There is something else to the pattern I described above that I forgot to mention.
New rosarians always want heavy repeat bloom, but as they "age" in their addiction, they usually will include at least some oncebloomers. The argument that new rose growers usually use is that they have small yard, so can't afford to plant once bloomers. However it never stops them later when they move to the next stage:).
I also followed this path. Good repeat was a must in the beginning in my always small yards. Now I love them all, repeat or no repeat.
Olga

Olga, exactly my experience :)

I want to grow bigger bushes, mainly old garden roses, but now I live in tokyo and I have a very tiny garden :( When I look at the gardens in the photo gallery I want to go to a country where there is more space... just because I want to grow more roses :)

Bgrose,I understand your feeling. My yard is really small, but I love monster roses and once-bloomers. So I grow them anyway, it is just a question of priorities. I don't think larger garden will ever happened in my life :O. Approx 1/3 of my roses are once bloomers.
Olga

Love 'em. There's something about the elegant simplicity of a single rose. That said, I prefer for them to be fragrant.

Olga described my evolution rather well. But, then, when my rose growing began, all that was advertised AND readily available at large garden centers in Houston were HTs and other moderns.
Modern singles have the added benefit of repeating their bloom faster than heavily petaled roses.

The species roses have so much to offer in foliage textures and pest resistance. They give much more pleasure than the time it takes to care for them.

I fell in love with singles a little over two years ago when I saw my first Altissimo at a rose show. Such elengance! It won best of show. I don't have a place for that one yet but I've since acquired two singles that are gorgeous and I love them both, Dainty Bess and Golden Wings.

Olga, you hit the nail on the head with your pattern but I think Ann has hit the reason why too. All you could get around here until just recently were the modern HTs and Flories and shrubs like Knockouts. It's only been the last couple of years that some OGRs have popped up in the big box stores. Even minis have only just started showing up at nurseries around here and forget about polyantha's, no one has those at all. If you're not really into roses and actively searching them out you'll never be exposed to anything else. I certainly wouldn't have been if it weren't for finding great rose forums on line where I learned about a lot of different kinds of roses that I never knew existed. A good example of that too is the fact that almost every person who has seen my DB and GW has asked "is that a rose? I've never seen a rose like that before".

I think most folks, when they first start out see roses as the ones for Valentine's Day. Then as they get hooked, they expand into other forms of roses that you don't see on the florists websites and they begin to like the different appearances.

I like the singles. Very pretty, elegant (which I think was described before) and just a nice shape. Also they are very easy to photograph and are usually winners for me.

The once bloomers are magnificent with their wonderful displays of blooms then hips. Would I trade mine???? NEVER!

Hee Hee . . . Repeating Seil's experience, Neighbors would look at our single and lightly semi-double roses and say:
"What IS that? It ain't a rose, so what IS it?"

From the beginning of our rose adventure, I have loved Single roses.
I just LIKE 'em! It helps that they open here dependably in fog-land, and almost invariably offer wonderful fragrance.
What more could one ask?
Here are a few that are great in my environment:
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Jeri

I have ALWAYS wanted Dainty Bess. Such a shame that its a HT and needs spray. I ADORE those red stamens!!

Mutabilis is very pretty i can see from the pic. A nice rich color. I also like the color(s) of Veilchenblau. I got my mother in law an Altissimo that I rescued last year and am looking forward to in being visible from space this spring when it goes nuts with the blooms. She also likes that the name means "On High" Or "Most high" in Latin. So yes I can see myself developing an increasing taste for singles. Yes it is true about how a person's taste in roses "matures" from the initial loud colors and high centered tea rose form. Sort of like going from the sweet fruity fizzy wines to the more sophisticated ones.

Jeri has shown two roses that share red stamens: Dainty Bess and Grace Seward!
A friend grows Grace up against a gray outbuilding and the red stamens show on it even better than on Dainty Bess because they glow so well against that shade of white. (Note to self: must get Grace Seward.)(There are roses that just can't be forgotten.)

And Gracie is very disease-resistant here.

Grace, wholly dedicated to roses, could be a very FIERCE lady.
On occasion she would look at me. I would quake in my shoes.
Then, remembering that I loved Singles, she would smile.
The rose suits the lady.

Jeri

I have a couple of our Native Nutka Roses on our property. They grow wild everywhere around here. A sweet pink single.

Night Owl is one I would like to add. Jacqueline du Pre looks very interesting to me too. Very ruffly white with those amazing stamens.

I absolutely adore singles, but that wasn't always the case. As I've grown in my love for roses I have come to appreciate ALL roses and strive to collect as many as I can of every type. Half of my dozens of roses on order this year will be singles & semidoubles. When I first fell in love with roses, I was instantly smitten with the globular, full-petalled old roses, so full of fragrance and romantic form. These were my first loves and for a time I only had eyes for them. I deliberately overlooked other types of roses, especially the singles which I never gave a second glance. But as my appetite for collecting roses increased, so did my curiousity about other types of roses....singles, semidoubles, hybrid teas, miniatures, species, rugosas, Austins, floribundas, etc. I feel like I have matured in my love of roses, and now that I don't limit myself to one kind of rose, I see beauty in every rose, and more beauty in life in general.
Those roses I overlooked before incite in me a new-found spark....the singles especially captivate me. There is something so pure about them in their simplicity....and such boldness in their exposed stamens....they appear so friendly because they show their stamens to the world,
unafraid to be who they are.

I am starting roses from seeds right now under lights, hoping my new babies are mostly singles....a couple of years ago, I would have culled the singles out. I have come a long way, baby.
Celeste

Jeri:

Your pictures were really fun! Talk about your visual aid.

So I know you are a fan of Bishop Darlington. What do you think of it compared to Jacqueline du Pre?

Thanks.

Kate

Kate, it's a bigger, more graceful rose, and blooms a LOT more.
It has NO mildew, and NO rust. You can prune it fairly sternly, if you've a mind to, and leave it more or less alone if you prefer. I love the blooms, which change color a little bit with the weather. Its only lack seems to be vase life.
I think it is a FAR superior rose.

Hmmmm . . . Ingrid asked about HMs the other day, and I couldn't think of any I thought were really superior here. But I was forgetting Bishop Darlington. He's superb.

Jeri

Thanks Jeri.

Just to clarify you are saying that BD embodies all those wonderful traits above not JDP right? I'm a little slow at times:(

Thanks for your input.

Kate

Wow, Jeri, amazing pictures of so many beautiful roses. Thank you very much for this wonderful treat!

Yes, Kate -- It was definitely Bishop Darlington I was praising. I think the blooms of Jacqueline DuPres are glorious, but BD is the superior plant, IMHO.

Jeri

bgrose: Go out there and plant singles!

Second what Jeri wrote about Bishop Darlington---I've grown it in two very different gardens and it proved a champ in both.

I'm also fond of Erfurt.

Colleen

How could anyone not like a good, fragrant single rose?

Randy

Basye's Blueberry:
{{gwi:219993}}

Likes heat.
Died here in the coastal chill. :-(

Jeri

Goodness, I must--I counted and exactly a third of the roses in my new garden are singles and semi-doubles! Let's see, there's Basye's Purple, Escapade, Lyda Rose, Playboy, Wild Spice, Secret Garden Musk Climber and Darlow's Enigma. To which I'll be adding Lavender Dream and Vanity. Martha Gonzales is going in the front yard out by the mailbox, I guess that counts! If you like red stamens, take a look at the old Kordes climber Summer Wine-- oboy oboy!

My experience was somewhat different. Although I started out growing doubled Hybrid Teas, I've always appreciated the singles. To me they have a clean classic look that really excels in the landscape. I especially like the translucency of the petals. My one beef is the symmetry of the petals. They must be shaped exactly alike to pull off the "look". Even better if they are large, rounded to tear drop in shape and slightly ruffled. Good examples include Dortmund, Fru Dagmar Hastrup and Rosa rugosa alba. I do insist on repeat bloom though. That hasn't changed in 32 years.

My favorite single is GOLDEN WINGS. The translucent yellow color is gorgous, the nicely fragrant flowers are perfectly shaped with long "eyelashes" (i.e. prominent stamens), non-stop repeat, attractive growth habit, good foliage, not to many thorns and winter hardy to boot. Practically perfect in every way.

Patrick

Golden Wings was the single that turned me on to those 5-petaled beauties. Like so many others, I avoided singles for a long time. Now I can't imaging not having some in my garden. I also grow Dainty Bess, Dortmund, Robusta, and Morden Sunrise (an almost-single). All very lovely and quick to rebloom. Here's Golden Wings:

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Beautiful photo of Golden Wings.

This is my one and only single-type....but I am now a devotee...I am gonna HAVE to have more!!!
Just LOVE Miss Betty!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:225234}}

As Olga said, they are growing on me :-). I ordered Dainty Bess this year after planting and liking International Herald Tribune and Secret Garden Musk. Mrs Oakley Fischer is another I have been considering. I also agree with Alicia, I want mine to be fragrant.

Carol

I love them, the whole village has single flowered roses. One of my fav is Minutifolia. It's for sell here in europe but if it grows well is a question. It's not a desert area here. Maybe to cold. In belgium their is a bush but didn't bloom in 3 years.

Minutifolia. It's for sell here in europe but if it grows well is a question.

*** It's really a desert plant.
I've not been able to keep it alive here. That doesn't mean it can't be done, of course. Just that I failed with it.

Mel Hulse had a gift for dealing with it.

Jeri

Jeri, I thinking of trying it next year. Maybe it works.

These are the singles I photographed in the village:

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I'm going to use them this year with hybridizing.
The are cute!

So lovely, Rosatimo, thank you for the beautiful pictures.

Jeri, I have planted 3 singles, I am looking forward to seeing their blossoms. Hopefully as beautiful as those on the pictures above.

I, too, followed the Olga theory of evolution. There is something special in the simplicity of a single bloom.

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I consider Knock Out and Pink Knock Out singles... and I love them both.

I also have Playboy, Playgold, Good 'n Plenty, Soaring Spirits, Gizmo, and la belle sultane...

Several semi doubles as well. My main concern is the color, if it is vibrant, one can barely tell the flower is a single when the bush is in full bloom...

Reckon I am stuck being Neanderthal and can't evolve.... HTs are still my favorites 40+ years later. We do have singles and semi doubles that I like:

Betty Boop

Little Artist

My Sunshine

Rose Gilardi

Candy Cane

Most are minis.

unsofistikated digger (just teasing folks - I always get to laughing when I see evolve mentioned)

I really liked Betty Boop.
What doomed her in my garden was the unattractive way that the stamens blackened.
It seemed as tho this happened in about a nanosecond after the bloom opened. The fade was just unattractive.
Had it lived where I was not close to it, it might have stayed.
But it was right next to the gate, where its flaw could not be missed.
We had a Candy Cane (until yesterday) in a hanging pot.
It has done more and more poorly for the last few years.
DH removed it, and discovered that it was HORRIBLY infested with root gall.
Poor plant! It's a wonder it functioned at all.
But I would plant it again, one of these days.

Jeri

I can handle the stamen color change on Betty Boop. I do agree the fade is unattractive but for a different reason. The petals hang on too long. The petals get brown water stains on them. It is my fault since I get blooms wet twice a week (at least). Deb usually keeps BB deadheaded since she likes the blooms longer than I do. Every now and then.... I just have to snap the old stained ones off when I'm next to BB.
Candy Cane has surprised me since Missy (gardenwhimsey) sent it to us. CC is cane hardy here and only has tip damage in spring. Never expected that. This reminds me I need to upload some 07 pics of CC :)

Speaking of reminded... I just got scolded for forgetting one of her favorites, Fourth of July What was I thinking?

Fourth of July - what a pretty rose, such a happy vibrant colour. Just looking at it and I smile! Thanks for posting, Diggerdave.

rosatimo, those blooms almost look like clematis! The 4th one down is very lovely.

I do think singles is the next step in the evolution of a rose grower. After awhile you sort of get 'petaled out' of the Austins and other 100+ blooms. There is something about the natural form of single blooms.

I added Veilchenblau last year. I didn't get a lot of blooms, but it's put on a lot of growth over the year and I'm hoping to see a show this spring. It did BS very badly, but I was very lax in spraying last year.

I too followed Olgas theory on the evolution of a rose gardener except that a company which shall remain nameless mistakenly sent me the climber Captain Thomas instead of Don Juan. I learned to appreciate singles early but if it were not for this mistake, I think I would have been stuck in HT-dom for a long time.

Another isngle petalled flower I love that isnt mentioned is the shrub Sally Holmes. When I grew her in PA, she was floriferous, disease resistant, and made a gorgeous arching bush or small climber.

Im a bigger fan of singles that change color as they age, as Mutabilis does. This thread is great! It reminded me of other roses I need to add to my new flower beds here in Knoxville.

No, not really. I haven't evolved yet. Yet double clematis and double daylilys look inelegant to me. So I much prefer single clematis and single daylilys with my heavily double roses. :)

To me Mutabilis is the greatest single rose of all time, but then I haven't been exposed to all of them yet. Others I love in my garden are Route 66 and the almost-singles International Herald Tribune (thank you Jeri) and Heinrich Karsch. I have a baby Lavender Dream (enabled by Jeri) that I can't wait to see bloom. In a former garden I also liked Betty Prior. And I almost forgot Heideroeslein, a hybrid musk that's just becoming established in my garden. Many of the species roses have exquisite single blooms but the bloom season is so short. I've inquired about R. moschata on another thread, since it seems to have a much longer bloom season, and I've heard so much about its fragrance. There's always something new to look forward to in roses!

Ingrid

I've R. glauca, R. moyesii and R. pseudoscabriuscula for next hybridizingseason. R moyisii is a very nice single. I like the red.

Oh ... Hoovb, say it isn't so.

Randy w/feelings hurt (not really)

Siloam Double Classic daylily, my favorite daylily.
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Funny, I also don't like double clematis, double lilies(sorry Randy)or double daffodils.
I love double(and single) peonies and doble (and single) lilacs.
Olga

Robusta , I actually get a fragrance out of it...

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R. Rugosa... Darn JBS love em though...
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R. Rugosa Alba, mmmm a mass of these smell delicious
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I kept on hearing how R. Glauca wasnt grown for its flowers... Then I saw it as a 6 foot bush in a heirloom garden in Standish Maine, Wonderful Dainty little flowers... I gotta get one!

HoovB Im with you on the double dayliles, No disrespect or anything, but for the most part, they look off to me... Each of us has a different eye though.

I didn't used to like them, but I do now and several have crept into the group . . . Robusta, Pink Meidiland, Betty Boop. And Dainty Bess is on her way.

I agree about the Daylilies and Clematis. I like them single best. Hollyhocks too.

Carol

I think my tastes are evolving backwards. I never even considered that I could grow Hybrid Teas in frozen Minnesota. I started with a couple hardy Explorers and am now starting to branch out a bit.

One single that I must have is Ballerina! I'm planning to order 5 own root this spring.

I'm afraid that I like the many-petaled roses best. That said, I did think Bishop Darlington and Mutabilis were very pretty. Are they hardy for Zone 5a. I have been rooked enough times that I ask that question first. Appreciate any comments you have. We have terrible weather here in the winter. Thanks - Barb

That daylily looks....obscene.

I have Ballerina it's beautiful. I'm hoping to get a great spring bloom out of this spring. Last spring I foolishly transplanted it and it lost all its buds.