I've come up with a few, but each time I do I have to pass because of the thorn issue. Disease resistant plus no/low thorns is rather a a difficult order regardless of bush size or color. The south with it's heat and humidity has a special problem with Blackspot on roses. The only one I can think of right now is Queen of Sweden-an Austin. Few thorns and good reputation on disease resistance. Hope someone else can help you. I'm certainly interested in the answer.

Queen of Sweden would be a wonderful choice, if you like delicate pale pink blooms with a hint of apricot. Check out Austin's Mayflower also--pink, very disease-resistant--but I can't remember about the thorns--not real bad, at any rate. Another pink Austin that has few prickles is Mortimer Sackler, but it may be taller than you want, although you could prune it back after each flowering cycle. It is disease-resistant also.

Those are all rose shrubs, however. If what you have in mind is a hybrid tea rose (like the long-stemmed roses you send on Mother's Day), that would be a different matter and I can't think of any that have few prickles. Maybe something will come to me later.

Kate

Thanks for the help, has anyone grown a swamp rose? I had one years ago and it has very graceful lines and I think it was thornless or close anyway.

I have a James Galway [Austin] that is tall and gorgeous, just getting ready to burst into bloom. It is really healthy. Winter Sunset, a Buck, is just covered with gorgeous apricot blooms now, but it might not be as tall as you like. Carefree Beauty and Lafter are tall. Belinda's Dream makes a big shrub and blooms all the time for me.

I grow swamp rose. it is very healthy and graceful. One of my very favorite roses. My is a once blooming, but there is a good nursery, not sure which one (ARE?) which sells repeating swamp rose. My friend has it.

Olga

My guess is that tommyjmcintosh's original Swamp Rose came from ARE. While mine has many good qualities, first being it does grow in the swamp, I wouldn't call it thornless by any stretch of the imagination. The ARE one is very different in a lot of ways. It's probably really a hybrid with some sort of garden rose.

Thanks for all the good ideas, yes my swamp rose did come from ARE back then there were only a few rose catalogs, now the internet offers so many rose sites that it makes it hard for us old folks to decide. Thanks again.