I was just admiring Memorial Day this morning thinking what a perfect rose it is. No disease, low thorn, wonderful fragrance and big blooms.

She is probably 7ft tall

kristine_legault's ideas · More Info

Banksia lutea (Yellow Lady Banks rose) is VERY tall, and is TRULY thornless - no thorns, not one, ever. (Some roses are said to be "thornless", when people really mean "less thorns than most roses").

Jackie

Brother Cadfael with low thorn wine colored canes. Diane

This rose gets up to 9 feet tall for me in zone 7.

My Blue Girl grows pretty straight up.
Carla in Sac

Love that pic. of Reine des Violettes, it's on my wish-list. Thank you.

I have Frederic Mistral, Firefighter, and New Zealand. I had Secret as well, but died due to flooding.

All have a nice strong scent. FM is by FAR my tallest..... and it is own root.

@Rose Lai (9b) Your RDV looks stunning, I got own root from high country and don't think he sent the correct RDV as mine has a few prickles and is not completely thornfree. I will take a picture of my plant in the morning an post it.

@Kristine LeGault 8a pnw That is an awesome look MD plant! Is that own root or grafted and is it one plant? Where did you get your plant from? I always let go of MD thinking it gets alot of blackspot but yours look so healthy.

I saw Victorian Memory/Isabella Skinner growing at a nursery in zone 5 and she was well over 7 feet tall and almost completely thornless. I'm reeeeeeally wishing I'd bought the one they had left in stock now but I didn't want to babysit it the 8 hour drive home!

Victorian Memory is on my wish-list since someone posted about its wafting scent that perfumes the garden. I had Frederic Mistral as own-root .. was vigorous & lived for several years then died through a dry winter. Frederic Mistral was 3 feet tall & low-thorn and never poke me. Frederic Mistral is a water-hog ... roots are big but shallow.

I have always admired memorial day for its scent in a regional garden, but somehow I never realized it was low thorn. Thank you for posting that.

Kristine - I was going to suggest Memorial Day too. :)

Straw - I did an advanced search on hmf and went through A-Gs. There are 60 pages there. I can look some more tomorrow if you want. :)

These are what I found that are mostly easy to find. My search parameters were tall, fragrant and low thorns.

- Beverly

- Big Purple

- Blue Nile

- Charles de Gaulle

- Cinnamon Dolce

- Liv Tyler

- Della Reese

- Eternal Flame

- Firefighter

- Folklore

- Fragrant Hour

- Grand Dame

- Grandmother's Hat.

:)

A native species: Rosa palustris, the "swamp rose". It is blooming now -- beautiful disease-free foliage, graceful willow like foliage, about 6' tall, and FRAGRANT semi-double flowers that are sweetly and strongly fragrant of pure rose. I have three: one from A.R.E. is growing in fairly deep shade between a tall yew hedge and a bald cypress tree, and two are in full sun in wet clay -- these two also from A.R.E. but purchased at a different time.

Both have the "baby" soft thorns, maybe one every foot or so, maybe. I have the form that is supposed to rebloom in the fall, but they have never done so here. Just for the beautiful plant form and foliage this rose is worth planting!

There is also Felix Le Clerc and Peggy Martin. Star of the Republic is also low Thorn thus far.

Thank you all for excellent info. on low-thorn tall roses. Inspired by Carol's hard work, I have just put in ratings in HMF for my 143 own-root roses. I'm growing 12 new own-roots (8 from LongAgoRoses), plus expecting another 6 roses from Roses Unlimited.

I wish HMF ratings would include bush-beauty and rating of thorniness for safety, rather than useless ratings of exhibition qualities or bloom color & bloom form (these are personal taste, should not be rated). Plus the bloom color and bloom form is evident from the pics., no need to rate.

Carol: Thank you for taking the time to do advanced search through 60 pages in HMF for low thorn and tall roses. That's an excellent list of low-thorn, except for Liv Tyler (ferocious chubby thorns like Polka, but both never poke me like the needle-thin thistles of Austins).

You're most welcome, Straw...you have done SOOOO much for me and for others here. It's the least I could do. :) :)