I am right by the bay and we have cool summers (temperatures rarely get into the 70s). My garden is no-spray. Powdery mildew is a menace here and anthracnose and cercospora trouble the roses that are prone to "spotting". Belle Story - grafted. 10+ years. Spring and fall flushes with smattering of blooms in between. Good health but is prone to cercospora spots in summer. It has earned its place in my small suburban garden because of its enchanting and breath-taking blooms. Great fragrance, as well. Molineux - I have 2. Own root (4th year) and grafted (10+ years). Always in bloom. Good health. My workhorses. Can be pruned to stay 4-5 feet. Geoff Hamilton - own root; 5th year. Gorgeous blooms but a once-bloomer in my garden. I have seen it grown grafted in a warmer summer area where it has 3 big flushes. Crown Princess Margareta - own root in its 4th year. Good spring flush and then all she wants to do is throw out long thin thorny (she has drawn blood) canes; I have almost no rebloom from her. I am tired of constantly hacking her back in attempts to control her exuberant growth. A few miles inland, a CPM, grafed and grown as a shrub, is almost constantly in bloom. CPM will be gone from my garden after this spring. Mary Rose - own root; 4th year. So far, she is staying small. Great fragrance, good rebloom and healthy plant. A favorite. Abraham Darby - own root, 4th year. I am trying to grow it as a small climber. It is generous of bloom and has decent health. The blooms leave something to be desired (mine don't always look like the pics on HMF) and I would replace it with a better rose but for its fragrance... Young Lycidas - grafted, 4th year. Good repeat and blooms are very fragrant. Color is lovely - magenta-purple with a silvery sheen. Foliage is, well, weird. Crinkley and appears diseased but is not. Needs staking as the canes are pencil-thin and can't hold the heavy blooms. Strawberry Hill - grafted; 3rd year. Gorgeous, fragrant blooms in shades of pink, peach and lilac depending on the weather. Generous of bloom. Prone to mildew and rust in my garden. (I hadn't seen rust in my garden before). Nasty, wicked thorns that snag. I grow it as a small climber and I am hoping it becomes more disease resistant with age as its foliage when not mildewed or looking like cheetos is absolutely lovely. The Wedgwood Rose - Grafted; 3rd year. This rose has me baffled. I get 4 flushes but each flush has only 3-4 blooms. The size of blooms have ranged from the size of a quarter to 4 inches. Completely disease-free....of course. The following were added to my garden in March last year, so too early for me to cast judgement but I am adding my observations on health and bloom. All are grafted. Princess Anne - lovely shade of magenta-pink. Much admired by visitors. I can't detect a fragrance but most others say it is strong and very pleasant. Good-looking shrub. Canes are covered in thorns but they are not vicious. Stopped blooming after October. Wollerton Old Hall - lovely blooms. Great fragrance. Bloomed well into December. Is my favorite of the new four. Lady Emma Hamilton - would grow it for the fragrance alone. Plant appears to be healthy and repeat seems to be very good. I think you will enjoy having her, FJ. Princess Alexandra of Kent - big blooms with a color range of pink and coral. Fragrance is iffy but, when there, it is pleasant. Has been constantly in bloom and is blooming now. Unfortunately, prone to powdery mildew. It's in an east facing bed and I will be moving it to a south-facing one to see if I can keep the PM in check. Also, the blooms have a tendency to ball so I am hoping the south side will help in that regard as well. (I try not to get roses with a high petal could but I guess I wasn't paying attention when I ordered this one.) FJ - I think getting her own root is probably a good idea. Mine is already 7 feet wide. Jo Wollerton Old Hall

I'm not in coastal Texas but all of my roses are Austins. I've been growing them for about a year now, all bare root, mostly own root. I just got Abe but he is potted and has not gone in ground yet. He is by far my favorite. The only ones I have that have issues is Chianti. BS like there's no tomorrow. Heritage, The Generous Gardener, Queen of Sweden, Christopher Marlow, Jubilee Celebration, all do great. The most impressive though is Teasing Georgia, extremely robust. Not my fav color but they are both over 6 ft in less than a year. I just got Evelyn too and am anxious to see if she does well. I have no problem with balling, not even last year when the rain was insane. My Belinda's Dream has BS on occasion too but my SDLM is great so far.

I lived and grew roses for 20 years in Winter Haven and Port St Lucie for 10 years before retiring and moving to NE GA in 08. All the DA roses I grew were in PSL and grafted onto fortuniana root stock. Abraham Darby---Grew into a HUGE shrub. Bloomed profusely all year long Scepter d' Isle---I let it grow and staked the canes for the first 3 years. Once it got some strong canes under it this rose took off. Big, upright bush that blooms all year. I liked it so much I brought one with me when I retired. This is what it looks like in NE GA. It gets every bit this big in FL. Molineux---On fortuniana this blooming machine gets about 5 ft tall and easy 3 ft wide. It also does very well on it on root. 3'x3'. Own root, it does fantastic in a large pot. Pat Austin---What every one says. Can't go wrong with it. LD Braithwaite- should love FL. I got one from Nelsons on one of my trips to central FL. This is my bush that is 4 years old. Great grower and bloomer. Another great DA that loves Fl is The Prince on fortuniana. I had 2 by my front walk way in Port St Lucie. 6'x3' bushy bush always in bloom. Finding this rose is almost impossible. I lucked out and got 2 bush's from K&M before DA pulled the plug on it. If you can find bud wood, Coolroses might be able to do a "no name" custom graft for you. This is my 2 yr old The Prince. It should double in size this (3rd) year. It's already 3'x2', and the blooms smell fantastic.

Felicity, I planted my DdC last spring as a 1 gallon own root, so still a baby and hard to say how big it will get. It ended the season at 3 ft at most in height and not quite as wide. Seems it will be upright, but bushy if that makes sense...doesn't look like it will be leggy. Alameda, word of warning on DdC color...it starts out a very bright true red and darkens to a blackish red...no orange undertones, but not the "blue" red or "pink" red of many other "red" roses...just something to be aware of for placement if mixing with other reds