Falling in Love! I love the rose, but ARMED and DANGEROUS!

Valentines Day climbing miniflora--had to get rid of it. It was on my deck and OUCH! That did not work.

All the rugosas, I adore some of them like Souvenir de Philemon Cochet & Moje Hammarberg. The flowers & scent are lovely but they are wicked, thorny beasts. The least thorny one I've encountered is Therese Bugnet, another lovely rose. Julia Child is also very thorny.

Y'all know I love my blossomtime but that one is just so thorny ! And munstead wood. I noticed grass clippings were stuck in the thorns the other day. Yikes . I don't mind thorns but some roses just get ya more than others . For some reason , new dawn always was catching me and I'm not sure I would ever grow it again

You're right about New Dawn. I forgot about that one. Thorny and a monster at the same time! But I do love that rose.

Munstead Wood! Yes, New Dawn, Blossomtime and others of its progeny have large thorns, but at least they're well-spaced. MW is more like my Basye's Purple which is THORNY! Florentina is also a contender.

I have a Peppermint Pop that’s super thorny. I’m actually kind of scared of it hahah. I mostly let it be by itself (partially because it’s in an area I always forget about and partially because it always cuts me!) also even though Lavender Crush is not particularly thorny (and I love it to pieces - Reference the LC at Walmart thread and my numerous endorsements of this rose) it has remarkably SHARP thorns, even if there are few and far between. Actually have a scar across my index finger from my LC! Also I feel like my sweet drift tree has lots of tiny little needles, but maybe it feels like a lot because it’s so dense?

Some roses have super thorny canes that look horrifying but don’t do damage or draw blood. Princess Anne comes to mind - the canes are completely covered with good-sized prickles but pruning, dead-heading, cleaning up debris underneath are (relatively) painless tasks.

Others have those small sharp thorns that snag and hurt you. You treat these with respect when working on and around them. An in-drawn breath when the rose gets you or a verbal “ouch” may be a frequent occurrence but nothing to be overly upset over. Strawberry Hill and The Wedgwood Rose and to a lesser extent Royal Jubilee fall in this bucket for me.

Then there the really nasty, blood-thirsty ones - those with thorns that grab, jab, rip, and/or impale. Some get evicted from the garden because you have had enough of their vindictiveness and viciousness; while some get to stay because - well, we are crazy rose people. These are the roses that you eye warily and work with extreme caution around because one slip means loss of blood and pain. Princess Alexandra of Kent - I am thinking of you.

Jo (who is trying to gather courage to prune and clean up around the two 10’x5’ PAoKs in her garden)

Le Vesuve, Hot Cocoa, Fourth of July, Manchester Guardian Angel

PAoK!@#--gone from my garden

New Dawn!@#$--gone from my garden

Tamora!@#$%--still here, but the rose version of a shark

Julia Child!@#$%^--she doesn't look that thorny but has ripped and stabbed me more than any.

Colette!@#$%^&--what is it about those pretty climbers (traitors)?

Ascot!@#$%^&*--giant and intimidating thorns; he's just scary.

And the winner is.......Munstead Wood!@#$%^&*+--is there a square millimeter that isn't thorny on this rose?

And the crazy thing is that I have multiples of several of these roses--Love them; love their thorns. Diane

Florentina has been renamed “You thorny red b*tch” in my yard.

Sombreuil has been renamed “You mean and nasty thorny bastard.”

I was recently gifted Gertrude Jekyll. I’m sure it will have a thorny nickname by next pruning season.

Tamora, even though I have told it many times how much I like it, always requires my donation of blood when I work closely to it.

Another one I thought of is Affirm. It's just covered in nasty thorns, almost as bad as Falling in Love.

If you'd like 10 foot of this, 'The Lark Ascending' should come with a health warning...

For cold zones, you'd be hard pressed to find a rose that's thornier or more vicious than Quadra. Never loses substantial amounts of cane, and never forgets (or forgives) anything, so be cautious when passing by if you have ever mistreated it in the past. Should come with a sign "do not feed the animal". Needs to be ruthlessly caged but it's impossible to get close to it, so you take your life in your hands if you don't train it when it's young. Don't ever assume it's tame even if you do train it young. Ask me how I know...

Cynthia

My thoughts can be summed up like this https://youtu.be/ZcqWyyHlCDA

Joseph's coat and Vavoom are both vicious. Also New Dawn but I don't even bother messing with her

Wow!! I love this thread. There are some really funny posts!!

Carol

Harlow Carr....without a doubt. I refuse to go anywhere near it except for scattering organic fertilizers around it. This rose is on its own!! I would saturate it with vinegar before even thinking about digging it up...and then...??

H.C. is right next to Munstead Wood, which I begrudgingly deal with... Harlow Carr should come with a warning...

Laguna..she is wicked I have been stabbed by her too many times. I will be moving her far far from the house.

Munstead Wood ..even the rose stems have a zillion thorns.

Mermaid (infamous for her thorns) lots of scary and funny posts about her

Cherokee Rose..super evil

Yikes I ordered munstead wood a few weeks ago - now I’m nervous lol

Beautiful blooms even if it is thorny!

He is definitely worth growing. He has that wafting fragrance. I recently ordered a 2nd one during the Burpee sale.

All I can say about Munstead Wood's thorns is, at least they are straight and not hooked. You can kinda see them coming lol.

good to know SJN and Sara Ann, I'll have to find a good spot for him :)

I love Munstead Wood, thorns and all, and got a second one last spring. I think my two MWs are girls--I do have lots of boy roses, too. I realized some time ago that I just naturally called certain roses "he" and others are "she". Of course, The Prince, Young Lycidas, and others are boys because they have boy names. Conversely, Evelyn is a girl, as is Augusta Luise. Am I nuts or what? Diane

I have never ever seen such vicious thorns in my whole life. Omg, they look bad $&##.

Always had florist roses all my life, seen roses in Lowe's and HD . Never seen anything like that ever.

All I can say is WOW ! Look at those thorns :(

Jin

As mentioned on another thread, Dark Desire is the most vicious for me. I do grow Munstead Wood and compared to Dark Desire, MW is quite tame despite its appearance. Because of the canes rigidity, Dark Desire thorns can sometimes pierce through gloves.

What timing! I just took this photo of my tree Pink Flamingo because the thorns were so wickedly obvious after pruning (sorry, my phone has a horrible camera) --and I also second Hot Cocoa, yards of Yeowwwch!

Carla in Sac

Munstead Wood and Gertrude Jekyll, oh yes.

Munstead has particularly sharp thorns:

Also Fakir's Delight impressed me in San Jose, but the thorns are not particularly sharp:

Falling in Love has incredibly big, sharp and numerous thorns, like scimitars, in contrast to the softly beautiful flowers. I can't find my photo.

Radio Times is well armed with very sharp thorns. I'm thinking of getting rid of it since its flowers aren't any better than Bishop's Castle, they are of similar color, on a much less vigorous plant, and much less floriferous. Fragrance is different, but not any stronger or better than Bishop's Castle. BC does have some canes that are at least as heavily armed with thorns, maybe more, other canes are nearly thornless. Radio Times below:

Bishop's Castle just for comparison, some canes smooth, others wicked:

Memorial Day also has impressively sized thorns, but I suppose the number of them isn't particularly large. The size makes for significant coverage of the stems, and you wouldn't want to grab any part of it.

Basye's Purple is very bristly, just like a rugosa.

Wow! Impressive thorns!!! Yikes!

Carol

lol Diane! Is Munstead Wood named after a garden? Then yes, it probably would be female.

Is Koko Loko a boy or a girl? How about Distant Drums? Just curious lol. Now you have me thinking about him vs her.

My Dublin Bay is fairly thorny, my DH who is visually impaired has encountered it enough times he knows not to go anywhere near it, he calls it "old thorny!" However, its thorns don't seem that bad compared to some!

My Mom walked out in the yard last year "oh that's pretty" *grabs. Before I could get the no out... she was yelling. lol I sang her some Poison, and asked her if she thought they were lying. The only reason I thought of it, was because I remember her liking that song.

Kristine, wasn't Munstead Wood Gertrude Jekyl's garden? I need to google it to confirm this. Also the lavender, Munstead, is named after this garden, obviously. Diane

Nana doll, that’s what I’ve heard about Munstead Wood :) I believe you are correct

Kali, it sure makes sense. Gertrude Jekyl was a thorny, opinionated women with a thorny rose named after her, and another thorny rose named after her garden. Diane

LOL, Diane!

I'm not sure, Karen. I'll have to research that (research is piling up around here). I know she had very strict ideas about a proper border, its colors, and plants to use in it. Lots of her ideas were really great, I think. I'm not an expert on Miss Jekyl, though. Diane

Thanks Diane. I was curious about Miss Jekyll after reading your post. I have seen and enjoyed pics and videos of English gardens; they are so gorgeous and show such thoughtfulness in the designs and plant combinations. If that is any indication, I guess her strong influences over the development and evolution of the English gardens is very positive.

whoopsies, perhaps I should have checked back with this thread before ordering Hot Cocoa

Oh man Sara-Ann, how about Marilyn Monroe??? Lethal!!!

Munstead Wood is second to MM:

Ahhhhh, Bella di Todi, almost completely thornless.

Oh my, towandaaz, I’ve always read that Marilyn Monroe is thorny, and is it ever!

Rabbits ate my Munstead Wood last fall when it was dry. This fall I have tons of green tomatoes plus decent rain so rabbits leave Munstead Wood alone.

Munstead Wood thorns are small compared to HUGE thorns of older Austins like Radio Times, Christopher Marlowe, Evelyn, Queen Nerfertiti, Lilian Austin, L.D. Braithwaite, Tamora which rabbits & squirrels don't come near. Scepter'd Isle has long thorns that repel rabbits, see below:

Eyes for you is very prickly plus drought-tolerant, see below:

Strike it rich has sharp needle like thorn, I put it right next to my window, along with Munstead wood and thorny Orchid Romance to prevent break-in. See below Strike it rich thorn:

The worst is Fisherman's Friend, an older Austin, which a friend root and it went through her gloves, see below:

Queen Nefertiti is worse than Radio Times in my garden, see below:

Below L.D. Braithwaite has THE DENSEST thorns, more so than Radio Times:

Below are Gertrude Jekyll thorns, not bad compared Evelyn's much longer thorns, rabbits and squirrels don't bother both:

Below is Evelyn's long and reddish thorns, which makes it rabbits-safe compared to less thorns Abraham Darby (have to put chicken wire around Abe). I spend time cutting off ALL of Evelyn thorns before rooting so I don't get poked. Below is from a new shoot, so the thorns are much smaller. On older Evelyn branches, the thorns are brown and many times longer.

Thorns can be beautiful. This is a basal break on Rosie the Riveter

Straw - Yikes! Queen Nefertiti's thorns look terrible! :) :)

Roz - yes, those are beautiful! :) :)

Roz OHzone 6 That reminds me of Liv Tyler' thorns .. fat and chubby like dinosaur teeth. The chubby thorns don't poke me as much as the sharp needle thorns of Lilian Austin.