I just can't name one. Really I can't. It would be like choosing between children...
Lynn, most of mine are still in pots and haven't really reached maturity...I think I have about 200.
I will tell you I would be sadder without:
Felicia, Perle d'Or, Ivor's Rose, Geschwind's Schonste, Madame Alfred Carriere, Barcelona.
Roses fill many different roles in my garden and provide many different uses.
There are some who just bloom their hearts out but the blooms aren't really breathtaking...but they are so generous.
There are others who are exquisite when they bloom well (Barcelona).
Felicia is so fragrantly sweetly musk that I just cram an entire cluster into my face and get high.
Mermaid (the few blooms I got from my band-which now has 8 ft canes-) really seems lit from within...it glows...and when it drops its petals there are the pretty anthers.
Do you have any roses in your garden yet that take your breath away?
Oh and I forgot, Twilight Zone is an exquisite color and fragrance and Stormy Weather gorgeous dusky maroon with golden centers...reminds me of a gallica(neither are antiques though).
This is a great thread, thanks for posing the question.
Susan

Hi Susan,

I have roses that fill spaces in the way that I need in size and/or color etc. Most are pretty roses. Yves Piaget is beautiful, but it doesn't have the habits that exude charm I see in the OGR's and some Austin's. Some of the Old roses have a slight nod, like a handsome man when he says hello, and the scent.... Oh My! I'm waiting and hoping that upon maturity, some of my new roses will fulfill all that I desire in a rose.

I have two Burgundy Iceberg on order that are slotted to be planted in the Munstead Wood area this winter. I have considered getting Twilight Zone instead, but am unsure about the coloring, as I have not seen it in person. Years ago, Burgundy Iceberg was a good performer in a previous garden, but I was underwhelmed by everything else about it. How would you describe the color of T.Z.?

This post was edited by desertgarden561 on Mon, Sep 30, 13 at 21:33

I have a lot of roses I enjoy or hope to enjoy in the future.

But if you asked me what I have the most of, what is most consistently in bloom some where: Iceberg. But that is not so Antique or Austin.

Wow, this is a hard one. First of all, here they have to be super tough, drought resistant and healthy. Off the top of my head I would pick Souv. de la Malmaison, then Abraham Darby. Abe is an ugly, awkward bush for me, but the flowers and fragrance are to die for!

Duchesse de Brabant.

She's a tough one, and very rewarding. Though lately my Souv. De la Malmaison has been a rockstar.

For overall performance, beauty of the bush and flowers and greatest rebloom I'd have to pick Souvenir de la Malmaison, even though it had a bit of a bad patch in our strange spring this year, but even in the heat of summer it kept blooming, without losing its pink coloration.

Ingrid

JoshTx,

I just purchased the White Duchesse de Brabant and will be adding DdB to my yard next spring. I hope they perform well here too. I let one SDLM bloom on the band survive; I just had to see it, and take a sniff. It is a beautiful rose too. I'm glad that both are performing well for you. How well did your roses perform through the summer this year?

Lynn

Here is a photo of Twilight Zone taken this summer. It's not a huge bloomer yet (only a year old), but holds its color well in the heat. I love Munstead Wood, too. Diane

Well, as has been pointed out, choosing just one is a difficult (even impossible) task....but, in the spirit of the original query - a rose I simply could not live without is a surprising, unkempt, badly behaved but gloriously magnificent species rose which will, I believe, follow me throughout my life as a symbol of all that is ineffable, transcendent and life-giving in gardens - none other than the truly fabulous deep glowing crimson of R.moyesii. You can keep the brighter Geranium, the pink holodonta and even the wonderful heps of Sealing Wax - for me, the true species, along with the fabulous white Nevada (I like to grow them together as a real eyeblink moment) are my absolute keynote roses, taking centre stage in any garden, teasing us with the lateness of leaf and flower but finally, what a payoff - a true hussy of a rose, shamelessly flaunting pendulous heps in misty autumnal fen mornings and deeply glowing in the low winter sun (especially now that the holly and double white spinossissimas around its base is redolent of christmas, cheerful robins and the potential of a new season). And now that Scharlachglut, coming into mature glory, stands guard at the other end of my allotment, I have 2 magnificent punctuation points, illuminating the entire plot. A wrench to leave behind (although I have promised myself at least one more season on the allotment and if eldest son can be persuaded to take over, we can keep our plot) but the promise of starting over with such proven stalwarts leavens the pain.

Yes, I know - getting carried away again........

I am a pink person. And I love pink roses. Fragrant. The more petals, the better. So I have always been confused about why it is that every time, any time my Graham Thomas roses present me with blooms I have to stop and place my hand over my heart. They give me a feeling similar to when I walk in the bedroom in the middle of the day and discover a cat stretched out on her back in the middle of a sunbeam. It's a little niggle in my heart. And it's a niggle unique to this delicate yellow rose.

Lynn, that photo Diane posted of T.Z. says it all. Up close it looks like velvet! The fragrance is spicy clove and it is just amazing. Diane is definitely my purple enabler!!!
I think Burgundy Iceberg will look great in the Munstead Wood bed. Some roses just "work" even if they aren't really "special". I have often thought of getting Burgundy Iceberg.
I have Golden Celebration on order with Munstead Wood and I have lots of pale apricots and Etoile de Lyon I intend to put with them. If it looks lousy I will just shift around.
Since like you I am unsure on color, I'm wondering if Nur Mahal might look good in the MW bed...It will be easier once we see them bloom in situ.
G. Nabonnand is a gorgeous silky vigorous rose here. Mine is looking about like this at this time of year.
Parade is a "modern" LCL that is constantly in bloom, vigorous and old fashioned flowering. It is touted as fragrant but not there for me...
http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.178429
I'm enjoying all the responses.
Camps, you are the species lady. I just envision how gorgeous those roses must look...you are fortunate and I hope your son will carry the species torch for you!
Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: g nabbonand at HMF

I love many roses, but if I could only have one, it would be "Grandmother's Hat" (aka, "Barbara Worl," 'Cornet,' 'Mrs. R.G. Sharman-Crawford').

Jeri

Jerijen, it is photos like that which made me keep the Grandmother's Hat I purchased as a gift for my sister in law! I am hoping to revive the EVS in the pot, and if it becomes healthy, I will give it to her, or purchase some other nice rose, maybe even another G.H.

If she visits my garden and takes to G.H., I will surely tell a story about this lady named Jeri on GWF.

Dianne, T.Z. Is reading purple... Like Minnesota Vikings purple. Online, the images I have seen show it being closer in color to Munstead Wood... So a dark red with the difference being a tinge of purple. Thanks for sending the image. Back to Burgundy Iceberg.

Sorry to get off track.

Lynn

Sorry, I just cannot do it. I could maybe get down to an essential dozen if I worked very, very hard and thought a really long time. Crepucule would be on the list. And my old faithful wafting rose Marie Pavie. There would be more, Oklahoma perhaps, our old favorite Cl Shot Silk, Bardou Job, Cl Crimson Glory, Munstead Wood, some of the newly planted teas that are just starting to show their stuff. Leander trained as a climber is glorious. Notice the preponderance of climbers?

No, never just one.

And if I ever moved to a different location, the process would have to start all over again, because to me the roses must be happy in their place to be beautiful enough to be loved.

Rosefolly

So far (we are in a new home), I would have to say Madame Antoine Mari. This rose is amazing. I have two and one was brought with us from our old place in the country. She is always in bud and flower. She is very healthy and grows and blooms like she is on steroids. Another is Perle d'or although is slow to start. I just planted Mrs. BR Cant and Mrs. Dudley Cross and I have high hopes for these as well. All of these are Earthkind and they do well in Texas heat.

Really, just one?
Mlle. Cecille Brunner' wins all:
-for sentimental reasons, my mother and grandmother both grew it so it has been in our family for more than 70 years.
-for perfect beauty. I gave a child in our courtyard a blossom of it yesterday and her daddy came over to thank me, his eyes sort of glazed over when I gave him two more blooms, he said "It is a perfect rose, everything a rose should be...' and his voice sort of choked up when he said it. There seems to be a realm that a rose lover ascends to, at some point, where our senses leave this world and ascend into grace, where all we can say is "ahhh" .
Isn't it nice when someone appreciates your favorite rose?

following M.C.B. would be
'Westside Road Cream Tea' and R. californica,
The abundant pollen in R. californica is a real turn on for me.
another rose I can't walk by without touching it and smelling it is R. moschata.
Lux

For me it would have to be the rich golden buttery yellow rose, Graham Thomas. I love the softly curved petals and the scent that makes me want to close my eyes and dream rose filed daydreams on a sunny day sniffing myself into a meditative rose happiness! :)

Charles de mills

Charles de mills

This being the antique forum, I would say Souvenir de la Malmaison. So exquisite, and though flawed (mildew!) it stays small enough to tuck in just about anywhere.

Well, it's pretty much that the rose I would not be without on any given day is whatever rose in my garden happens to be blooming . . .