I'm surprised nobody has posted on this thread for so long. Anyway, while knowing which general classes of roses are best, it's just as important to consider the specific individuals within those classes. The most successful rose I grew while in Mississippi was the Cherokee Rose (Rosa Laevigata). Second in vigor and health was the yellow Banksia. Third, I suppose, would be Rosa Fortuniana, which I planted (mislabeled by Bracy's, as usual) thinking I'd bought the white Banksia. Fortuniana is a hybrid of white Banksia and Cherokee. I've also had spectacular results with Mermaid and Fortune's Double Yellow. And while the endlessly touted 'New Dawn' was a bit of a disappointment, the once-blooming parent from which it sported, Dr. W. VanFleet, was a disease-free giant (I measured some thirty-foot canes!!!). My family's 'official rose' is Silver Moon, a big, disease-free old Hybrid Wichuriana. My Great-Grandmother bought one during her glory days as one of the richest women in the Delta. After the Cotton Panic of '25 decimated her plantations and vaporized the banks in which she owned stock, our struggling family would make cuttings from that original plant, as they established their own homes. A big, pushy, loud church leveled her home in the Eighties (purchasing it with promises not to, of course...pathological lying being that denomination's other salient trait), and bulldozed her gardens. But that rose's progeny lives on, from River Oaks to Mountain Brook. Today, a generation of budding gardeners is making cuttings of those Silver Moons, for homes from Mendocino to the Isle of Palms. I also grew up with another probable Wichuriana hybrid that seems to have been 'Gardenia'. Lemon-Creme blooms, tea fragrance, apple-green foliage, totally free of disease. Dorothy Perkins is a Wichuriana hybrid, which, while prone to a dusting of surprisingly-attractive mildew, is otherwise fabulously healthy and wonderfully easy to root. I think I've seen Dorothy's deeper pink sister, 'Debutante', naturalized in the hedgerows, along roads leading to Natchez. Anyway, the Wichuriana class, while once-blooming (except for New Dawn), are fabulously healthy, and mostly immune to the occasional cold snaps which complicate things down south. Dr. W. VanFleet, BTW, is also a Hybrid Wichuriana. Before we moved up here, I was falling in love with what was sold to me (at the Greater Belhaven Farmer's Market)as the non-climbing form of the Polyantha, Clotilde Soupert. Not a trace of blackspot; continual bloom; wonderful scent; petal-packed, cabbagey little blooms, fading to a nice, neutral fleshy-pinky-offwhite; blooms well into early winter; GOOD SHADE TOLERANCE: what's not to love? An aunt in South Carolina passed this little mnemonic along to me from a rose lecture she'd attended: "Polyantha Noisette likes her Tea in a China cup." That sums up, pretty well, the classes of antique ever-blooming roses best for the South. Walking to class at Tulane, back in the days when it was still safe to be a couple of blocks lakeside from St. Charles, I'd pass rundown Uptown Victorian houses with ancient Tea roses out front. Can't tell you the names, but the old teas (and very first Hybrid Teas) develop a quite pleasant and substantial architecture. They'd cheer me up, blooming well into December, on basically neglected plants. The Hybrid musk with which I grew up was 'Eutin'. My Grandmother had her two out beneath some Pecan trees. Even with the shade and the sap (and without pruning), they bloomed all summer. I remember a fragrance which traveled far from the plant, although the plant is not listed as being fragrant. The Growth habit is upright and awkward, though, and you will have to prune a lot. Eutin could once be spotted in humble gardens all over Mississippi. Personally, I've grown the Hybrid Musks Cornelia and Vanity. Vanity has a very open growth habit, shocking pink blooms, and healthy foliage. Cornelia matures into a huge mess of a shrub, with plenty of blackspot, but also plenty of vigor. The fragrance is up there with Hyacinth, Winter Honeysuckle, Frangipani, and Lemon Blossom...it's that wonderful. One spray will perfume a hospital room or an office. Grow it in your Kitchen Garden, where its big, messy ever-blooming self won't be an aesthetic disaster. Or plant it in the front yard (as I foolishly did, at an apartment building I owned), and spend all your waking hours pruning it.

For Geo - Applejack: Large arching shrub rose, cane hardy, disease free with no spray, good rebloom and apple scented foliage. I have mine in an area that is planted with several albas and it fits right in. I never posted on this thread originally because I could never choose my "favorite" Buck rose. I love so many for so many different reasons! They're not all hardy and they're not all disease resistant...but the one thing I've learned from this forum is that to find out if they do well in your own garden you've got to try them. What one does in Texas does not translate to Michigan and visa versa. Anyway, FWIW here is a list of my best: Chorale Distant Drums Dorcas Earth Song Elias Golden Princess Grace Note Hi, Neighbor Honeysweet Iobelle Les Sjulin Mountain Music Paloma Blanca Pipe Dreams Prairie Star Prairie Sunrise Quietness Spanish Rhapsody Square Dancer Sunbonnet Sue Wild Ginger See? I couldn't even narrow it down to top 5! I'm hopeless, LOL. Anne Here is a link that might be useful: My Buck rose photos

I add more Bucks every year. I currently have Country Dancer, Country Squire, Freckles, Hawkeye Bell, Quietness, Distant Drums, Golden Unicorn, Paloma Blanco and Prairie Clogger. In addition, I have several of the red Bucks--unfortunately when I was moving we lost tags and I'm not really sure which ones made the trip. I think its Grif's Red and Night Song. All of these are excellent roses for me. Country Dancer blooms in very large candelabras and is decently resistant to BS. Mine has suffered several mishaps during our move and still came back strong. For me it tends be more spreading than upright. Country Squire is a big shrub rose that never quits blooming and in the spring and fall will reward you with hundreds upon hundreds of blooms. I don't spray this rose regularly as it has a fairly high resistance to BS. Freckles has beautiful HT style speckled blooms. It is more upright - at least in my garden it is capable of going head to head with Peter Mayle its nearest neighbor. Good BS resistance. Hawkeye Bell is a perfectly shaped bush, with perfectly shaped blooms and decent fragrance. Good BS resistance. Quietness - one of my new favorites - absolutely clean, beautiful, fragrant pale pink or creamy white blooms and a vigorous grower even in a difficult drought year. I just put two in this spring from RU (DH bought one and I bought one). They are almost 4' now. I am so impressed with this rose. Distant Drums is a big healthy bush with those odd colored but very enticing blooms. It reblooms quickly. It is the Buck most prone to BS in my garden, but it is also planted in the most difficult location. Its only been in the ground a season is something like 4'. Golden Unicorn was purchased late in the season and is still very small. Its repeated 3 or 4 times and stays clean. Its doubled in size. This is the one my mother-in-law always asks for. Paloma Blanco is a very good white rose with good fragrance, clean habit and prolific bloom. Unfortunately mine is virused, so I'll have to dig it up. If Heirloom carries it virus indexed, I will replace it. The best white HT type rose I grow. Prairier Clogger - red, fragrant, single, vigorous, disease free and free blooming. What more could you ask for? I wish I had found this rose sooner, I would have used multiples of it across the front of my house instead of the reds I have planted there now. Grif's Red(?) and Night Song(?) - One of these throws monster long canes and grows like a weed. They are both exceptionally good reds and I have a lot of reds. They are planted in front my house and do justice in a highly visible location. The one I think is Night Song is more prone to BS than the other. Neither are particuarly difficult to keep clean. Both have some fragrance. One of the things I like about the Buck roses is that I do not have to battle canker in the spring with any of them. It always amazes me how healthy they are when...

Maybe it just does well in my climate, but I adore Dorcas. Bucks dont have much scent, but I dont care - this one is out in full hot Texas sun, is a big huge strong bush with well shaped blooms that stay on the bush a long time - I just finished deadheading another flush - and great disease resistance. I think the "dorky" name has hurt it - it is anything but dorky! Maybe not much is heard about it because it isnt grown much. Mine is in the middle of Sally Holmes and Chuckles on the other side [another fabulous, heavy blooming, beautiful rose, much underused!] and they are along a front fencline in the all day sun. They bloom all the time - the 3 of them are always putting on a show. I decided I wanted Dorcas near the house to enjoy and it was very hard to find. I get most of my Bucks at Chamblees but they didnt have it anymore. Got mine from Hortico, they are being shipped right now, so should get them in a few days. I will be sure to put my 2 Dorcas roses in a prime spot so I can enjoy their beauty. For me, this is one of Dr. Bucks very best! Give it a try! I have some photos someplace on my memory stick, but finding them is another matter. If I have time to look, in between putting up Christmas, I will post some photos. Dont overlook Bright Melody either, and you should see Barn Dance today! Covered in lovely pink blooms, big strong bush....I would like another of this. Dorcas's blooms are more well formed or "finished" - they arent loose and floppy and they remain on the bush a long time. Tough as boot leather, as we say in Texas.