I garden in A desert climate and have both clay and sandy alkaline soil. The sandy areas are 7.6 pH and the clay is around 8.6 pH. My water is 7.8 pH. My climate is very dry, as the humidity level when it is raining, is often much lower than humid areas of the country when it is not raining. July and much of August are the months of relentless heat, and from there we get a break. The climate is very mild, outside of the summer. It is extremely sunny year round, and not very cold during the winter ( 28 degrees as a low in January).

Rugosas have been a disaster. Austin's must be planted in areas that receive no more than five hours of direct or filtered sun, preferably morning sun. This location is due to my summers. I add a good amount of compost, soil sulfur, and use an organic fertilizer twice per year to keep them healthy.

Bourbons seem to be less fussy so far, but they too receive filtered or morning sun only.

Teas, polyanthas, Hybrid Perpetuals, and modern shrubs with a multiflora background are new, so I don't know about those yet.... Next year ..

Lynn

Soil in my garden is mostly clay based loam (courtesy of the original heavy clay soil being gardened for 108 years).

Best types of roses: chinas, teas, hybrid giganticas, polyanthas, multifllora hybrids, banksias, noisettes & tea noisettes, hybrid musks, Sombreuil (don't know what class it is). Hybrid perpetuals - perhaps. Old hybrid teas bred in the 19th century and up until the 1930s are much better than those later (probably because the ones I have are a few survivors).

Not good are almost all European once blooming OGRs (we do not have enough Winter chill), rugosas (same reason?), and hybrid teas from the second half of the 20th century.

Jackie

My "best roses" are pretty much what Jackie lists, except those bred in the last half of the 20th Century do just fine here, for the most part. Kim

And if our winters keep getting warmer and warmer, as they have the past several years, who knows--I might be able to grow more of the "southern" roses after all!

I've never had my soil tested, but my "mac" hydrangeas (that turn blue or pink, depending on the soil ph) tend to bloom in both colors or a kind of lavender--so I guess that means I have a fairly neutral/in-between kind of soil. Very hot here in late summer, with more hot days as climate change takes effect.

In the past, late winter/early spring freeze-thaw-freeze cycles were a major problem. Again, if our winters keep warming up, that problem may disappear.

Kate

Ingrid

I had purchased Crepuscule, which is described as a tea-noisette, but had to cancel the order because it would become too large for the allotted space. I have one remaining space in my yard that has not been earmarked for anything, but I am not sure yet as to what size this rose bush should be. I have a lot of work to do and am running out of steam both psychologically and physically. The space in the front yard could be perfect for a charming noisette. I will likely ask forum members for suggestions next spring when I have more definitive plans. Thank you for the suggestion.

Cath

The rugosas and multiflora-type roses that I have tried all do the best here. If I can manage to keep the soil pH up I think that many rose types will do okay. Anything blackspot prone I stay away from. I don't know about chinas yet. I suspect most species would do fine here.

The ones that require heat, the teas mostly is what I'm thinking of, have a more difficult time. I grow a few, but not that well, but still I am trying. I don't grow bourbons but suspect they might struggle too because of the lack of summer heat. I do grow Zepherine Drouhin but I am not sure about it yet. I have several odd-ball noisettes but they don't bloom much for me, and I am not sure if it is the age of the plants or the lack of heat.

I also have a problem with roses that have a propensity to ball because of the humidity here. Roses with thicker, fewer petals do better. I've shovel pruned a couple of roses because the blooms would not open well. 'Enchantress' was a particularly lovely bloom, but it continually balled so it's gone. I tend to grow those with fewer petals or a more open bloom form as a preference, anyway.

The old garden roses like the gallicas and portlands do well. Some of the albas I have shovel pruned or am on the edge of doing so because the blooms don't open well. I like Alba semi-plena, Konigen van Danemark and Alba maxima. I would love Felicite Parmentier if the blooms weren't so mushy for me.

I've lived here for four years now, and it's still a learning experience, what will grow well. Coming here from the south, I'm having to relearn a lot. Soil, water, air, humidity, temperatures change the game for us all from place to place.

One thing I've learned is that gardening takes time. I'm planning to garden as long as I physically can, so I am not in a hurry. This keeps it fun for me as I'll never learn everything anyway. Gean

What is gardening like for you? Planting a yard filled with roses and then watching them die one by one can be heartbreaking. What should be a "go to" class for gardeners in your specific areas?

Hey Texas Folks, I believe that Austin's are a good go to for some of you, as well as Teas, but what else thrives, and how area specific are these classes in your state?

Do we have any Montana, Wisconsin, or Minnesota gardeners, or have most abandoned growing roses?

Champney's pink cluster was a wonderful rose that I had to leave behind when I moved this February. Duchesse du Brabant was a winner as well, despite balling on rare occasions. I have a much smaller yard than before so the OGRs are pretty much off limits. I ordered Munstead Wood, Lichfield Angel and Molineaux from DA for January delivery. All three are on their own roots. I have no idea how they'll do, but I read the blog of a Florida gardener who had good success with those three.

The climate here is just wet. There is water in the air, on the ground and sometimes in my living room. The soil is nitrogen and salt polluted from the Hurricane Katrina floods, which some things really seem to love. The pH is extremely high, but with little calcium. I amend my soil with peat and gypsum and not much else.

I have never been able to get a grafted rose to live more than three years here, I suppose since the graft union has to stay above the soil surface. Grafted roses never make any new canes whatever I try, so I won't fool with them any more. The only modern rose (non-DA) that I have ever seen around here that looked good was Julia Child, and it was a show stopper this August. Several of my neighbors grow random hybrid teas and they always have one or two very tall octopus canes with a flower at the top and no leaves. Hope is such a blinding thing.

Evenie

Lynn

This is old tea rose country. And thankfully I love old tea roses. They have performed the best for me over the years. Completely bullet-proof here. My favorite is Duchesse de Brabant. Unfortunately, I can't detect any fragrance from most tea roses, but the Duchesse is a huge exception; she smells terrific. And the bourbon rose Souvenir de la Malmaison has enough tea rose in her to make her another fragrant favorite for me here. She's not quite as easy as a true tea rose, but she doesn't grow to barn-size like the true tea rose do here.

Randy

I have a lot of family residing in Texas, and a cousin who just purchased another home in Plano. I will ask her what type of soil she has, because if it is like yours, it seems as Teas are a real go-to. I would actually plan my trip there around helping her put in a new garden.

I your soil on alkaline, acidic or neutral? Have you tried any Austin's?

Lynn

Randy

And I grow two Pretty Jessica roses that are among my favorites because they are fragrant, beautifully formed, and the plants stay small. But they definitely need to be pampered here, which I gladly do. I have them close to the back patio, so they are easy to reach, enjoy, and take care of. If they had been planted in my southern exposure front yard and ignored, they'd have been dead years ago.

Randy

The ground is mostly loamy clay and on the alkaline side, so rugosas will grow OK but better with a little supplemental sulfur. As with Lori Elf and Kate, we can grow most classes of roses reasonably well, except for the teas, chinas, and noisettes, and I have a few of each in my warm spot. Some modern and early HTs and floribundas won't survive our winters even with pampering, but there's little way to know this without trying.

The rose classes that I recommend as "bullet proof" ones that thrive to new rose growers in our zone include Hybrid musks, polyanthas, modern shrubs (particularly Lim), large flowered climbers, and Austins. I'm sure the gallicas, albas, and centrifolias also do well, but I haven't learned to appreciate the once-bloomers in my yard. We tend to be on the dry side so blackspot isn't as bad as it is out east, but we're not free of it as Diane reports in Idaho. It's not bad enough to slow things down here much.

Cynthia