Naturally too can't get by in not posting the blaze rose with this many blooms on one vine. I thought the coral drift was something else. boy this one exceeds it.!!!! Would you believe there are STILL buds yet to open on it!!

I'll start with Quadra (the Great and Powerful)

This photo is from last year, but the reason I call Quadra the Great and Powerful is because it has looked like this every June for the last 15 years. It also seems to have absolutely no knowledge of blackspot and winterkill, which for a repeating rose in this climate is quite impressive.

Then comes one of the early yellows. I have R. primula and R. hugonis. This happens to be primula.

They usually start around May 1st here, which means every cold climate rosarian who has the room should grow at least one. Otherwise, they have no excuse to complain about not having roses until June.

The black-light and velvet rose, R. moyesii 'Geranium'

The town highway crew has freed this rose from being overgrown by weeds so many times now that I really think they like it as well and I do.

One I almost lost to the great dog and vole attack, but it is (slowly) coming back, Hebe's Lip

And last in this group, Mary, Queen of Scots.

(to be continued)

(Having performed odd rites of sacrifice to the Houzz gods, here is Part II.)

A rose that (should) need no introduction, Rosa Mundi.

I have yet to see a photo that really does justice to it, and that is saying something.

Baltimore Belle

I think it was A. J. Downing who recommended this rose for 'the Esquimaux's igloo'. Among its other good qualities is it's relative lack of thorns.

The Apothecary Rose (it's the short one in the middle)

This is a very happy rose for one that has long been associated with medicine. The color and the flower form always makes me smile when I see it.

Applejack

Back when we had a local rose society, and a local rose society show, we exhibited. Judges are not supposed to touch the exhibits. However, one of the judges couldn't help groping this one to 'make sure it was the correct cultivar'. It is.

Juno

This isn't the most vigorous rose we grow, or the most floriferous, However, it is drop dead gorgeous. An exhibition diva of another era.

Mad, I can not thank you enough for posting these beauties! All of them!, but maybe especially Juno, a rose I've often thought of getting as a memorial to a long lost pet along with Pax.

It was a satisfying feeling to see that some of you mentioned roses as your favorites that I already have, such as Gruss an Aachen. International Herald Tribune, Duchesse de Brabant, Mlle. de Sombreuil, Mrs. B.R. Cant and Mme. Lambard or will have in the fall (Reve d'Or, Bolero).

Mme. LambardMlle. de Sombreuil

Beautiful roses, Ingrid, and beautiful hands I might add! : )) I'm a wee bit jealous over those clean nails!

MadGallica, Baltimore Belle is wonderful. I just looked her up on HMF and she’s probably a cross with our native prairie rose and a Noisette. She gets big too!
Ingrid, your Mme Lambard is so luscious.

It’s really tough to narrow the list to 10 as there are qualities I appreciate in nearly all of them. Since I grow ’no spray’ in TX- disease resistance and heat tolerance are tops on the list. Here’s the current faves:

Blue for You (and several of its hybrids)

Devoniensis

Eyes for You

September Morn

Geranium Red

Sweet Nothings

Twilight Zone

Chandos Beauty

Atmore Lamarque

Dawncrest

Top 10 in no order:
Boscobel, LEH, summer romance, violets pride, easy does it, Belinda’s dream , fire opal, Julia child, plum perfect, love song .. pictures are also not in order

A few more

sabalmatt, I'd love to see your plant of Eyes for You since I have one that's just begun to bloom, and seeing a more mature one would be a treat.

Beautiful roses, R pnw, especially the purple/lavender ones.

My top 10 for color, fragrance and bloom in a cold zone would be:

Twilight Zone

Lady of Shalott

La Reine

Golden Celebration

Munstead Wood

Jude the Obscure

Reine des Violettes

Lemon Spice

Chartreuse de Parme

Etienne

Wish my garden was a few years older, but it has taught me patience.

Karen F: I adore your pictures. What planting zone are you in? Thanks for the info.

My top 10 blooming roses in zone 5 with rock-hard black clay & very shady garden with most roses in 4 hours of sun:

Below Bolero blooms well in partial shade since 2012 (I replaced it twice due to dry winter):

Below Evelyn needs 6 hours of sun & leaves are always glossy & healthy, it's 10th-year-own-root, pic. taken 5/27/21:

Below is 10th-year-own-root Carding Mill, pic. taken this month 5/27/21:

Below is 4th-year-own-root Princess Charlene de Monaco, pic. taken last summer:

Below is 7th-year-own-root Dee-lish & bloomed at 90F & always healthy & continuous blooming since blooms open one at a time & blooms from top to bottom.

I'll post the other 5 later to make it 10.

5th-year own-root Zepherine Drouhin for the best scent ever among my 134 own-root roses. The scent wafts 30 feet away, plus it's like heaven to sniff each bloom (old rose, and sometimes raspberry). Pic. taken this month 5/27/21, it blooms well in less than 4 hours of evening sun:

11th-year own-root Pat Austin for blooming so well in 4 hours of morning sun:

11th-year own-root Mary Magdalene is the first to bloom, pic. taken 2nd week of this May:

11th-year own-root Radio Times for its fantastic damask scent, plus blooming well in 4 hours of sun:

10th-year own-root Comte de Chambord gives 3 flushes per year in partial shade. The top 3 spots in scents among my 134 fragrant roses are occupied by: Comte de Chambord, Duchess de Rohan, and Zeph. Drouhin. Comte leads the pack since it repeats bloom well.

Oh Straw - your PrincessCdM is so enticing!!! Those blooms are gorgeous!!! SWOON!!!! Your Radio Times makes me want to get that so bad!!!!! Oh my!!!

In no particular order. :)

1. Chandos Beauty

2. Bishop's Castle

3. Memorial Day

4. Stainless Steel

5. Parade Day

6. Chartreuse de Parme

7. White Licorice

8. Grande Dame

9. Portrait

10. Lasting Love

These are such great interesting threads about everyone's best and favorite.

I don't have ten roses at the moment, but over the years these are some of the best I can remember;

William Shakespeare 2000 - a drama king

Abraham Darby- my absolute favorite for fragrance

Evelyn- she's so Evelyn ( if you have her, you know what I mean )

Jude the Obscure- irresistible grapefruit fragrance

Bathsheba - an amazing healthy bush with fluffy soft bird feather blooms, i love to gaze at and touch them .

St Swithun - the large pale swirly blooms are spellbinding, too bad it's stinky !

Gruss an Aachen- the perfect flower bed rose

Crested Moss- one of a kind, I miss it most

Francis Dubreuil - gorgeous red, I'm going to get him back if i can .

Madame Hardy- a wedding dress of a rose, she's outrageously beautiful when covered in white blooms

It's hard to narrow down, we should do top twenty.

Carol: How's the scent of White Licorice? I hope it's not like Julia Child, which smells like cough medicine for me. I adore your Parade Day (so many blooms), and I wish I had bought it during RU summer sale. Your Grand Dame is outstanding in cluster blooms. Which rose among your top 10 has the best scents? Thanks.

Berrypie: I love your writing, your descriptions is better than any pics. We like the same roses: W.S. 2000, Francis D, Evelyn, Jude the Obscure (tried it 3 times as own-root and it died in my zone 5), I'm excited about my 1st bloom of Abraham Darby opening soon.

Yes Straw, we do like the same roses , and it's no coincidence, I learn from you what to buy ! Zepherine Drouhin must be quite a rose to possess your favorite scent among so many others. Raspberry anything is my favorite

Next year Z Drouhin may be in my revised top ten.

Last year my sister sent me the most gorgeous picture of one of her lambs resting underneath a huge pink rose in bloom, I think it might have been Zepherine, I'll have to find that photo to post.

Berrypie - I love your descriptions!!! I especially love how you described Madame Hardy as a wedding dress of a rose! Such a gorgeous picture!

Straw - it's been a whole winter since I've smelled White Licorice. LOL And I'm really bad at describing fragrances. I think it does smell like Julia Child. I like the smell of both of them. :) Parade Day has a really intense fragrance...I think it was sweet or rosy. It's hard to remember. It's too bad you didn't get it. It's a winner in my books.

As to best fragrances of those hmmm...

Parade Day - strongest

Chandos Beauty - best

Memorial Day

Chartreuse de Parme

For me...I never got any fragrance from my Grande Dame. I don't know why. The rest are about the same except for Lasting Love which isn't always fragrant for me, and White Licorice which is not as strong...but I still love it.

My Grande Dame was killed in the GGDO (Great garage die off when my daughter left the garage door opened). It was a fabulous bloomer! And for some reason, the blooms didn't nod.

Berrypie - I want that cake so bad!!! It looks utterly delicious!! And I agree...raspberry scented roses are my favorite. I would love to see that picture of a lamb near a rose bush!

My rose garden is too new for me to make a list, but I suspect that in a few years when I do, Madame Hardy will be on it. This is the rose that made me fall in love with roses. My shrub started as band that was a gift and now it's in year 6. It blooms for about 5 weeks and it's incredible.

I now have modern roses in my garden, too, but they are all young plants, in their first or second years. And I have more antique and OGR that I planted this spring. I'm looking forward to the future! And right now, enjoying MH's beautiful show.

Oh my God. Berrypie, you’re killing me. I’m starving now...and not for my toast that’s in the toaster ☹️

Carol- here is a link to the Raspberry Lemon Cake;

https://theviewfromgreatisland.com/raspberry-lemon-cake/

I have not made it yet, I just bought some Wiiton 6 inch cake pans to make a mini cake with half the recipe. I always cut the sugar amount way down, it may affect texture but I like healthy flavor opposed to unnecessary overwhelming sweetness.

I'm going to write another note to you about the books on the other Flowers and Fashion thread if you happen to see it.

Librarian -Madame Hardy was one of my first Old Garden roses also , I got many scratches from her ! She stands in my neighbor's yard now, I gave away all my once bloomers, but I can still see Madame Hardy from a distance in her Spring Splendor.

It's thrilling you are growing the antiques, I'm eager to hear about them, I am so drawn to the old roses.

@User I'm glad you still get to enjoy Madame Hardy. She's in a good spot in my garden for a once bloomer, in the back but visible from inside my house. She's companion planted with a tall purple salvia that dies back each winter, so the salvia is hidden when Madame blooms and then later in the summer, it grows through Madame's structure and blooms beautifully. MH has beautiful healthy foliage all summer, and since blackspot can be an issue here she's earned her spot in my small garden. Maybe it's right rose, right place?

I suppose MH is thorny, and I'm sorry she scratched you. I have to remove wild blackberries every year and MH's thorns pale in comparison!

A modern rose is going in next to MH...

Berrypie - Thank you for the recipe!! I printed it out and will probably make it when my daughter is staying with us for a month. Oh my word, it looks FABULOUS!!

Librarian - that's a really beautiful picture of Madame Hardy!! Really, really beautiful!!

For me to narrow things down to 10 varieties is a little tough. In my garden, if I don't like it, it's gone. But I do have a few favorites.

Tiffany Lynn

Whirlaway

Joy

Munstead Wood

Scepter d' Isle

Marchesa Boccella

Rose de Risch

Hannah Gordan

Brinessa

Louise Estes

hoovb zone 9 sunset 23 Agree with your top 10, they are also my favorites: Bolero, Firefighter. But I don't like Belinda's dream, boring pink.

Someone above mentioned Geranium Red, I grew that and the scent is better than Firefighter. My zone 5a killed it, but I miss its scent:

Below 3 roses have the best scent: Geranium red, white Bolero, and pink Sonia Rykiel:

Straw - I bought a band of Geranium Red...it died early on...never got a flower. I was wondering what it would have been like. Really unusual color...very beautiful...thank you! Oh, and it turns that wonderful pink! Beautiful roses! :) :)

Carol: it's very wimpy as own-root, best in a warmer climate than our freezing -20 F below zero. Geranium Red's scent is spicy & old rose, better than Barcelona and Firefighter.

The fragrance sounds amazing!

This took some thinking because it changes as new roses are added.

To me a perfect rose is one that makes me linger a little longer. It makes me happy just to see it.

1. Memorial Day. Huge blooms that smell so delicious. Low thorns and zero disease.

2. Marc Chigall has really taken off this year and is just beautiful.

3. Munstead Wood, I will always list this rose gor his besutiful dark velvet blooms and intoxicating fragrance.

4. Fiji? The color of this rose nust slays me. Disease and fragrance free ( darn it on the lack of fragrance ) . Continual blooms that last a long time.

5. Olivia, you all know that I love this pink beauty .

6. The Fawn, boy do I love this rose. The wedding cake blooms are perfect and it is a continual bloomer with zero disease

7. Bolero, so much love for this perfect rose.

8. Love Song, again, big bousy blooms.

9. Our Anniversary, the color of this makes it a must have for me

It is a Jalbert shortie and blooms profusely

Did I mention the color?

10. This is a toss up between Bliss and my brand new Gypsy Soul.

For being so new I am already really excited about GS. The shape of the plant and the deep red color are really beautiful

@User my absolute favorite birthday cake was always almond cake with raspberry filling and lemon buttercream. A dream for a June birthday :) looks similar to what you linked!

Aaron - I love lemon and raspberry. :) :)

Kristine - I love Memorial Day too!! I need to try Bolero again.

Aaron, that sounds delish.

Maybe we could start an off topic of our favorite deserts.

Wow does that ever sound good Aaron, your cake idea is going into my recipe file for my birthday in December .

Sorry, no pics. I have fallen in and out of love with roses, over the last 3 decades. Currently having a small upswing as many of the roses did surprisingly well over this challenging (abnormally dry) season. I am down to a modest 60 or so (but most are huge, once flowering ramblers) and planning another culling since not a single member of my family will venture onto my allotments after being stabbed in the head, mauled round tender bare legs, whipped by thorny weaponised canes and lashed by sneaky ankle-high caltrops. With regret, the thorny likes of Leontine Gervaise, Scarlachglut,rosa arvensis and various Harkness climbers are destined for the compost bin. However, there are a few which do their thing, with no input from me, performing beautifully, year on year.

Pleine de Grace...mostly because it is now so big and commanding, I am destined to live with it forever.

Crepuscule - I don't love this messy rose but man, it is the most proliferous bloomer I possess.

rosa helenae - not the longest blooming period but there are also thousands of jewel-like heps in autumn.

rosa moyessii: a stalwart, huge and thankfully not placed anywhere near a path. I love this rose. especially now it has a red hazel, frothing around its nether regions

Darlows Enigma - another tree-sized giant, not in the best position but life without it would be untenable.

Crocus Rose, the only Austin I really enjoy - a huge bloomer.

Hebe's Lip and Golden Wings - a pair of delightful roses with modest charm

Madame Gregoire Staechelin - a messy rust magnet but in it's pomp, truly gorgeous...and fantastic autumn heps

Lastly, the suckering wildling - double white pimpinellifoliu

O and a shout out for Wolley Dod, aka r.pomifera and Goldfinch.

Aaron, your favorite cake sounds divine! I already have an almond cake recipe that I make, but have never tired the raspberry filling lemon buttercream pairing. I will have to try it!
Rosaprimula, I love your list of unusual roses.

I miss Ingrid too!

I miss Ingrid too. Her photos and writing were beautiful. Lisa too. I wish they were here with us and hope for the best for them.

How long nas Ingrid been absent? I pop in irregularly these days, and had not realized she was not a regular presence these days.

Maybe 2-3 years, Rosefolly. She was in a state of despair about the drought and effects on her garden to the point of giving it up while she and Cecil were also having health problems. Her property is so beautiful but was burning up.

My favorites are:

1.) Francis Meilland--tender, but oh so beautiful

2.) Quietness--hardy, constantly in bloom, makes its own "standard" rose

3.) Evelyn--fragrant, beautiful

4.) Munstead Wood--constantly blooming, perfect fragrance

5.) Le Petit Prince--giant, blousy mauve blooms

6.) SDLM--a bit tender for my area, but the blooms make up for it

7.) Eden--a thorny beast, but mine have constantly had blooms on them

8.) Tchaikovski--gorgeous creamy outside with a golden yellow interior

Aaron, howo g did it take for your Francis to come in to her own. Mine is new this year and put out 2 fairly unremarkable blooms.

But, I can be patient for the blooms that I know that she can produce

@Kristine LeGault 8a pnw I bought mine from Heirloom a while back so they were pretty mature. I think it depends what size they are when you get them and how well they're doing. They're not the most frequent bloomers, but when they do bloom they're just stunning. Do you use fish fertilizer? I've found that the alaska fish fertilizer helps promote blooms.

Aaron - can you share a picture of your Le Petit Prince? :)

Huyustus in HMF post a series of Le Petit Prince.

Aaron: Thank you for the info. about your most fav. Which ones are your favorite scents?

Agree on Munstead Wood and Tchaikovsky. Both are 9th-year own root and like my rock-hard alkaline clay. Tchaikovsky bloom gets big at 4.5 inch. across. Pic. taken today 9/6/22. Dark reds are The Dark Lady, and salmon is Sweet M. (4 inch. across):

strawchicago It's unbelievable how perfect your roses are .

Kristine, my Francis Meilland is stingy. Mine is grafted, and the blooms are great, but stingy. Last year, Sunny in Mississippi said that he required extra fertilizer. I did better early in the year, but as the year went on, I was remiss and he dealt with my regular program. So he's back to normal... stingy. Hope springs eternal that I'll get my act together :-D

Straw - mmmmm...I love your The Dark Lady (as usual) and also your Tchaikovsky (as usual). I need The Dark Lady. :) :)

I bought my Francis Meilland from a nursery clearance three years ago as a half-dying potted bareroot rose, and it bounced back pretty well. I put it in a pot for one year, and after two years being in the ground, no matter how hard I pruned it back, it grew to 7 feet tall. (I removed about 3 feet from each stem after the first flush.) It's not stingy for me at all, blooming regularly every 5-6 weeks. Maybe it just needs some time to mature. I only fertilized once in March and water my roses every three days in summer. We're not as hot as other states/countries, though. Photo taken 3 days ago.

Yes @Aaron Rosarian Zone 5b can you please show your LPP? I have had mine for 2 seasons and it's in danger of meeting the shovel. Maybe seeing a better example of what the rose can be will inspire me to give it a little longer.

Feiy lo, thanks for the information on Francis. Yours looks super happy. I know that mine is a developing newbie and will be better next year.

Beautiful example of FM