|
| I had started this a few years ago and it went on for pages so starting a new thread since tastes change, additional people are posting etc. What are your top five roses - anything goes. Can be antique or modern, can be a rose you grow or one you covet. And since it is usually asked, if you cannot limit yourself to five, you can list more. This usually results in me spending hours on help me find, and making lists for future orders. In 2014: Anna Olivier (not Bermuda) cannot find (so only listed five not six...) |
Follow-Up Postings:
|
- Posted by poorbutroserich Nashville 7a (My Page) on Fri, May 30, 14 at 20:06
| Vettin, I have Mme Gregoire Staechlin. She is two years old and one of my slowest growers. So disappointed... Still in a one gallon with a 2 ft. cane....FWIW. Had Lady Hillingon (died small) will replace likely. Blossomtime have and love. PJP first year grafted doing well. Health and fragrance are very important criteria for me. Parade, gorgeous healthy repeating climber. Ivor's Rose--gorgeous vigorous healthy (if it had been named "Dream of Genie" or such it would be much more popular)! I absolutely love Pemberton Hybrid Musks. I have Felicia, Francesca and Cornelia and wouldn't be without them. Golden Celebration/Jude the Obscure--would have them if they never had foliage the fragrance is so amazing but they remain reasonably healthy. Twilight Zone--have several. Fragrant, good for cutting, great color. Marie d'Orleans--love roses with quilled petals. Reve d'Or/Crepuscule--simply gorgeous healthy smelly roses. Distant Drums-unusual goes with anything. Perle d'Or--love the messy blooms. Curly Pink--one of my favorites for cutting. Such a great bloom. Louise Catherine Breslau--an older HT. Beautiful. The photo is LC Breslau--she fades so prettily. Obviously I could add another 20 (or more) but these are the ones blooming so prettily right now. |
|
| Mermaid' single, yellow, striking, scented. Westside Road Cream Tea' I'll do anything for a white fragrant rose. Susan Louise' big in all its parts: beauty of bloom and bush, and huge flowers. I bought a plant that is 4' tall at the o.r.c. this year !!! I am thrilled to pieces!!! Alliance Franco-Russe; yellow Tea with red foliage in spring, and edged with pink, large substantial blooms. Gorgeous... and I have one that I got at the old rose celeb, thanks to tom who budded it. Blossomtime for cutting and fragrance. re-bloom is far superior to 'New Dawn' which is descends from. I think I may be getting over my extreme prejudice against modern roses. i feel a bit idiotic for having one in the first place. and Lux |
|
| Tastes do change. This is not the same list I would have made 5, 10, 25 years ago. I have grown roses for many years, consistently for the past 15. Crepuscule I'll stop there. I probably have a favorite 30 or 40. Funny, just earlier this very day I was making all sorts of favorites lists for myself, you know, favorite colors, favorite 3 popular songs of the past decade (more or less), favorite vacations. It is fun to do. Folly |
|
| Any and all albas, with 'alba semiplena' and 'alba maxima' being particular favorites. The entire House of Malmaision. Alas, I can't grow them where I am now. 'Cl. Sunflare'. For me, the best yellow climber I have ever seen except for 'Merechal Niel', and much easier to grow. I have a new one this year, from Palatine--I am hoping, with a grafted plant, and planted against a south facing wall, I can keep it alive. The entire oeuvre of Mattias Tantau, Jr. 'Fragrant Cloud' was one of the first roses I ever grew and is still a favorite. 'Evelyn' has color and fragrance to die for, and rapid rebloom. 'Alba Meidilland' is a repeat blooming, disease free modern rambler. It grew and grows for me equally well in hot dry CA and now in cool, wet NY. Even with all its' well-known faults, I have to include 'Graham Thomas'. GT, in full bloom, in all its' 8-10' spendour, is a sight that will take your breath away. |
|
| So far my fave top 5 are my pink Don Juan, Evelyn, nacogdoches, SDLM, and strike it rich. |
|
- Posted by muscovyduckling z8-9%3F, Australia (My Page) on Sat, May 31, 14 at 1:45
| My five most lusted-after roses that are not available here in Australia are: Secret Garden Climbing Musk Alas! I doubt I'll even grow them, so I'll have to be content with looking at your pictures. |
|
- Posted by melissa_thefarm NItaly (My Page) on Sat, May 31, 14 at 2:52
| I fully agree with what nastarana says about 'Graham Thomas'. Once I visited a private garden in eastern Washington state that had the most glorious plants of 'Heritage' and 'Graham Thomas': as big as nastarana says and covered with bloom. They still rank as perhaps the most beautiful and most magnificent roses that I have ever seen. I have 300-odd rose varieties now and almost all of them are lovely at some point. So I'll list five that I'm admiring at this moment, when the warm climate roses are nearly all finished and the cold hardy once bloomers are past their peak. 'Vierge de Clery'/'Unique Blanche'/'Centifolia alba'. I'm in love with this rose. First it's white, and I like big double fragrant white roses very much. And now that I've dug around this plant and amended its soil, it has begun to grow, sending out long arching canes studded with pink-stained buds that open to fragrant full Centifolia-like blooms. The plant is lanky and thorny, with big coarsely toothed leaves, a real Centifolia, all of it in scale and vigorous, the entire plant deeply satisfactory. It has been in bloom for some weeks now and still has tight buds, so looks like it will have a long flowering. 'Ohl'. A Gallica that looks like it has something else in its ancestry. Big fragrant shapely blooms, deep pink, darker in the center. I wish this one would sucker: probably its soil needs attention. 'Belle sans Flatterie'. Another Gallica, pink, full, fragrant, shapely, low and suckering, thornless. Beautiful, and such a good, well behaved rose. I do love Gallicas. There are a lot of them out there, including many wonderful varieties that aren't well known. 'Robert le Diable'. This is a rose of mixed ancestry, obviously with a lot of Gallica in it but thorny. Low suckering growth and a tough variety: my parent plant, which is doing fine, is growing beside a large willow in shade and I imagine a lot of root competition, but a sucker planted in full sun and poor soil appears to be holding its own as well. Flowers are double and fragrant, of a peculiar smoky brownish purple with pink shadings, very finely--striped doesn't described the patterning--veined and threaded. There's no other rose like it: it's curious but also a beauty. 'Awakening'. All right, it's not one of my top favorites, but 'Awakening' has virtues and is in bloom right now, and is showing promise that it will finally climb over the end of the shed roof AND, perhaps, up the nearby young Italian cypress as well. It took several years to dig itself in, and meanwhile I allowed it to wander over a patch of ground, in which I suspect it tip rooted. The flowers are double and shapely and of a very fresh pink, that of its sport parent 'New Dawn', to which it's identical except for the flower form. It has the virtue of often blooming when there's not much going on in the garden, especially in late fall, and is as tough as 'New Dawn', and is giving me considerable satisfaction right now. I wouldn't want a garden full of similar roses, but a few dotted around are very welcome. Melissa |
|
| I have bought a lot of roses that didn't make it, so I will have to say the survivors are my favorites, dependable, beautiful- Zephirinie Drouhin, thornless, first and last rose to bloom in my garden, fragrant Topaz Jewel, Clear yellow rugosa, large blooms, beautiful Monsieur Tillier, big quartered blooms, tough Ghislaine de Feligonde- lots of small flowers, peachy buds Excellenz von Schubert- small Polyantha blooms, long bloom season, full small flowers Hybrid Musks Cornelia, Felicia, Penelope Mme Plantier- sensational vigor, gets tall, loaded with small white flowers, pink buds Gallicas- Belle de Crecy, Leda damask. Tuscany Superb Rosa mundi once bloomer Crepuscule Dublin Bay climber Betty Boop, long lasting flowers, change colors slowly Sea Foam, The Fawn, Red Ribbons, Baby Blanket ground cover/ long bloom Apricot Queen- large apricot blooms, long season |
|
| Not sure how this will go. The longer I think about it, the longer the list tend to get! Right off the bat, I can easily list Add to that: Pomponella (Kordes) Oklahoma (HT) Disease-resistance is a very important criteria to me--which tells you how highly I rate Peace, a bs-magnet which got on the list despite that shortcoming. Kate |
|
- Posted by ArbutusOmnedo (My Page) on Sat, May 31, 14 at 16:00
| The roses I have that I am completely enamored by would be: Lady Hillingdon Roses that I plan to order either for myself or my mom's garden in the future that I would put in my current top five are: Felicia Reine des Violettes has done surprisingly well this year and I just love its color. It almost made the cut. There are so many roses I lust after that aren't realistic for me to grow that I could come up with a top 50 of those if I thought about it. My top 5 that I can't grow here or likely won't find now are: Madame Hardy Jay |
|
| Health, fragrance & generous repeating bloom being my criteria - along with distinct personality: Aloha Golden Celebration Easy Does It Abe Darby America Dixieland Linda - a year younger than Aloha (from whom she sported) - is catching up quickly in stature & bloom |
|
| Marie Pavie Penelope Monsieur Tillier Buff Beauty Hot Cocoa |
|
- Posted by PortlandMysteryRose 8 (My Page) on Sat, May 31, 14 at 17:42
| Hmmm. At the moment, my favs are Tuscany Superb, The Prince, Indigo, Queen of Denmark, Basye's Purple, Marches Boccella, La Ville de Bruxelles, Felicite Parmentier, and Maiden's Blush. Oops! that's 9. Shall I make it ten and name Violette? Carol |
|
| Zephirine Drouhin - Good bloomer, vigorous, fragrant, love the color. Belinda's Dream - Good bloomer, healthy. Pink Peace - Love the blooms and the fragrance. Tiffany - Beautiful rose, healthy and fragrant. Mme Isaac Pereire - A gorgeous rose, I love it. Liebeszauber - Very pretty red, healthy, good bloomer, blooms last good. Peace - A beautiful rose, good bloomer. Love Song - Love the color and ruffly blooms. Queen Elizabeth - An all-around good rose for me. Folklore - Great bloomer, beautiful, healthy. I'm sure this list will grow and change. I have some new ones I don't know about yet. There are other great ones, but I can't list them all. |
|
| Pinocchio, for such a tiny plant, never gets more than 2 ft tall, it's a great bloomer and tough as nails winter survivor. Reine des Violettes, just for the fragrance alone! Even though it is gorgeous in full bloom too. English Sonnet (AKA, Samaritan, Lawrence of Arabia, King Arthur, etc.) So many petals hidden in that bud that it's a total surprise every time one opens! Garden Party, enormous, elegant white blooms gently touched in pale pink. Dainty Bess, the most perfect blooms in just 5 petals. Quietness, amazing, gorgeous, every bloom a photo op! There are quite a few more I could add but I'll restrain myself with 6, lol. |
|
| Hmm, I see that some of us are slightly veering away from the rule of five roses, but who cares when it comes to roses? Let's see how well I can do. Souvenir de la Malmaison - always in bloom, always bushy, disease-resistant although it may have some mildew at times, beautiful and elegant flowers La France - the flowers have that blowsy, old-world look and are so fragrant and a lovely shade of pink; it more than makes up for the rather stiff and upright bush Potter and Moore - one of the old Austins and one that really has an old-rose look, with luscious and full, deep blooms that make me swoon, and a small, graceful plant on its own roots, with quite good rebloom Le Vesuve - there's a sense of wildness about this tea with its smallish leaves and small, sharp thorns. The flowers are a cool pink, somewhat swirled and informal, and they can stand the heat here Mutabilis - it's sometimes perfect and sometimes not, but it has my heart, one of those passions you can't readily explain Okay, I must mention two runners-up, Mlle. de Sombreuil and Bishop's Castle. If I could have only multiples of these roses I would still be content with my garden. Ingrid |
|
| What looks best right now, either blooming, with a nice crop of hips, or exceptionally fine foliage growth: Wild Edric Sorry, not even close to five! Melissa |
|
| I just picked my top ten based on another thread, based on health (no-spray in NJ), growth (being as they're all still "babies") and beauty of bloom. Narrowing that ten down to five, I'd have to go with (not in rank order): "Bermuda Spice" -- healthy, almost always at least a flower or two on it, love the grapefruit smell "Darlow's Enigma" -- disease-free, makes a nice alternative to a mock orange shrub, subtly scents the whole yard when in bloom, flowers keep coming without deadheading 'Golden Buddha' -- disease-free, beautiful foliage, flowers last a long time on the bush even if the color fades before the petals fall, nice choice for a small front-of-the-border shrub, love the apricot scent of the flowers 'Marie Pavie' -- very little blackspot by the end of the season, flowers keep coming with no pampering, scent is noticeable from my front door 'Souvenir de Victor Landeau' -- vigorous and basically self-pegging, spotting didn't come until Autumn and not much even then, big blooms in few but large flushes in late Spring and late Summer, smells amazing :-) ~Christopher |
|
- Posted by desertgarden561 9/SZ11 -Las Vegas, N (My Page) on Sun, Jun 1, 14 at 9:23
| Mme. Isaac Pereire Don Juan .... Deep red roses....has been in bloom since February Ebb Tide.... The color is more appealing to me than my Twilight Zones South Africa Souvenir de la Malmaison Pink Peace.... Black Magic... I attempted to keep the list to 5. I'm close ...... Lynn |
|
| Anything goes? HTs okay? Then I'd have to put Gold Medal at the top of my list. Nonstop, huge blooms on completely healthy plants. Not just dandelion yellow: depending on weather, can be pink-edged,red-tinged, creamy, blush ... if it had fragrance, it would be close to perfect. Survived our May heat waves with flying colors. Then Tamora. I'm waiting for my three bushes to grow into one as DA says they will, but even in their first year they've been close to nonstop blooming machines. Nice fragrance, too. Munstead Wood! At first I thought the blooms were too small, but as time goes on they get bigger .. and bigger .. and are just freaking exquisite. Form, fragrance, color: this rose has an almost mystical appeal. Marie Van Houtte: bare-root in January, covering a four-foot trellis now. Beautiful old-rose blooms that vary from cream to pink depending on weather. A touch of class. The accompanying photo was taken on a 98-degree day. Heat champ! Granada. I have two of these body-bag bargains. They're not showing the most vigorous growth, but they bloom steadily and the colors are mind-boggling. I never know what I'll see until the buds open -- and then they begin to change! Fascinating rose with lots of personality. Queen of Sweden. The first DA I fell in love with. Sturdy little standout with exquisite blooms. If it has a fragrance, I can't smell it, but I love the pale, pale pink, and the flowers keep on coming. Caveat: DA says it is "almost thornless." "Almost" is a squishy word. There's thorns aplenty, IMHO. Oops, there's six already. Great thread! |
|
- Posted by Nippstress 5-Nebraska (My Page) on Sun, Jun 1, 14 at 19:06
| Hmm, going off the top of my head, with not much blooming to distract me, here goes: Edgar Degas Aaak - I'm already at 10 and haven't even gotten to any Austins, or most of the climbers. Hard but a fun process. Cynthia |
|
| OMigod How could I have left out 'Rene d'Anjou'??? the most beautiful rose in bloom in my garden this month. It's a curvaceous pink Moss, that has the prettiest side buds. and such a lovely fragrance, and very attractive dark green leathery foliage that seems nearly bulletproof here. Lux. |
|
- Posted by harborrose 8-Puget Sound/PNW (My Page) on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 2:20
| Nippstress, I grew Bad Worishofen in Alabama; what a sweet little rose. Most of my roses have not started blooming yet or the early buds have been eaten by the rats with long legs and flat teeth - but among the ones that are there that I make a beeline for every day just to see them again Wasagaming, a rugosa/bourbon hybrid, fragrant, heavy bloom ... Till Uhlenspiegel, a five petaled hybrid eglantine with a reddish/pinkish bloom. The bush is three years old now and has had a pretty good bloom this year. I can't wait until it is mature and covered with those blooms of such a striking color, So healthy, no foliage issues at all for me. Purple Skyliner, this rose is three now and just covered with small purple blooms and buds. My three Louise Clements are in a small hedge in front of PS. One of them has a a tangeriney-orange bud. I dream of when the three Louise Clements will be mature enough to have a full flush at the same time the PS is in bloom. Yumm, one day, I hope. For now, I love looking at the one bud and the Purple Skyliner blooms. Sibelius - love the shrub form and the multitudes of blooms it is covered with. Belle de Crecy - I cut three and put in a blue and white vase with some dark purple columbine; I just love it. That shrub is so generous a bloomer. Mousseline - this reblooming moss rose is covered with blooms. It is three now and I think should bloom off and on all summer. Ask me again my favorites when Heritage finally gets some blooms, when Munstead Wood blooms, when the rest of the gallicas and Henri Martin Bloom. Georges Vibert should bloom for the first time. And alba maxima should bloom soon; I love that rose. Okay, I am stopping now. But here's Wasagaming
|
|
- Posted by harborrose 8-Puget Sound/PNW (My Page) on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 2:58
| Looking at everyone's list again, I just wanted to add that my Mme Gregoire Staechlin is also a very slow grower. I too love Bermuda Spice, Christopher for the smell and sweetness of the bloom. I tried growing it here and finally gave up after three years; no fragrance and balled blooms. So glad it does well for you as I'm just living with the memories :) SV4Life mentioned Marie van Houtte - that is a wonderful rose too. Love your picture. Happy rose days! Gean |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Antique Roses Forum
Information about Posting
- You must be logged in to post a message. Once you are logged in, a posting window will appear at the bottom of the messages. If you are not a member, please register for an account.
- Please review our Rules of Play before posting.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review your post, make changes and upload photos.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- Before posting copyrighted material, please read about Copyright and Fair Use.
- We have a strict no-advertising policy!
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.
Learn more about in-text links on this page here
