I bought on impulse pinata climber (it was mislabeled as a miniature at lowes). I have to say- it is wonderful! Blooming pretty much all summer, no disease i had to do anything about. No fragrance though. It has grown to 4 ft tall. I have one problem though- it clashes with my plants and i need to find it a new home! I love how much the bees love it. They are all over the flowers all day!

I planted a front yard rose garden this year. I love most of what I planted. Some standouts are:

Jubilee Celebration - a charmer! Pink and orange mix, smaller bush (which is a good thing here where everything grows huge).

Molineaux -- I love this one. Clear yellow with a bit of an orange tinge. Perfectly clean.

Carding Mill - Everyone is right about this one. It loves heat. It did turn a pinkish orange in 107 degree heat but then so did I! Normally it's a very pretty peach with ruffled petals.

Pretty Jessica - Another small one. The blooms are just perfect!

Harlekin - my front yard climber. Pretty pink and white blooms, very clean leaves. One year old now and 8 ft high.

Enchanted Evening - just love it. It's about 6 ft tall now after 2 years. I need to move it to climb on something because it's too tall to support itself. The blooms look remarkably like Sterling Silver but this bush is healthy! Never a touch of blackspot or mildew. I didn't plant this one in enough sun.

Black Magic -- I bought this one because of it's name - a famous America's Cup boat - but just love it. Deep black red blooms that stay remarkably long. It's next to John Paul II and they're a great combination.

I have a few I regret too, but we won't mention those.

Debbie

I went a little crazy this year - got over 100 new roses, most of them from NorEast. Right now I like Royal Wedding the best - well worth the $. Large flowers for a floribunda and heathy plant. Some of the other ones I liked earlier in the year have defoliated on me like Enchanted Evening and Antique Caramel - I don't spray. Carol, does your Betty White ball on you? It seem to be the most common complaint. I am thinking of trying that one.

Forgot to mention Elegant Fairy Tale - nicely shaped flowers that last, clean and compact bush even in partial shape.

lilyfinch - sounds like your impulse paid off. Glad you're happy with it!!

Debbie - isn't Enchanted Evening wonderful!! People who come into my garden just fall in love with EE. And the color is what everyone seems to want. It's a lavender glow from far away. Black Magic and PJP would be fabulous together!!! Never thought of that. My Vet's Honor would look nice next to my PJP.

Ebster- no balling at all. But YMMV. I adore this rose!!

Carol

Hmmm... I probably added 30 some odd roses this year and the one I am not real happy with (so far) would have to be King's Ransom... not ready to kick it out but may move it to see if a different locale will improve its production.

Some others I added that are on the GOOD list are...

Lobo
Peace
Pink Peace
Tuscan Sun
Remember Me
Cinco de Mayo
Elle
St Patrick
Denver's Dream
Cl Don Juan
Cl Fourth of July
Julia Child
Lagerfeld
Let Freedom Ring
Moonlight Magic
Rainbow Sorbet
Dolly Parton
Watercolors

Michelle

Michelle - I've always wanted to try Pink Peace. Does it get a lot of flowers? Does it have good scent? The color and the form are my cuppa tea!!

Carol

Carol,

This winter hard-prune Rouge Royale to the soil. Rust over-winters on the canes. You should be free of it next summer.
Steve.

I love hearing what other people are growing and loving!

Rosecorgis, I planted a Harlekin climber on one side of my arbor in June and added Mountain Mignonette and Ausmary yesterday.
Awakening went in on the other side of the arbor with Midnight Blue and another Ausmary. Awakening is very prolific, but the basal break shot away from the arbor. Dang!
Harlekin is 3ft tall. I just love the wild color! I won't expect 8 feet of growth in our short growing season, but it's nice to know what it can do!
Baronne Prevost - My pick of the year. What a tough plant! started from a band in June, now 4 ft tall, gorgeous blooms.
Louise Odier - This is my second try with this plant and I think I got a keeper this time.
It'll be nice to hear how this year's purchases fair. Good luck to everyone with their new roses!
Barb

Steve - thanks for the advice - I'll do that!

Barb - I've never heard of some of your roses - Mountain Mignonette is a wonderful name!! Do you have any pictures of it or Harlekin - you have me intrigued by the "wild color."

Carol

Canadian rose, Awakening is the only one blooming right now and I'm not good at posting pictures. If you go to the High Country Roses website you can see a bloom picture. From their home page, go to our roses, then select climbers. Helpmefind also has a decent picture. Both Harlekin and Handel are described as white with pink edges. But that doesn't quite capture it. The bloom is almost like a little clown face! I get most of my roses through High Country. They have a Mountain Mignonette picture, too. They are the closest own root nursery to me that carries roses with good winter tolerance. I place my last order on a Sunday and received my roses on Wednesday, just 2 days in transit.

All of mine are in their 1st year in the ground or 20" containers.

Belinda's Dream--Very nice HT with large solid pink blooms on her. Also a very strong, very sweet scent. The bush itself is moderately upright but stays about 4x3 for me. The bush could be more well mannered to shape up better, but that is most likely me pruning it wrong. Mine tends to get powdery mildew slightly, but almost all my roses do.

Pat Austin--Beautiful, large coppery, pinkish, and especially orange blooms that come out like a fireworks show. Stays at 4x3 for me and while it would probably become an octopus and have some arching canes, it stays very well mannered for me. Practically no disease, and the foilage is gorgeous green glossy leaves. The scent is strong tea scent with a hint of other scents as well. The blooms do fade fast and die off fast, but they are also replaced fast as well.

William Shakespeare 2000--I need to get WS2000 in a better spot as he doesn't get near enough sun and tends to get some mildew. With that said, he still does decently well and provides some gorgeous bright magenta blooms that fade to a darker crimson/burgundy color with a beautiful warm fragrance of old rose, damask, and violets. The bush has been rather small at 2x2 and the growth tends to go out sideways so it's not exactly the most well mannered grower.

White Eden--Beautiful nearly white big blooms. A sport of Eden so it has all the characteristics of the regular Eden. Unfortunately, it is slow to develop and has only provided me 2 blooms so far this year although I am growing it as a climber and it is up to about 4.5ft at the moment. This seems to be the case with Eden as well. It takes a while to establish a root network before it takes off. We shall see how it progresses next year. Not much of a fragrance if any.

Red Eden--Tall, upright HT that I am growing as a climber. It sends out thick, rigid, and upright canes straight up and tends to have clusters of 4-5 blooms at the ends of the canes. The blooms are to die for as big, globular, and nearly true red blooms. I counted 186 petals in one bloom. The fragrance is fairly strong as well. Old rose with a hint of a fresh fragrance as well. A gorgeous bloom with rather sparse foilage though. So far it' up to about 4ft although it's sending out a new basal at the moment.

Winchester Cathedral--purchased as a band from High Country. Has put out respectable new growth, although not a real thick caned grower. The blooms are small so far, but the rose isn't mature yet, so we shall see. The rose has a whole slew of thorns, although they seem to be rather small. The white blooms have a bizarre honey with nuts scent to them. It smells totally different from all the other roses, but is still quite a welcome scent that lasts for the entire life of the bloom. So far, the rose has had a pretty terrible time with powdery mildew, but it might improve as the rose matures.

Golden Celebration--This rose is getting huge for me in a 20" container. It's thrown out numerous canes around 7' that arch out. I'm letting them arch out to promote some new buds off the lateral arching canes. The rose has stayed really healthy for me and the blooms last for a pretty solid period without the yellow color fading a whole bunch. My blooms have been large, but not overly massive...yet, but the fragrance is very sweet and fairly strong, so it's definitely a nice rose and I'm sure it will put on a show once it matures and gets some lateral breaks in it.

New Dawn--This rose hasn't exactly bloomed a whole bunch for me, but that is because of me growing it to get as vertical as possible. It was a little slow to get going as the root network has been developing, but right now it is booming and taking off. I have 3 canes a little over 9' in their 1st year going up an arbor/pergola. I expect big things out of New Dawn next year when I can grow out longer canes and train them to get more flowers. The blooms I have had have been quite a good size for a climber and despite other reports I've heard, they are every bit of at least a mild fresh fragrance. The thorns can definitely rip you a new one if you don't watch out for them though.

Abraham Darby--One of the last roses I planted this year. The growth has still been spindly, but it is still developing in a 20" container and will most definitely improve with time. I've heard a lot of reports of blackspot problems and while I spray now, I've never had blackspot problems in my garden and Abe hasn't had the faintest hint of any mildew or blackspot problems. All of my blooms stay in a strong cupped form and rarely open ALL the way. I like them that way though as the petals look packed. The fragrance is to die for. People have claimed it as juicy fruit and that sounds somewhat accurate. On any claim, the fragrance is most definitely an intoxicating fruity fragrance. The blooms are already pretty large for me, but I'm sure they can get much larger one Abe matures.

Pretty Jessica--I was enabled for Pretty Jessica and I was also interested in saving some of the older Austins. I still have to wait to see more from PJ before I can accurately say a whole bunch about her, but I've been pleased so far. The rose is almost totally thornless and has leafed sepals. No problems with mildew or blackspot so far, so should turn out to be a winner once I see some more blooms here in the next week.

Sharifa Asma--I purchased mostly for the rave reviews on fragrance, and havn't been disappointed. I wouldn't say the fragrance is the strongest of my roses, but it definitely has a beautiful note to the fragrance. The blooms are nice, although not exactly the most elegant. The canes are also thorny with numerous small thorns. Sharifa was purchased as a band as well, so I will have to wait to see more.

Evelyn--I purchased Evelyn as a band and she has exploded with growth in such a short period of time in a 20" container. I already have 3 canes over 4.5ft. The blooms are very beautiful, but I'm excited to see the end result with numerous blooms. The canes are arching much like Golden Celebration, and I will most likely eventually grow Evelyn in the same manner by letting the canes arch out and break new buds laterally to make her more floriferous. I havn't had much of a scent from the first couple of blooms yet, although Evelyn is supposed to have a strong fragrance, so she will probably develop it as she matures as well.

Zepherine Drouhin--I am growing Zephy as a climber, and we shall see how it turns out. Zephy was unfortunately a powdery mildew disaster, which is why I started spraying her. If I spray, the mildew stays under control. I also made the mistake of planting a giant sunflower in it's path that robbed it's sunlight. Even with those issues, Zephy has some canes up to almost 9ft right now in it's first year. The blooms are powerfully fragrant with a sweet old rose fragrance. Blooms repeating has been rather difficult so far, but I am not training Zephy laterally either yet. I expect the blooms will come better next year as Zephy will have another year under her belt and more sun to work with.

Bishop's Castle--Probably my strongest scented rose. The growth has been rather spindly so far, but I expect it to pick up and the blooms tend to be medium sized pink with a little variation in color, but not much. The blooms stayed cupped, but the cup is really shallow and flat. The fragrance smells like straight rasberries.......but SUPER strong. The rose had blackspot when I purchased it, but it's totally gone now.

Graham Thomas--I planted Graham Thomas in a rather poor location that is almost entirely clay. I am growing him as a short climber attached to a 6ft tall wood fence. It really took him a while to get established, but just recently he has been BOOMING. Easily 7ft tall now and throwing out numerous new thick basal canes and an explosion of new growth. The blooms have increased in size dramatically as well. The scent is about as textbook of a tea fragrace as you can get and is quite strong. It occasionally gets a few leaves with blackspot, but they fall off and all is well after that.

jeffcat - That is exactly the kind of info that I love to read!!! Thank you!!

I've started to really enjoy scented roses, and I think I might get Abe Darby, Bishop's Castle and Belinda's Dream. I'll definitely look for them at the greenhouses next year.

Carol

All 3 of those are great choices canadian rose. Can't go wrong. Those 3 might very easily be 3 of my most powerfully fragrant as well. Bishop's Castle tends to have cluster blooms similar to floribundas and the growth has been rather awkward with 5 blooms weighing down long canes that are rather thin, but like I said, I planted Bishop's Castle in a 20" container rather late in the season, so as long as it matures, it should throw out thicker and more respectable canes. Same goes for Abe Darby. I've heard of people getting blackspot problems with him and most roses in my community have totally defoliated roses, while my roses have never had any BS problems before or after I started spraying...just mildew issues with some of them. All 3 have unique fragrances and differing characteristics so it should provide great variation and definitely great fragrances from all 3. Abe Darby is a joy not only to smell, but to bury my nose in the soft packed petals.

Jeff - I love the fact that Abe and BC have such wonderful fragrance. I just love the Austins.

Carol