yellow mix for me, and a beautiful airy shape. She even climbs although I have to cut her down severely each Spring.

Clotilde Soupert - Balls like crazy, but when you do get a bloom is it spectacular and fragrant. Bush is very small, as are the flowers. I read that it was small, but I didn't realize it was going to be THAT small. She is lovely, but I probably wouldn't replace her if something happened because she balls too much in my garden/climate.

Comte de Chambord - Beautiful rose. The bush seems a little wild to me and needs to be kept under control with careful pruning ... but the flowers are gorgeous and the fragrance is amazing. I have him right by the garden gate so everyone can see/smell when they walk by! Very hardy too, I get almost no winter dieback on the canes even ... which is impressive in our winters.

Pretty Jessica - new this Spring so I can't say anything but what I've heard -- lovely fragrance, good rebloomer, small bush for a nice compact space. I'm looking forward to her blooms!

Reine des Violettes - Forms a lovely bush, thornless. Still fairly new so I haven't seen much repeat but I hear that it gets better with age. The flower color is to die for! Apparently there are 2 forms of this rose on the market - make sure it is thornless and not-virused as this can be a problem )or so I hear).

Sharifa Asma - Fragrance blows me away, I love it. I put her on a corner so everyone could love it even though she's about 4-5 feet tall now. Medium size Austin, doesn't seem to throw up octopus canes. Hardy. Rebloomer and quite a bloom machine, she's not stingy!

I totally want Nigrette (love the colour!) - and would be curious also to read other people's opinions of this rose.

(Note: Links will open in a new browser window)

I ordered Aloha, Huilito and Nur Mahal, from Linda Loe (of LongAgoRoses). I am excited to add these three new roses to my collection. I hope they do ok on their long journey to WA.

I am also planning to purchase a few of roses from my main list from Chamblee's Rose Nursery.