Well, I love them all (nearly). However, the first house I bought, in western Washington, had a plant of what I subsequently learned was 'Mme. Plantier'; the first year it flowered, I thought a miracle had occurred. It may well have helped give birth to my subsequent passion for old roses. I also recall from that period a memorable plant of 'Austrian Copper' at a park in Washington: possibly the brightest rose I've ever seen, and really beautiful. For the rest, it's just ongoing love and desire and frequentation.

Ingrid, I know I've said before that it was the sight of Mutabilis in the Botanic Garden in Auckland in the early 80's that started my love of old roses. I remember seeing it and being astounded and by luck there were a couple of their gardeners nearby and we got talking. I then grew a few Teas and others in a previous garden, but the rose that most captured my heart was Comtesse du Cayla, which I grew in my present garden for a while. It looked good till 11am then succumbed to heat.

Trish's Garden · More Info

I have to also mention William R Smith, which was very rangy for me, but had the most exquisite blooms

Trish's Garden · More Info

Trish

For me, it was Paradise Found. I had that rose for a few years and every time I saw its blooms I was lost in its beauty. It's my Avatar Picture.

I thought about it for a while, and all of my "iconic" roses happen to be (I don't think it's an accident) roses we either inherited from my DH's ancestors (ie they were growing here when we moved in 35 years ago), or roses I rustled from places within 4-5 blocks of our house. Many of them were mysteries to me for decades, but now all but two have been identified. I think I love them so much because (having survived with little or no care for a long time before I got hold of them) they love my local climate/conditions and are always happy and beautiful, and also of course because some of them are family heirlooms. I am sure there are more, but here are the first ones I thought of:

Le Vesuve when I had no idea who she was, shortly after we moved in (original plant)

One of several rooted cuttings still growing in my garden:

One bloom hanging out with a bloom of Anna Olivier - the bushes are overlapping:

I am going to move on to another Comment so Houzz does not sabotage me.

Jackie

Here is the next one: Lamarque, which jumped over our back fence from the neighbor's. When they were killing the mother plant (who piles a huge amount of fire wood on top of the base of a rose?), I noticed, and was lucky to get a still alive cutting to root. Only one bloom, which is enough, I think:

The next one is Anna Olivier, which I am told was "lost in commerce" in North America (it had been replaced with a yellow rose), when I took it to the Celebration of old roses years ago and the Tea Rose Ladies from Australia were there, and ID'd it when no one else could.

The original rose was a giant growing inside of a clearing surrounded by huge old shrubs, and under a tree. Luckily I was able to root a cutting. The first pic is the plant from that cutting espaliered on the wall of our house, before the Fire Dept made us take it down. We chopped it down to about 18 inches, dug it up and immediately planted it in my New Garden about 2 hot summers ago. With good advice from here, were able to successfully keep it alive. Seond pic I just took 10 minutes ago of the same plant. Notice it has plans to jump that fence into the next door garden, and also up that round trellis (I hope).

More coming below - Jackie

Next two are first, "Schmidt's Smooth Yellow", which I rustled near my house from the front garden of a little cottage which was about to be (and was) torn down in a commercial district and turned into a parking lot (that may be a rose "urban legend", but it was true in this case!). SSY is probably one of two polyanthas which were hybridized right at the end of the 19th century in Europe. I am voting for 'George Elger', which seems to be "almost lost' in commerce. The other candidate is 'Eugenie Lamesch', which is definitely lost. SSY is a lovely, short/meium sized almost ever blooming rose which HAS NO THORNS whatever. I have been looking at my now three plants for years, and have never ever seen even ONE.

The second one is 'de la Grifferaie', which came up as rootstock when we took out a dying boring yellow standard rose. I had to wait 5 years for it to bloom, but I knew from the leaves it was very old and wonderful. Now it has intermingled with what we think is 'Cramoisi Superior', another gift from the ancestors. dlG is astoundingly wonderfully fragrant.

SSY:

de la Grifferaie with Cramoisi Superior:

One last one coming in next Comment-

jackie

Well, I have thought of about half a dozen more roses which are "iconic" to me (most also from the ancestors), but this is enough for now. Ending with my main remaining totally mystery rose, which is from the ancestors. The original plant is still alive, and has been growing in shade inside of a tangle of growth of a crab apple tree, a quince bush, and several other bushes. Its blooms are medium pink at first, and all the time in full sun. However, on the original one in the shade, the blooms turn a lovely buff color. I moved the rooted cutting I had of it into partial shade in my New Garden, and although it is still a baby, it is putitng out blooms that come out pink and then turn buff. They are not as lovely as the ones on the original plant, but I have hopes they will improve as the bush matures. For now I call it my "mystery quince bush rose":

When I first posted the below pic a few years ago, someone insisted that they had to be 2 different roses. Ha! they are coming from the same cane, and the pink one on the left turned into a bloom identical looking to the one on the right a few days later.

That's all for now - thank you for your patience, and thank you Ingrid for suggesting this!

Jackie

I had a feeling we would see beautiful roses and hear interesting stories here! I hope there will be many more.

I only possess five roses now of which three are really puny little twigs with a few leaves hanging on which make me fear that they will not amount to much. Cl. Caroline Testout from ARE, on the other hand, hit the ground running with some healthy canes which had already sprouted some leaves and many green shoots to follow, but my iconic rose out of the five now is Grandmother's Hat, one of the three underachievers. I've never seen this rose in real life except for a time when I had it briefly and then something happened to it before it even bloomed. If you look on HMF you will see many beautiful photos of this rose, most of them by Jerri Jennings, and I can't tell you how often I've now pored over them. I think it will be many months if not (most probably) years before mine ever amounts to anything, but for me it's something to live for. An iconic rose indeed.

Edited: Jackie, I don't know why but as soon as I saw your last rose the name "Lady Roberts" jumped into my mind. I'm probably wrong, and there are so many similar tea roses to confuse the issue.

Ingrid - thanks for the guess! I grow Lady Roberts, which is a color sport of Anna Olivier. (of course you are right about so many tea roses - I am so glad we can grow them here in our warm climates - they are my most favorite class. LR has the darker coloring on the back of its buds, just like AO, which you can see in this pic of mine:

Jackie

Beautiful roses!!! And Jackie your picture of de la Grifferaie with Cramoisi Superior blew me away!!

Yes, Jackie, the darker color on the back of the petals makes all the difference. I should have known it wouldn't be such an easy identification.

Sheila, Hazeldean is a beautiful rose. How poignant that it is planted on your first husband's grave. It reminds me a bit of Lawrence Johnston, a rose that I loved at one time. I feel honored that my tea roses evoked such a response in you. Now you grow so many beautiful ones of your own and I'm happy to think that my roses may in some small part have led you on to that.

Yes, it is not Gloire de Dijon, but it might be one of the related teas. I have a very young bush of it growing in partial (instead of total) shade now, in another part of the garden, and am looking forward to seeing what it does when it is mature (in my experience old roses do not get mature in my garden for 4-5 years.).

Jackie

Belle Isis

Chaucer

the SdlM clan (currently I have only Madame Cornelissen)

Madame Dore

Dear Comtesse, I am so happy to see your post here! I must have missed your occasional comments and wondered whether you were still present on the rose forums. It's so wonderful to connect with old friends here, of which you surely are one.

belle, how nice to see that you have Madame Dore. I also grew her at one time, and she was a very sweet and endearing rose. The SdlM clan was very happy in my garden too.

Madame Cornelissen

Madame Dore

I select Paul's Himalayan Musk for the moment that I first saw a massive specimen in a tree, in full bloom - it took my breath away. It towered over the extensive display gardens at Heirloom Roses back when the Clements owned it. At some point, does a cane become a trunk? It must have been 8" in diameter. It was (and still is) the most spectacular rose I've ever seen, and of course I purchased it and added it to my own garden that day. All of that is gone now, every bit of the display garden torn out. But Paul lives on in my garden in multiple places on multiple trees, and every time it blooms I think of that moment I first saw it at Heirloom.

I can only hope that there was a very pressing reason to remove a huge specimen of Paul's Himalayan Musk from Heirloom Roses, not to mention the entire display garden. Elf Rosa, how splendid that you grow this rose in different areas of your garden. You're doing your part to help this rose to live on, and bless you for that.

Hear, hear, Ingrid!

@Ingrid_vc zone 9b, San Diego Co. inland Thank you! All of it is gone - but a glimpse of what it used to be is still on Youtube. Even their charming retail sales cottage shown here is gone https://youtu.be/w2JfPivrH5M

I visited HR in 1996 and it was beautiful. I think costs of maintaining the display were too much for the new owners.

@Ingrid_vc zone 9b, San Diego Co. inland You were my enabler for Madame Dore, Ingrid. I remember you posting pictures of it years ago. It took a while to get it, but more and more it's becoming a favorite. Not part of the SdlM clan, but in that style of Floribunda like Bourbon. I like the darker reverse two-tone pink. The fragrance is elusive and light to my poor nose, but very nice when it's there.

Oh, lovely pictures, belle! It makes me so happy to see a rose I loved living on in your garden. It's not a big, blowsy rose like some of the larger Bourbons, but it has a quiet charm of its own and it's easy to tuck it into a smaller spot where it will live happily.

Ingrid - I love your pics of Madame Dore. The "movement" of the petals is wonderful to see and your Madame Cornelissen ...so fluffy that the bee can't find her way into the pollen. :)

What a lovely thing to say, rosecanadian. I'm so happy that I took many pictures of my beloved roses so that they're not entirely lost to me. And, perhaps there may be new beginnings after something has ended.

Peace: Because it stood for the end of WW II. My grandparents grew it, my dad grew it, and I have always had at least one copy in my rose beds - not to mention - it is beautiful.

Ingrid - new beginnings for your rose journey. We all hope for that. :) :) And, yes, thank goodness we have our pictures...true treasures!

Oh, Mark - that bloom glows...it's so strikingly lovely!!!