Hi,
I just wanted to say that I understand how some new roses can lift your spirits and make you feel better about going to a new place. I grow some of the roses on your list, but our conditions are so different that I really can't offer you much information.

I did want to also say that I have a dear friend who is moving to El Paso so have looked around a little bit on the web and found out that there is a really pretty rose garden there. I don't know how close El Paso is to where you will be, but conditions may be the same. I thought maybe you might want to contact the Master Gardeners there and see what roses they grow, assuming conditions are kinda the same where you will be. Hot, probably alkaline soil, windy. anyway, just a thought. Good luck with your move!

Check out the Antique Rose Emporium (ARE), they are in Texas and have very good stock. I understand they send out larger sized plants, and so you will be further aheah when your two years is over!

Chamblees in Texas, and Roses Unlimited in Carolina are other close rose nurseries, Roses Unlimited (RU) also has larger sized plants-many are already blooming when they reach you.

Shopping more "locally" will save a bit on the shipping, and their roses will be more tailored to you growing conditions. But if there is something on RVR list that only they have, then go with their option.

http://www.chambleeroses.com (usually smaller bands)

http://rosesunlimitedownroot.com
(modern-antique roses, very few old roses)

Hartwood Roses in Virginia also carries roses that are suitable for warmer climates. Connie is a wonderful new person in the nursery business, and takes the time to help you figure out what would be your best options.

http://www.hartwoodroses.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Antique Rose Emporium

I can only speak for two on your list, but since inland southern California is the capital of hot and dry, I can recommend them highly. The two are Heritage and Francis Dubreuil (aka Barcelona). Francis was a slow starter for me--which may be what you want if he's going to live in a pot for a couple of years. Mine, actually, is still in a pot (big pot) five years later, and he's ridiculously healthy and the first to bloom every spring. Rebloom is tremendous. Because the blooms do tend to crisp when it gets to be 100+ in July and August, he does benefit from some afternoon shade (a problem I inadvertently solved with a retractable awning). And the fragrance is to die for.

Heritage is just an all around fabulous rose. One of Austin's best. Disease free, few thorns, and great fragrance, though very different from Francis Dubreuil.

Kay

Northtexasdude,

What a winner you are!!! When life hands you lemons, you decided to make rose container gardens!!! Good for you, that you didn't let the job move squish you down.
BTW I just ordered several Secret Garden Musk.

I lived for 3 years in west Texas. What I remember is hot, super dry, and windy, windy, windy. The good news is that my rental came with a fair-sized red rose shrub which survived beautifully on its own (since I didn't know a thing about roses in those days). I never even watered it, but I guess you could say it was well-mulched since every year leaves really accumulated in that corner of the yard and no one that I'm aware of ever raked them up. The backyard with the rose shrub was fenced in--those solid 6 ft high weathered boards, so maybe that gave the rose shrub some protection, but I'm just guessing.

I have no experience growing roses in containers, but I'd think Buff Beauty would be hard to handle that way. Mine sprawls about 5 feet in all directions, and most people treat it as a climber I think. I let mine sprawl.

And I'd wonder about Shakespeare 2000 also. While it certainly doesn't sprawl as extensively as Buff Beauty, it does tend to grow a bit awkwardly in a somewhat horizontal direction. Could make a rather lop-sided container plant? I'm not sure.

They are both great roses and both fairly good on disease-resistance, but I'm not so sure about container growing them.

Don't know the other roses.

Kate

On your list, I would highly recommend Baronne Prevost, Buff Beauty and William Shakespeare. These are very easy to grow and adapt to container growing very well. Think at least 15 gal. pots. Three different colors with three different scents. Then you can pick between the two you really want.

I grew Graham Thomas in a pot for about 5 years. It stayed a fairly reasonable size but it was definitely taller than most HTs would be. I had a small trellis in the pot to tie it to and that worked out well. Lovely blooms, good fragrance fair disease resistance but a water HOG! I use it as the canary in the mine for watering because it droops immediately if it's the least bit dry. So it may not be the best for a very hot, dry climate.

La Marne was a lovely polyantha that bloomed nearly continuously for me. It didn't winter for me so I don't know what it's eventual size might be but it only got about 3 x 3 feet in the season I had it and that seems to be about the perfect size for container roses in my opinion. I don't remember it having a lot of fragrance but the blooms were really lovely. They would start out with more pink and even burgundy touches and then open to white.

I love the comments! Thanks everyone! Please keep them coming. I think I am going to order a few clematis as well. It seems in the past I have also had to give clematis a few years before they actually took off. going to give them a head start now (I love clematis on a trellis). Feel free to chime in with your favorite clematis as well!

Lesson learned - in the past I did not do a very good job of keeping up with the names of my clematis and roses (the two things I grow multiple varieties of). Sheets of paper do get lost over the years. This time around....I am going to keep everything on an excel spreadsheet!

I grow the three Austins you mention (Graham Thomas, Will Shakespeare, Heritage). I prefer the look/scent of Sharifa asma to Heritage, but all three are lovely roses that do well in our very hot although more humid climate.

Graham wants to be a giant bush (currently about 6-8feet) or climber here, so if using a pot it will hav to be a big one. Molineux or Golden Celebration would be alternates that should be a bit smaller--Molineux stays petite, while GC makes a 3-4' arching bush. One can also grow Heritage as a climber here (more upright than Graham I think). Will stays as a 3 foot nice round bush here so I'd guess he'd be good in a container.

I think for West TX, I might hesitate on Excellenz von Schubert -- unless your water us less-alkaline than I think it is. This is a rose with aLOT of Multiflora in it, and it hates alkaline conditions.

If you can give him morning sun and afternoon shade, I'd give G. Nabonnand a whirl. Once established, the old Tea Roses are pretty drought-tolerant.

Likewise, I'd like to suggest:
'Louis Philippe'
'Cramoisi Superieur' and
'Archduke Charles,' --
by way of being very tough roses that can take a likin' and keep on Tickin' -- and 'Old Blush,' which really loves Texas.

Jeri (who gets to TX every couple of years)

francis/barcelona is a wonderful rose, but high heat makes it oh-so-crispy. :)

in cool weather:
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'Cinco' has deep red new stems, 'Julia's are bronzey.

I live in a very hot, dry area with a long growing season. Graham Thomas demanded a trellis and is a climber. It needs very heavy pruning in winter. It throws long skinny canes the rest of the season with flowers on the ends. It needs heaving pruning all season long, but I always forget and have to deal with the skinny arching canes. It is on a east-facing wall and doen't fry in the late afternoons. It is really beautiful in its spring bloom.
Here is a photo to cheer you up.
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I wanted to add that even though I know you're going to grow in containers, to kinda watch the alkalinity of the water as well. I suspect that it's going to have a high pH and might affect your containers. Let us know what you do and what you finally decide!

Duchesse de Rohan is a wonderful rose, however it took it five years to start reblooming, so it requires patience.

Lavender Lassie is wonderfully fragrant and vigorous, not sure if it would do well in a pot. Mine is 8 feet wide and almost as tall, probably can get larger in a warmer zone.

thank you everyone for your wisdom and inspiring pictures! RVR confirmed my order! I can't wait for these:
Secret Garden Musk
Autumn Sunset
Francis Dubreuil
Baronne Prevost
Ghislane de Feligonde (Free rose)
and of course their mystery rose. I'm kind of excited about this mystery rose, anyone ever been able to identify theirs?
Thanks again!! Can't wait to take pictures of the first blooms.

I hope you love your new container garden, northtexasdude, and everything thrives until you get them planted in your home.

I've gotten two mystery roses from Rogue Valley. The first was identified as the once blooming Cl. Cecile Brunner, which I donated to a local rose auction.

The second is two years old now, and is some kind of once blooming climber. It's thornless and I think might be Veilchenblau. I won't know until this spring, though. I've been waiting for two years for it to bloom and go out and look at it in a 15 gallon pot fairly frequently! Aren't roses fun?!!!