I grow about 30 of the Easy Elegance shrubs and Kashmir lies about halfway in my preferences or a bit lower. Mostly that's for bloom frequency, as roses like My Girl or Sweet Fragrance, or Coral Cove or Snowdrift bloom so much more regularly. Kashmir stays mostly reddish with a little pinking out and for me is a quite modest size. Ranked below Kashmir in my personal system would be things like Little MIschief, Paint the Town, or Macy's Pride (none of which I've replaced in my present gardens).

I happen to have two of them after local big box stores knocked them down to $5 or so. It's an uncomplaining red presence but I wish it grew taller or bloomed more. In my previous gardens, I had mine about 5 years so I saw it at maturity in a decent sun spot. No blackspot to speak of like most of the Easy Elegance for me, though that obviously can change in our region. We're not as humid, but we're cold and it handles the cold just fine without any significant cane loss over the winter.

Cynthia

Thanks, Cynthia...you're always on target. You know, I'm sorry that I shoveled my 2 Sweet Fragrance bushes. I miss their early and late blooming traits with abundant repeating all season long. Their flowers are head-turning, too. Strangely, for me they were medium fragrant, not matching their catchy name.

Macy's Pride was a big disappointment to me, too. Blah flowers that dropped their petals quickly.

I also, like Markay, would like to know your favorite Ping Lim roses, both from the Easy Elegance line and the True Bloom line.

Thanks again for your input.

Moses

Cynthia, do you have a recommendation for a short bush(s), 30"ish or less, red, exhibition form hybrid tea bloom rose bush, in preference to a bush of the same height requirement, but not of an Austin, English form bloom. I still have intense black spot pressure, so strong resistance is a must.

Moses

Have you ever grown Bordeaux?

Moses, I've sung the praises of Kashmir all over several Houzz threads in the past few years. It's not perfect, but it IS my favorite red shrub. Bone hardy, it's absolutely spotless here in BS Central, healthy as an ox (in partial shade!). It evidently blooms better for me than it does for Cynthia (rarely without a few blooms, and three good flushes). It is a true red that does not fade at all, and drops its petals cleanly. In other words, it's everything red (cerise?!?!?!) Knockout roses *wish* they were.

The negatives are no scent, unless you count "generic green growing plant", lol; the flowers aren't huge, probably 3"; and though they start fairly high-centered, open fairly flat. They definitely aren't Austin/old-fashioned, but they aren't exhibition form, either. The bush itself can be somewhat ungainly, but mine are in a hedge, so they get brutally sheered- they don't mind.

I started with one plant I got on clearance from Home Depot, about eight years ago. I now have 20 in a hedge. That should tell you something.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that Kashmir is a heavy feeder. It will not produce without a good feeding regimen, but I don't think that would be a problem for you, lol. I'm rather haphazard with feeding, because my almost 250 plants are so widespread over my 2+ acre garden. I do well to walk through parts of it once a month, lol. Also, I didn't mention that the ungainliness includes the occasional octopus arm, but that's mainly while it's young and trying to grow into its eventual size.

That's good information about Kashmir that it's a heavy feeder, figinsanity. I am even more haphazard with my feeding but resolving to get better next year once all my roses have stopped being first year roses. I may increase my ratings for Kashmir once he starts getting more food. Certainly I've heard others here on GW having better results like that from Kashmir so I hope your results pan out for me too. I certainly wouldn't count out any Easy Elegance or True Bloom roses (except for the non-lamented Macy's Pride or Mystic Fairy).

Ah, the challenge of picking my top 10 Ping Lim roses! The first 5 or so were easy and I'm still dithering about the last half. Some of the True Bloom series have stood out in their first year but since all of them are brand new to me I don't know their long term potential. Many of them are likely to move up in my rankings over time.

Regardless, here are my picks for top ten, from favorites on down:

1. Favorite - unquestionably Sweet Fragrance - I already have 6 of these and I rarely repeat roses. Gorgeous glowing apricot blooms that don't fade one smidgen and have a delicate fully double form and good lasting power on the bush. I won't mention disease resistance or hardiness for any of these roses because that's a universal trait of my favorites and most Ping Lim roses (Paint the Town being a disappointingly not hardy exception).

2. Pinktopia. I already have three of these, so it's again one of my infrequent repeat roses. It's a nonstop trooper of a rose that makes a compact mass of bloom all season long once it gets going. Not individually striking blooms but impressive en masse. This picture doesn't do her justice but it's old - notice Hannah Gordon in the far back on the right and you can tell the relative size of Pinktopia.

3. My Girl. Dark magenta double blooms that don't fade and last forever. It's another uncomplaining steady bloomer that can handle tough conditions. Mine used to bloom in mostly shade between two houses in my virtual zone 4 and laughed off any trouble in that spot. I have replaced it and want another. For some reason I don't have a bush shot just a bloom that is partially open.

4. Fiesta. It's not commonly available and I've only ever seen it once locally at a place that has long ago gone out of business. If anyone finds it anywhere please alert me! It's a rare striped rose among the Lim offerings and it grew to put out huge arching canes with rows and rows of pink/white striped blooms all season. I'll give you both a closeup and bush shot. Notice those rows of buds just itching to open in the May bush picture.

5. Music Box. I know some folks don't like it because the blooms are mutable and can fade in heat, but the mutability is part of its charm for me. In some conditions they're a lemon yellow with faint white outer petals (like the center bloom below), but they can be an intriguing mix of pink/yellow/white all in various stages of mix over the bush. This one gets big for me at around 5-6' and is good at tying together other colors in a bed without clashing with any of them. This photo isn't the best example but it shows some of the color variation this one can show.

I've shuffled the next 5 into various orders and probably would again as they bloom, so don't take the remaining order too literally. Many of the True series would probably rise to the occasion in this list as they mature.

6. True Sincerity. I don't have a photo as I didn't take pictures all season this year (too busy planting WAY too many roses). To the best of my memory, Sincerity was the one that simply glowed with orange/yellow/pink splendor all over the bush. There's another one that struck me similarly that is bicolor but it escapes my memory at the moment without the photos. None of the True series so far has been disappointing.

7. Super Hero. This one is a red-pink double to semidouble that isn't quite as frequent a bloomer as My Girl but it's a compact 3-4' bush with reliable rebloom and nice looking blooms. I'll show a photo of her pink mood and red mood separately.

8. Snowdrift. There are a lot of hardy white roses but this one puts out an impressive cascade of arching canes that pack a serious punch of white blooms. There's good rebloom but it would move higher on the list if it were the kind of constant bloomer the first 5 are. It grows to about 4-5' tall with longer canes than that that arch down gracefully, though it always holds itself up independently.

9. Sunrise Sunset. This one took years to repeat much after spring which is why it's lower on the list. After about 5 years it repeated regularly in summer, but it makes the list based on the absolutely spectacular show it makes in May-June. It functions as a climber so it makes sense to take some years to reach its stride. It's my second biggest climber after Quadra, even though it's sold as a 2 foot high ground cover rose. Yeah, it covers ground alright! My neighbor asked fervently what this rose was when it was in full bloom, indicating that this is a rose they'd want to grow out of all the roses I have. The May-June picture (at 5 years old) indicates why...

10. Como Park. This one took several years to become a very good repeat bloomer but when it blooms it puts out a wide variety of true red blooms that are impressive. When I was out in June taking pictures of my roses years ago, my neighbor on the other side pointed to Como Park that was blooming its heart out and said, "You're going to take a picture of that one, aren't you?". If Kashmir starts to bloom the way FigInsanity reports, it might replace Como Park in this list. Here's Como Park in May with the columbines. At times it can have a nice high centered bloom form.

For Honorable Mention, I'll give a shout out to the Ping Lim rose Love & Peace. It's a glowing darkly picotee edge pink/yellow mix that knocks my socks off when in bloom. I don't have a decent picture and I'm out of room anyway, and it's only an Honorable Mention since you wanted the EE and TB versions of Lim roses.

Feel free to contest any of these or advocate for your favorites!

Cynthia

For a single I really like daydream. This was last year before weeding.