I don't know if these are on any of your lists, but Marie Pavie and it's sport, Marie Daly are very healthy and nearly thornless. I just rec'd some cuttings of Marie Pavie in the mail, and you would (almost) never know they were rose cuttings :)

Tammy

Marie Daley gave me one or two tiny pricks, but I'd say it's thornless-a very nice surprise when all you have ever known are those very thorny HT. Marie Daley is very fragrant, the scent carries andwas very healthy but then we had a very dry weather last year. My plant came from Cliff Orent (EuroDesert Roses) but many nurseries carry it.

Thank you, Tammy, Phoebe, and Predfern for the above recommendations. Goat-skin gloves are tough against thorns, but they are inflexible and I break out in rash, and scratch my hands until they turn bloody. I am also allergic to suade and cow leather. Finally I bought smooth deer-skin gloves, with no allergic reaction. The drawback is that it doesn't protect against big thorns like Knock-outs.

I was checking my 10 Austin roses this morning. Wise Portia has the smallest prickles, next is Golden Celebration, and Lady Emma Hamilton has wider gap between her thorns. Thank you for the recommendations of Marie Pavie & Daly, Brother Cadfael, and Reine des Violettes.

I found Patrick's ordeal with thorns and immediately scheduled a tetanus shot. Prevention magazines advised every 5 years, rather than once a decade for maximum effectiveness. Here's an excerpt of Patrick's ordeal:

"It happened on a Sunday while I was visiting my mother. I was wearing gardening gloves (the expensive kind) when my mother's CLIMBING FOURTH OF JULY pierced the nylon mesh, between the leather pads, and got me between the thumb and forefinger. A freak chance and not even a bad prick. I didn't think anything of it because I've been scratched/stuck by a rose hundreds of times nothing bad has ever happened. That night it started to itch and their was this tiny (just barely visible) prick. No inflamation, scaling or redness. Unbelievable. I'm dreading the surgery. "

James Galway doesn't have a lot of thorns.

Yellow Lady Bank's rose (rosa banksiae lutea) is not "low thorns" - it has NO THORNS WHATSOEVER!

I have a mystery rose in my garden that is also yellow, and also completely, entirely, thornless. I got it from the garden of a very old cottage (so old that it was one of the only residences remaining on a commercial street) that was to be (and was) torn down and replaced with a parking lot. It is a medium sized bush with lovely small blooms that age to whitish. It blooms all Summer long, and is healthy. Here are pics in case anyone has any guesses as to its identity:

{{gwi:240672}}

{{gwi:242250}}

{{gwi:242251}}

Why did Patrick need surgery?
Everyone should get a tetanus shot if they have not in the past five years.

Climbing Pinkie is said to have few thorns. Mine has tiny ones with backward hooks that get me.
Renee

Hi hosenemesis: if you search for "Patrick and thorns" in this forum, you will see this info. "My left hand isn't any better. My doctor referred me to a hand specialist. The specialist ordered a STAT MRI... the MRI revealed a large mass imbedded deep in my hand... an abscess from a rose thorn... rose thorns can carry a fungus that has been linked to this kind of infection ... surgeon had to basically cut hand in half to get all of the mass out. pain excrutionating on friday and saturday. vicodin barely made a dent. cried into my pillow on both nights."

Tetanus is also a risk in the garden with soil and manure. According to Wikipedia, 50 to 100 cases of tetanus are reported in the U.S. per year. Yesterday I had to wait on the phone for 20 minutes at the doctor's office, before the insurance could said, "yes, tetanus shot is 100% covered." I got my last tetanus at the village public health's location, where I paid $24 and it took 5 minutes to get there. Going through the doctor's office this time is a nuisance, even when the insurance paid 100%.

Strawberryhill, Kathleen Harrop and Zephirine Drouhin are thornless.

I grow Kathleen Harrop, repeats nicely for me. It's a sturdy rose, tolerates cold quite well, easy to grow.

Madame Alfred Carriere is not thornless, but relatively "low thorn". This one just wants to grow up, up and up though. The one in my garden ended up growing like a standard with a 15 foot trunk! I won't doubt that it is the tallest standard rose in the whole neighbourhood!

The list from Help me find for thornless (or almost) for your zone:

Frederic Mistral (Romantica)

Mayflower (English Rose, Austin, 2001)

Mrs. John Laing (Hybrid Perpetual)

Peggy Martin (Climber)

Lee

Thank you, Krista, Cactus_Joe, and Leezen for your recommendations. Krista - thank you for informing me about Kathleen Harrop's good repeat and easy to grow.

I'm glad to hear from you, Cactus_Joe, we have lots of rain here with the result of 6' tall Double-Knockout, and 7' tall Tropicana HT at the rose park - but they become short again through die-back in zone 5a winter.

I got pricked really bad several times by Knock-outs. This is our warmest winter, so they all are green to tip. I'm thinking about killing them, so I can replace with what Lee recommends. My kid hates these Knock-outs, so I'll kill them for her sake.

Strawberry,

Patrick didn't have surgery to remove a thorn. You mentioned the thread in which Patrick had a swollen hand, but you didn't share that a rose thorn was only a preliminary possibility and that the problem turned out to be a lipoma (with the cause probably trauma from hitting his hand multiple times against a shovel). In that thread I don't see a post that includes a diagnosis of tetanus by any of his doctors either.

Here's a quote from Patrick's post of 4/12/07 toward the end of the thread where he described what he learned from his hand specialist:

"Just got back from the hand specialist. It was definately a Lipoma. He told me that he got out all of the tumor and capsule so it should not recure in that particular spot. The bandage and stitches are gone. I must say that he did really nice work. The incision was made along the lifeline, so the scar won't be very noticeable. The most likely cause was the repeated striking of my left palm against the shovel along with my weight. Folks who are overweight yet still exert themselves (i.e. middle aged rose gardeners) are more likely to develop these things. I've gained most of the weight back from last year's weight watchers diet. So there it is."

Melissa

Here is a link that might be useful: Swollen Hand thread in Roses Forum at Gardenweb

Sterling Silver is low thorns. I know some people don't like it, but I like it. It is doing well for me. I have it in pot and I bring it inside at night so the leaves won't get dew on them. It has a flower bud, already. I planted bare root in Jan of this year.