Charles de Mills, Marianne, and Ellen Tofflemire

These are my best three roses for today only--ha. They are not necessarily the hardest to replace. That's a whole other question. Diane

Munstead Wood, Julia Child, and Augusta Luise

That is a fiendishly difficult question. I have no roses now, only a few bare sticks in the ground, but previously I suppose it would or could be Evelyn, La France and Aunt Margy's Rose. I'll be getting a new Aunt Margy's Rose in four days and La France in the spring. Keeping my fingers crossed for Evelyn.

Aunt Margy's Rose

La France

(pink rose on the left)

Evelyn

@strawchicago z5 - those pictures looks beautiful. I would certainly be saving those! That top picture of MM looks a lot like some of my Abe Darby look I got this year:

Your Yves in particular looks stunning - those blooms are crazy big. Out of those 3 which would you rate 1st for scent?

@Diane Brakefield - I have heard great things about Julia childs when I asked on a different forum for recommendations for a good yellow rose; it was constantly praised.

@Brandon Garner - what do you like about Charles de Mills? Do you have any pictures? I have always wanted an old rose as I don't have any.

The first two are Easy Peasy . . . "Grandmother's Hat" and "Benny Lopez" . . . A third choice is really HARD. Maybe it would have to be the very special "Ragged Robin" ('Gloire des Rosomanes') we collected in San Juan Bautista.

"Grandmother's Hat"

"Benny Lopez"

'Gloire des Rosomanes'

Good thread Alfie!

That's easy. I chose 3 that can't be replaced.

My beautiful found rose Glory Land that I could never replicate

My wonderful mini Kismet that makes me smile every time I look at it

And my favorite (and if the rumors are true ) soon to be discontinued

Munstead wood who never disappoints

Alfie You have the most beautiful Abe. Darby blooms ever !! How do you fertilize it to have such marvelous colors?

I can't choose which has the best scent since they all give me wonderful memories. White Mary Magdalene reminds me of incense in Catholic church. Evelyn smells like juicy ripe peaches from Michigan orchards. And Yves red seedling smells like red wine and floral.

My top pic. is Evelyn, and Evelyn has more petals than Abe, but Abe. wows me with its huge bloom. Abe. doesn't last long as cut blooms like Evelyn so I rarely cut Abe for the vase. My Abe in poor drainage & wet clay has more petals and blackspots than my 2nd Abe. in fast draining & drier soil. Note the blackspots on below leaves of Abe.

Below is Evelyn mingles with Munstead Wood. Note that it has more petals and much healthier leaves than Abe:

Unbelievable Straw, now I'm anxious to see if next year my Evelyn and Abe can be inspired by yours. I think mine want to pack up their roots and move to your house.

Tough question. Brinessa, Munstead Wood and Ring of Fire. Brinessa hasn't been available for a very long time. I sent Steve Singer (Wisconsin Roses) bud wood last spring and I just received 4 bush's of it yesterday (along with other roses I ordered). I came by this dusty pink beauty in 1990 in central Fl. from a friend that received grafting wood from a rose friend of his in upper Indiana that got his bush from Canada. Before retiring and moving up to N.E. GA in 08, I had 2 more bush's grafted up and brought with me. Those 2 bush's are still going strong but I don't want to take any chances with losing them. So now I have 4 more brand new bush's of this tough beauty.

Only roses that are currently out-of-commerce. I could replace the others. Westminster Pink, Flora Danica, Claude Monet (the Jack Christensen one). I have several others, but those are my top 3.

I would say these from previous years that are no longer here...so Paradise Found (my avatar picture to the left), Chartreuse de Parme and Nicole Carol Miller (which I still have).

My goodness...there are some extremely gorgeous roses here! Wonderful!!!

Ispahan, veilchenblu, mutibilis. I want to add atleast three more😭

@strawchicago z5 - very interesting about the scents. The only one I could buy of your three online in UK is Yves. You grow Evelyn so increidbly well. Wish I could get and Munstead in UK 🙁. Thanks Straw.

I must say I was blown away by the Abe blooms. we inherited this when we moved to our cottage and we have only been here a year. I think it is about a decade old. It was planted with poor planning as they planted horn beams after planting abe so abe is under a tree! I had to re-direct and tie the stems to the horn beam branches for it to access sunlight and flower. All I did in terms of fertilising was use a granular feed in spring with a good horse manure mulch. I then watered it once or twice a month with a liquid rose feed in flowering season.

Digging these Abe photos out I also managed to find a picture of Well Being before I ruined it! 😂 This is the day I got it and potted it:

I’m going to very carefully dig up Abe in dormancy as it only needs to come forward a metre or so to get out from under the tree.

@rosecanadian of course C de P! That’s coming in my birthday bare root order this month!

@User - how do you find the health of Charles de Mills?

@Ken Wilkinson - that sounds like a very special rose. Any pictures?

@Kristine LeGault 8a pnw - lovely pictures! I love that middle one especially! So floriferous!

So many beautiful blooms!

And the talk about soon-to-be-retired Munstead Wood makes me somewhat panic. I placed an order at DA and it is due next spring. I hope they will not suddenly now decide to take action and cut me.

Being new I only have a few roses blooming this year. Here are my favorite three

Julia Child

Fun in the Sun

Riseup Lilac Days

Happy gardening!

Darlows Enigma - I would have a job to replace this floriferous and vigorous rose. It is, however, a freestanding giant so by the time I had managed to dig it out, the entire allotment would be reduced to ashes.

If I was merely considering one of only 3 roses I was only ever allowed to grow, then I simply could not live without one of the early yellows - so would probably go for r.cantabridgiensis- bred at my local botanic gardens and always ineffably lovely in May.

Finally, a rose of modest charm but utterly healthy, flowering for months on end, perfect posies for picking from the delightful Sommerwind/Surrey - a lovely cool pink which can be slotted literally anywhere in the garden and looks at home.

That's a hard question. I think Madame Lombard would be one, Clotilde Soupert, and either Mrs. B.R. Cant or Augusta Louise. All of these are healthy, vigorous, rebloom very well, are very fragrant, and very beautiful.

Madame Lombard...this one varies a lot in color.

Clotilde Soupert

Mrs. B.R. Cant....so fragrant!

Augusta Louise

Chaucer for sure.

I haven't figured out two and three yet.

I'd leave all of the Gallicas in the ground - even though some are definitely top 3 contenders - because I know the Gallicas would survive a fire.

What I would rescue would be Ralph Moore's pivotal breeder, "44 Stripe", and 0-47-19, also a Moore breeder, and 'Mel's Heritage', because its most likely to be my one legacy hybrid. Its likely that I'm one of only 2 or 3 people who still have these two Moore breeders and its imperative they be preserved.

"44 Stripe"

@Alfie (North London, UK)

"what do you like about Charles de Mills? Do you have any pictures?"

I do have pictures, but none of them capture it quite as well as Paul Barden's does.

Other than the color of the rose, I like that it remains more or less disease resistant, for me blooms pretty reliably in the shade. Also Charles de Mills was the first old garden rose that I grew, and I guess you can call it the gate way rose into old garden roses

Alfie - oh, you're so lucky to be getting a Chartreuse de Parme!! I want one so much. I really love your picture of Well Being...those blooms look gorgeous! And your Abe is scrumptious!

Forever - those are great Fun in the Sun blooms!! Wonderful!!

Erasmus - perfection in blooms...love those OGRs!

@Brandon Garner - thanks. I think I’m defintely going to consider Charles de Mills.

@erasmus_gw - gorgeous blooms. Those roses are lovely.

@User - wow some very rare and treasured roses you have.

@forever_a_newbie_VA8 - I love those roses. It further confirms I need Julia Childs in my life! It won the Britsh Rose of the Year award in the UK in 2010.

Thanks! There are too many others that make my top three list!

In this scenario, I would go for the wonderful that are also out-of-commerce (or virtually so) and almost irreplaceable. There are more than 3 out there, for sure (the Vintage version of 'Aimee Vibert' that grows as a small shrub would definitely be a fourth!), but here are three:

"Zalud House Shingled Raspberry"

'Fred Howard'

"Marlowe Soft Orange"

Abraham Darby (preferred over Evelyn), Munstead Wood and Geoff Hamilton. This is a hard one because every one of my roses were unbelievable this year while I was absent from the garden. Some doubled in size and some that rarely bloom bloomed all season. My choice of three would be 3 that look good together in a vase. Augusta would be the 4th, if allowed.

I agree Chas de Mills is a most beautiful rose and I wish mine had behaved. He must have had a rabbit in his parentage for he produced off spring with no end in sight.

Catspa, those are stunning!

Catspa, I also grow Fred Howard, and agree he is divine! Last time I looked, Roses Unlimited still carries him. And generally, so many of my roses from Vintage and Pickering from back in the day :-D

Catspa - I can see why you chose those beauties!!! Unreal!! :) :)

Flowers - I agree...Augusta Luise would be my 4th. :) It was a baby this year...so next year it may even place higher.

@catspa_zone9sunset14 - wow amazing roses! You have so many gorgeous blooms. Which is the purple rose? How many roses did you plant together there?

@Alfie (North London, UK), in the whole-shrub photo of "Zalud House Shingled Raspberry", that's two plants of it planted about 5' apart. Because of the light at the time, ZHSR looks a bit on the purple side there, but its true color is generally more like the warm pink in the photo of the single bloom. And, in fact, it will sometimes have a salmon-colored tinge at the center (see photo of that below). It was found at a reputedly haunted house that is a landmark in the city of Porterville in southern California and one guess for its identity is the old hybrid tea 'Clara Barton'. link for "Zalud House Shingled Raspberry"

The dark purple rose bloom just visible in the upper left corner of that photo of "Zalud House Shingled Raspberry" is 'Lady Ann Kidwell', a super-easy, almost continuously blooming polyantha that frequently has dangling blooms reminiscent of a gift package bow:

"Zalud House Shingled Raspberry" showing salmon center:

susan9santabarbara'Fred Howard' truly is a champ: healthy and vigorous on its own roots, lots of large flowers, long stems, fast repeat, beautiful blend of colors in the blooms (darker highlights in cool weather), good scent, long-lasting as a cut flower. While it is listed on HMF as being available from Roses Unlimited, I have yet to see it offered by them and it is not on their current list of hybrid teas; a search of the site says "not found" :-(. It is far too good a variety to lose...such a classic California HT (brief biography of rose breeder Fred Howard here).

Beautiful, beautiful roses!! Which one has the best scent?

catspa, how lovely to see Zalud House, a rose that's always held a certain mystique for me. I wonder if it's even available anywhere now.

I was just remembering ZHSR this week…I had put this rose on my wish list and when I thought of her this week, I checked to see if she is available anywhere, and didn’t find her anywhere. It’s absolutely breathtaking in your garden, catspa!

I think Zalud House has been offered at those Heritage rose sales in California, Ingrid. Let's keep an eye out.

@catspa_zone9sunset14 are these all pictures from your garden?? Have you grown that Fred Howard over a structure? It looks huge! So many blooms. Very impressive. You have a rose sanctuary - beautiful.

It really is a hard question! I dont know if I should pick things that I love or are hard to replace...hmmm

I should say Evelyn because she is harder to replace but nope, I will pick Spirit of Freedom because I couldn't live without her!

SoF

Evelyn

The 2nd is a tie between Mrs B R Cant & Quicksilver..both are favorites for different reasons!

Mrs B R Cant smells divine, no disease and is always blooming.

Quicksilver is just so romantic! Clean leaves generous blooms, lightly scented.

For #3, I have to agree with Jerry and pick Glorie des Rosomanes in memory of my grandmother who loved this rose and was an avid rose gardener up until her passing at 100 yrs! She had GdR and just always just called it her, 'Wild Rose'. She gave cuttings of it to everyone she knew who loved roses.

GdR

Munstead Wood & Abe Darby are also favorites but Oh Well, I can only pick 3 lol..

MW

Abe-y baby!

If the shtf and we could all only pick 3 roses..we could all just pick different roses and then trade..haha! A true rose hoarder.

@rosecanadian Of these, 'Fred Howard' and "Marlowe Soft Orange" have good amounts of what I think of as "modern-hybrid-tea" scent; "Zalud House Shingled Raspberry" has virtually none or only a faint whiff at times -- it's only flaw. 'Lady Ann Kidwell' has at best a light scent, to me.

@Alfie (North London, UK) Thank you. Yes, all the photos are from my garden. I have about 100 varieties growing in whatever spots it's possible to grow roses (not all of the garden, by a long shot) on 1/3 of an acre. No, 'Fred Howard' is a self-supporting shrub, of the size that vigorous hybrid teas often are here, which is around 5 - 7' (sometimes more), by the end of the season at least. Poor Fred is boxed in by a bullying 'Lady Hillingdon' shrub in back of him and a sturdy 'Lemon Spice to his left, all of which I need to mediate from time to time.

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR and @ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9 I keep hoping a rose vendor will ask for cuttings of "Zalud House Shingled Raspberry", from me or whomever, and make it available commercially, as I can't really ship plants out of state. It is easy to root. The Friends of Vintage Roses offered many plants of it for sale recently.

Thank you for this news catspa.

@catspa_zone9sunset14 Interesting about Fred Howard no longer being listed at RU (and I just checked). I don't go to their site often, but last November when I was preparing my order, I checked and Fred was still there. Whenever I go to RU, I always scroll through their listings of HTs and FLs to see if anything rare pops up that is in and out of their offerings recently. Bridal Pink was off for a couple of years, and then it came back last year, so Pat could bring Fred back in if there is interest. The other good news is that Fred is very easy to root. I struck only one cutting from my 18 year old (but still very healthy) RU plant last year, and it took immediately.

RVRs has had Halloween which was bred by Fred Howard and is quite something too.

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR, Oh Sheila, you HAD to go remind me about Halloween and say RVR has it (but that's okay!) . I've wanted that rose for such a long time but it's always eluded my grasp; never managed to connect with it at Vintage, as it seemed to have a half-life of a nanosecond in stock whenever Gregg announced it was available. Out of stock at RVR at the moment, but I've put my name on the list. It's a cross of 'Peace' x 'Fred Howard', which in and of itself sounds divine.

@susan9santabarbara Well, that's good news there about Fred at Roses Unlimited being offered recently. So, there's hope they still have him and will offer him again, and I see they have 'Halloween', too. Thanks for the word about Fred rooting easily, too -- I will try some cuttings, for sure.

forever_a_newbie_VA8, could you please share more of your impressions or photos of Rise Up Lilac Days rose? It's a new rose on the market and I can't find a lot of info on it. Thank you so much :)

I'm relatively new to roses but from the ones I planted I'd ''save' St Cecilia for it's beautiful blooms and fragrance, Moonlight in Paris for it's luminous and abundant flowers, and Fun in the Sun, who will take your breath away in a vase :) I was tempted to choose Graham Thomas who was very generous to me as a first roserose.

St Cecilia

Fun in the Sun, with a peony :)

Ana, your roses are pretty! I especially like the st Cecilia photo!

I am also new in growing rose. Earlier there was a thread talking about new PW roses and a few people including me have posted pictures on riseup lilac days

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6240928/new-2022-2023-proven-winners-roses

I like the color, form, and the scent of it. Only regret is the flower size had been somewhere around 1.5”. I saw in one q and a section they stated the max size was 2.75 ”. I remember seeing other sites giving a smaller size.

I bought as 1 quart band and now it is over 3.5’. It is absolutely clean, vigorous and thornless. I should also mention it has not bloomed since mid september. So I moved it beside the front porch so it could climb on the railing.

@forever_a_newbie_VA8 Thank you so much! I'll probably try it in combination with the larger bloom roses then. I have Ballerina and I like how it works among the other roses.

Catspa and Sheila, I got my Halloween from RU in 2004 and loved it for many years. Alas, I lost it a few years ago. I still think Fred is better :-D

@strawchicago z5 Hi, I am more than impressed by your knowledge of all things roses, sounds to me like you must have a phD in horticulture? I am new to this forum and love to read the back-and-forth between members. Regarding the Austin rose Evelyn, is there anyone at all that might be selling this rose to your knowledge? I would love to have one, (or two) its beauty is stunning and I am always looking for good healthy roses to add to my gardens. Thanks very much, I appreciate whatever info you can give me. I am in zone 8b in the PNW, we have a fair amount of rain both spring and winter and our summers are getting hotter and dry. We drip irrigate and top mulch rose beds in late fall with horse manure compost. I am no-spray and feed organic products. Thanks again. Fingers crossed! Crow

crow465z8b I worked as a C-programmer (B.S. in Computer Science, minor in chemistry). The classes I took in college (biochemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, microbiology) help me to understand soil chemistry.

Thirty years in growing 150+ varieties of own-root roses are what helps the most (I'm 61).

I rooted a bunch of Evelyn & older Austins this summer & sold and donated $800 to charities. Not much profit when I sold so cheap compared to nurseries ... most of it is my money going to charities.

Now I send each buyer a pic. of my rooting ., and let each buyer decides how much he/she wants to pay toward charities. Rooting indoor through my zone 5a winter is much harder, so the highest bidder gets Evelyn ... in case very few Evelyns can root INDOOR in my zone 5a winter.

Message me if you are interested in donating to charity.

Nurseries sell Austin for $60 per gallon to make a profit, but it costs THE SAME money and labor to produce a tiny rooting versus a gallon size. The difference is time & warm weather to grow a tiny rooting to a gallon size, plus good potting soil like Pro-mix (red bag sold at Walmart).

Ana - they're all beautiful! I'm especially fond of your St. Cecilia blooms....oh my!!

Forever - such a lovely lilac color!! The blooms remind me of zinnias. Really special looking rose!

rosecanadian: thanks! I also love lilac color. I bought this rose because my lilac plant has never bloomed and ”riseup lilac” sounds promising 😊

I took this picture today. At end od season now it is still spotless and retain all the leaves, even though I moved it a few weeks ago.