22,152 Garden Web Discussions | Roses

I'm with Seil in the sense that I'll make a more convincing case for my nominees with pictures, though I admit I don't have photos of some that are true contenders. Like Kate, I left the Austins for the OGR list, and there are plenty of moderns to compete for the spots:

Apricot: AARGGGH - this was my (second) toughest category...Abbaye de Cluny? Polka? Bonita Renaissance? My beloved Versigny? Since I've posted one of Versigny recently, and the others are more Austin-like, I'm going with Celeb that I rarely see mentioned here on GW.

Bicolor: OK, for a lover of weird roses this is the only category that could be harder than Apricots. Heart 'n' Soul - already won my "best of Shrub" award. Edgar Degas - heartbreakingly lovely en masse and not too shabby individually. Red Intuition definitely but I don't have a photo. I'll have to go with the kind of rose that anti-modern rosarians hate, that's garish contrast, stiffly formed petals, and virtually indestructible lasting blooms. This could be either Love & Peace or Dream Come True, but my photo was better of Dream Come True.

Mauve: Poseidon would be my vote simply for the health and vigor of the plant, with very nice blooms too, but I don't have a photo. Elizabeth of Goshen and St. Elizabeth of Hungary were in the running but their pictures were blurry. I'm going to go with Pillow Talk below, which is much more purplish than this photo shows, though Nimbus will always have a special haunting place in my heart (but is it really mauve?)

Orange: OK, I thought about sneaking in Oranges and Lemons or Andre Willemse since they're orange stripes, but in the spirit of the thing I stuck with the solids. It came down to Buffy Sainte Marie, Liverpool Remembers, or my final selection that's something indefinably lovely more than orange, Gilbert Becaud:

Pink, warm/light: Aloha and Savoy Hotel are definite contenders for me here, but Spiced Coffee allows me to squeeze in a color blend without exactly cheating on the bicolor category:

Dark/cool pink: Wayyy too many contenders here, as half of the roses seem to be some variety of pink. So once again I'll cheat and put in a lovely eye-catching pink that has an intriguing contrasting flip side (not exactly a bicolor in my strictest interpretation of that term), Shades of Autumn

Red: As much as I love the modern reds and particularly the deep dark burgundy reds, there were only two serious contenders here for me. One is the elusive Messire Delbard, who arrived in mail order with the most heart-stopping intriguing quartered blooms in a deep romantic dark red. Being a climber, he's of course a diva, and so far this summer he's sat in his corner and sulked like the four-year-old he is, refusing to bloom. I'm swayed by a pretty face, so he stays in hopes of future glory. The winner anyway probably would have been Nigrette. I first saw it in a rose garden in Goteborg Sweden when I was on business there in late May. Not the best time for a rose garden visit - almost the only thing in bloom was Nigrette, but my jaw dropped and I resolved I simply had to have this rose. It really is this deeply sensuous dark burgundy red purple black as in this photo, which makes up for it being a scrawny, gluttonous, blackspotted knee-high mess of a diva as it is (thankfully, it's hardy or I might have to bash my head against something hard to stop planting it every year)

White: I have quite a few whites but none that excel over the others. Cream Flower Circus would probably be my pick, but it's too pink to be exactly white. I have PJPII and Bolero, but I couldn't catch them being good, so I'll put in a photo of Lorise that has hints of pink on the petals that are NOT officially bicolored (ahem), so I'm not cheating

Yellow: Sutter's Gold was jumping up and down to get my attention and I almost succumbed, but it's sort of a bicolor, and you know I wouldn't dare to put a bicolor in this competition outside of its category (snort). I'll go with Michaelangelo, who lives up to a rather ambitious name quite well.

Russet: See, I'm not even cheating with bicolors in my bonus category - here's a solid color russet that has earned its favorite spot not just for deeply saturated russet double blooms, but for sheer tenacity in the face of my zone 4 pocket and several clematis that have threatened to strangle it, and nearly succeeded some years. This is Terra Cotta.

Of course it's impossible to pick the most beautiful roses, and my undying loyalty is absolutely swayed by the fantastic choices here, well, all but Nigrette. I guess I have a weakness for scrawny mutts with big dark pleading eyes.

Cynthia

I'm just going to say my most beautiful are, and in no color order:

Cherry Parfait (love the pic above, mine are exact!)
Rose Rhapsody (bought it on whim and can't get enough, a deep dark pink)
Love Song (really pretty lavendar)
Cajun Sunrise (a bicolor cream and pink)
Elle (um, I was told apricot, pics look pink on websties, in RL? I'd go with pink, but maybe I got the wrong rose??)
Colorific (an orange that the heat turns into a nice light red)
Ketchup and Mustard (the name annoys, but the flowers are very eye popping)
Fire n Ice (added it because it was a friends and has as special place in my heart!)
An unknown red (bought at a box store and has been a bloom machine!)
Love and Peace
Dream Come True (both equally gorgeous!)
Some honorable mentions:
Strawberry Ice ( a light pink)
Falling in Love

One day I'll stop being lazy and actually take pictures of my plants! Sadly, at the moment, I've just not had the time to devote enough care for them to produce any kind of decent photo. :(

Here are some pics I took earlier this year! (I'm not the best photographer LOL)

Fire and Ice

Ketchup and Mustard (not the best pic, but it's all I have!)

There are lots of things you can plant in your lovely new yard! If you want roses though you'll have to plant them out from under that tree to get any kind of decent bloom on them. You could put in a nice rose bed out from under the trees in the sunshine as the entry into the more shady "secret" area.

Thank you for all of the replies! I have a newfound enthusiasm for my shady area. Now I have to decide if I should plant all one type of rose as a kind of hedge bordering my secret garden or mix it up. I'll definitely post pics as this project gets going. Thanks again!!

Over the Moon (discussed here on another thread) is not ultra fragrant to my nice but it is gorgeous and a bloom machine. Check out Lady of the Mist. She is gorgeous too and fragrant (to me).
Ultra fragrant just seems to be rare (to my nose).
Jude is ultra fragrant for me but I didn't find Julia to be so.
And Diane your roses are just so gorgeous.
Susan

Elle has a very strong sweet, sweet smell. Smells like candy.

Looks beautiful!

@ jim1961: Yep! That's the rose.

@ racin_rose & susan4952: Thank you! Was unsure how the light pink blooms would look after a couple of days because my other lighter colored plants tend to look kinda gross (dirty, faded and blah). But! Not so much here. This rose is extremely fragrant like WOAH!

Will see though how Gay Princess looks next year this time because its only in its infancy. :-) A lot can happen in 12 months.. (will definitely be keeping my fingers crossed!)

You're fine. Get the rose. It's a good one here in Coastal SoCal. Much better than Just Joey.

kstrong, thats what I needed to hear :-)
Thank you

They weren't actually cut back by the goats, just had all the leaves and the tender tips nibbled off. They didn't break any stems or jerk it out of the ground at all, just ate the leaves. I'll try to get a pic of it this evening but there's not much to see - it's just black. The entire bush is black, like it had been burned somehow. But the canes aren't shriveled in any way....and it happened so fast! I was out there Saturday evening and snipped off the black tips - Monday night the whole plant was black. And this was a one-gallon bush, not a band.

Browsing by goats wouldn't cause that effect. This is puzzling. It sounds like the rose might have been poisoned by something being dumped on it. There is a bacterial blight of rose similar to fireblight that causes black tips and dieback, but I doubt it would kill the whole plant in three days.

I hope they are gone soon---they are eating my roses too! I am going to order some nematodes to see if that will work.

Kate--notice the females keep on eating--a romantic dinner with roses on the table.

Kitty--yes, netting would work, but a rose garden is supposed to be an ornamental garden. To me it makes more sense just to remove all the flower buds during the bad part of JB season.

Thank you, I'll try those suggestions for this winter. Don't need to worry much about them not being covered in snow, once it starts here... It doesn't stop until march! I'll look for the far north forum too, thank you. I think if they remaining 3 don't come back next year I'll replace with something else besides roses. Something that will survive up here :)

Do try planting the hardiest roses. Some of the Explorers are rated for zone 3.

Yeah, Frank was a great guy and bred really beautiful roses. He is missed a lot.

a few come to mind. #1. Bought a Tropicana at Kmart for 50 cents in the early 70s, had beautiful fragrant blooms for 30 years before I lost it. #2. bought La Marne at Home Depot about 10 years ago in a two gallon pot for $1. It's always the first to bloom and blooms all summer, never has a problem with disease. Talk about the best $1 that I ever spent! #3. About 7 years ago someone pulled up a white rose by the roots to bring to a plant swap and didn't wrap it in wet newspaper or anything. Didn't know the name, it only had two little canes. I took it at the end of the swap because she was going to throw it away. Drove around all day with that poor rose in the back of a pickup in the hot sun. Put it in water that night and the next day it had perked up. So I planted it. It has been a consistent bloomer, but this year WOW! It has been covered with fragrant blooms all summer! I suspect it might be Iceberg, but haven't seen one that I can compare it to.

Would aphids do this? Shortly after I posted my message I took another look and I saw two aphids, but had not seen any before. Meanwhile I'm going to use soapy water. Sorry, I don't know how to post a picture. But I will get some help re: this. Thanks.

Stems would have to be totally encrusted with aphids for a week to cause any noticeable damage to the subsequent flower.

Freezing can cause a pebbly texture to petals, but that's impossible in midsummer.

I would dismantle the buds and look with a magnifier for small critters. This doesn't sound like damage from flower thrips, but maybe so.

I love frogs. Can't seem to create an environment they enjoy.
Too cute.
Susan

I love frogs, but it's too dry around here for them--but then it's too dry for slugs, too. They all dried up and blew away. I guess they can't take having only 4.46 inches of precipitation over the past eight months. Diane