The major exhibitors concentrate on a few top exhibition
roses and are always adding the newest roses that are winners. To make room for these, they get rid of those that have fallen from favor with the judges.
Most all the garden rose growers I know just keep adding but have a large varied selection.
I have 400 bushes of close to 350 different varieties of all rose classes and types.

Oops, forgot to answer the question. 17 varieties, with Chrysler Imperial and Touch of Class leading the pack by a country mile in every aspect of performance. Honor and Mr Lincoln distant 3rd and 4th. Hot desert conditions.

I have 350+ bushes, each different and, like Karl, of all classes. Yes, some classes do better than others and some varieties do better than others. What does well depends upon one's region, one's soil and micro-climate, sometimes on the vendor, the rootstock/own root condition--and of course, your care.

I open my garden for public viewing/education, so I try to keep some of everything. But I have my top performers--and then there are those who are not good performers but I love them anyway.

Well, according to HMF, I have 1682 listed roses. That doesn't count the few duplicates and a pretty good sized batch of unknowns and mis-ID'd ones. I have mostly moderns, a good amount of DA's and various other European-bred shrub roses, a couple hundred minis/minifloras, a couple dozen climbers and a handful of OGRs. I don't spray for disease or bugs, altho I need to spray for thrips. They're here all yr long. I used to spray weekly deer repellent, but they just haven't been here all that much this yr to have to do so. Thank heavens!!

This yr has been one of my worst for taking care of the roses, or anything else in the yard. Working two jobs and having lots of home/family issues this yr, I haven't had time to hardly breathe, let alone take care of the yard. If things continue on like this, I may not be able to deal with this many roses. I may end up having to downsize. That's a bummer.

When my Ashdown order gets here, I will have crossed the 800 variety mark. I am a collector, and a large part of my collection are roses that are unusual, rare, or hard to come by. Last year, my garden collection turned into a collection of mother plants, as I started propagating in anticipation of opening the nursery ... which I did this summer. It's really cool to have people wander the garden every weekend, discovering roses they'd never seen before. Every rose sold from here is another variety that is being distributed ... making it less likely to disappear. That's my goal. (I'm certainly not in it for the money, because there's not any.)

I'm a history freak, and it's easy to combine my love of history with a garden full of historic roses. The dates of my varieties begin in the middle ages with R. gallica officinalis (Apothecary Rose), and end with some exhibition HTs released in the last year or so. I have a huge affection for ramblers.

I only have a few duplicates, and they're ones that I will never be without: Shailer's Provence was one of the first roses I ever rustled, Banshee was a gift and I love it, Isabella Skinner ... this one was an accident.

My rose list on HMF is a bit out of date. So is the one on my web site, I just discovered. I'll have to fix that.

Connie

I have about 85 bushes, with only a few duplications, and this covers many types of roses from floribundas, miniatures and hybrid teas (two) to chinas, teas, noisettes, Austins and bourbons. Many of the modern roses bore me (sorry everyone) but more and more are appearing that have something of a shrub or old rose look and I'm the happy owner of Wild Blue Yonder, Angel Face, Lavender Simplicity, Burgundy Iceberg, Julia Child, Yves Piaget and Classic Woman.

Ingrid

Wow! I'm just starting my rose gardens (one at my home and one at my mother's because she has more sun and land) and I've only got 12 varieties. There were some existing roses on the properties (3 at one place, 4 at the other) and I've gotten 5 new roses this year, mostly climbers (joseph's coat, lace cascade, and don juan) and an iceberg and molineux. I'm planning a big bare-root order for 2010 though, so I can have some time to plan and amend the soil before I plant. I can't wait until I have a beautiful rose garden too!

At one time I was up near 300 but I've been cutting back substantially this past year and now have a few over 100. Too much water and work to keep up with all my other obligations. I like a variety of roses so have about equal amounts of HTs, minis, floribundas and shrubs, including OGRs. I look around and see the 'phase' I was in at certain times. There's the mauve/ivory bed, the OGR bed, the red bed, the rainbow bed. The orange bed got invaded by tree roots and the survivors got incorporated into the rainbow bed... the nice name for what was originally referred to as the 'leftover' bed. My favorites are the red/yellow blends... Judy Garland, Autumn Splendor and Rio Samba. All beds are mixed for color and height, mostly to hide those ugly block walls that surround nearly every yard in Phoenix.

If you're looking for great red HTs for this area, Black Magic and Ingrid Bergman do very, very well. Veteran's Honor tends to pink.

I think I am at about 38 roses with only two varieties duplicated. I am a new grower and still figuring out what works well here, which ones I am willing to spend extra time with, and how much I can realistically keep up with while working/going to school and taking care of my family.

This is my 1st year with roses. I have 17 varieties.

1 mini
11 Austins
1 Hybrid Tea
2 Romanticas
2 Climbers

I grow about 160 roses for a total of about 50 different varieties. I like to experiment, if a specie has a reasonable chance of doing well in my climate.
If one dies, I replace it with one that performed well.

Wow, I have rose envy!
I only have Morden Blush, Dream Rose Red (not well known but BEAUTIFUL and smells amazing!), Golden cascade (Mightnot survive the winter), White Cupido (2) and an unnamed mini yellow. I have an adalade Hoodless and an unnamed white single bloomer in another garden that I tend but If I get permission then next year the new rose garden goes in (I CANNOT WAIT!) and then I will expand with all the zone 3 hardy roses I can get my mitts on.

uh-oh. No wonder I'm having trouble squeezing in the latest round of roses. HMF says I have 190 varieties, and I haven't entered them all yet. And I just ordered from Euro-Desert today...

Mostly gallicas, rugosas, damasks, hybrid musks. A few species. A bunch of minis. A few floribundas. I don't know that I have any now classified as HTs. My roses have to be tough or they hit the road. And there are a LOT of tough roses out there!

I have around 30 roses.......teas,floribundas,grandifloras,and minis.MY favs are Bell'roma,Gemini,Perfect Moment,Double Delight,Veteran,s Honor,Beloved.

About 450 here for varieties. Possibly 500. I have not added up the 215 minis I bought when Nor East closed. I want to give them a year.(plus I do not usually count minis as a rule because they do not take up that much space. But out of the 215 from Nor East, I have doubles of almost all of them now (well the ones that are not under patent)so, a lot of Ralph Moore minis for once ...running out of room on a slightly larger than average plot in St Pete Fl. I also grow Hollyhocks, Iris, a couple Lilac and many other bulbs but, I really need some great companion plants to cover some of the leggy plants.

HMF says 973. There's are many more. Many don't have names. I've shovel pruned or given away hundreds.

"All things are transitory"

Right now I am well over 100 different varieties. Still need to add one more bed before fall really gets here.

Mostly, Teas, China's and Noisettes for me with a few odd ball things thrown in.

Trish

Right now I have 13, the one in the front yard does not count. I normally just stick with 8 but its been a rough year so I put in a new rose bed with 4 HT that I planted pretty late. I'm hoping they all make it especially Granada.

I don't know how those of you with hundreds of roses do it. I'd collapse from exhaustion!

I have over 60 roses and almost cannot keep up with them. Of course, part of the problem might be that I also have lots of perennials, bulbs, bushes, etc.

For roses, I have the following categories:

*About a half dozen hybrid musks, hybrid perpetuals, rugosa.

*Over a dozen David Austins

*Maybe 15-20 hybrid teas/grandifloras/floribundas

*Five climbers

*About a dozen minis

*Over a half dozen others that I'm not sure how to classify--I guess "modern shrubs" (like Morning Has Broken or Braveheart or Knock Outs or Lambert Closse, etc).

It is fortunate for me that my property isn't larger cuz I'm not sure I could resist buying more roses even if I didn't have time to take care of all of them. LOL

Kate

I'll echo dublinbay here; Wow! some of you have a staggering amount of roses.
I'll surely grow more when I'm retired if I have the space, but right now my roughly 40 bushes is just about the right amount for me to keep up with. There are always dozens that I'm eager to try out, but I try to restrain myself and only get a small handful each year. As it is, I end up giving away some perfectly healthy and decently performing roses for the sake of satisfying my curiosity with some new (or new to me) varieties.
I'm about evening split between hybrid teas/grandifloras and minis/minifloras. I have one token China hybrid (Archduke Charles) and usually have 1 or 2 shrub or floribunda roses I'm giving a shot, but I keep going back for that hybrid tea form. I've got the floribunda Day Breaker on order for spring. Maybe that will be a keeper.

I don't exhibit. The top qualities I look for in roses are florist-rose-type form, decent health, cut flower longevity, heat and rain tolerance, good repeat, and finally fragrance. About 2/3 of my roses are at least moderately fragrant; most of the HTs and some of the minis.

I grow about 210 varieties and have many duplicates of my favorites. I have about 500 roses and 200 multiflora seedlings to use for grafting, producing my own hard to get Old garden roses. And I have 60 seedlings picked from my hybridazations, that I watch for disease resistance, growth habits, repeat bloom and hardiness. It takes about 5 years to evaluate the true performance of a promising seedling.

I think I am moving towards fewer varities and choose roses that are either good garden plants, have better disease resistance and require little or no spraying, have good repeat bloom and are good producers of roses for cutting - fragrant and with good vase life. Where I earlier was willing to nurse divas, that was stingy and only once in a blue moon moon produced a gorgeous flower (unless they have a to-die-for-fragrance) - while other varities produce hundreds of flowers during each flush and others are never without a bloom, these are the keepers.