Portlands, officially, I think.
Or you could call them "Portland Damasks."

Jeri Jennings

Oh, sorry, thought they were Damasks. In any case, those three are still my top three choices :)

Madame Hardy??? I heard that she has this powerful scent. Is it true that Damask are greatly known for their fragrance?

Ohh! Difficult. It is mainly a question of colour. Does one prefer the pink, or the harsh pink, or the red?

I like the shape of the bush of Resht, but some may find it too stiff, and the colour of the bloom too hefty. It is very reliable.
'Comte de chambord' can be a bit more fussy, and I would rather choose the 'Jacques Cartier' for a light pink.
I have never had 'Rose du Roi', but the colour is beautiful.

cph-rose...

My own choice in your clothes? 'Cartier' or 'Roi'.

I like "Comte de Chambord" I like the color, nice fragrance, good repeat, well behaved bush,(4x3) thornie though, some black spot but rebounds well..Its one of the parents of english rose Gertrude Jekyll..They are listed most places as "Damask Portlands" I have Rose de Rescht and jacques Cartier as well, but they are to new to comment..mark

I would go with Comte de Chambord or Marchessa Boccella/ Jacques Cartier.

Love the blooms and fragrance of these.

I'd pick Comte de Chambord, whose smell is in the top five of the 70 or so roses I grow. I've tried Rose de Rescht, but the bush is tiny and the blooms even tinier, and I can't smell them !

I have rose Rose de Resht/Rescht and Rose du Roi. Love them both. Rose du Roi has better foliage for my climate, which probably means nothing for your situation. Both tend to hide the blooms with gobs of dense foliage, something I don't mind at all.

Rose de Rescht is my favorite of the three, reblooms well and is a nice shaped bush with good foliage. Comte blackspots badly here; don't know how she should perform farther north. Rose de Roi is kind of new to me so I haven't formed a strong opinion. I like Jacques Cartier even better; a very healthy good reblooming amazing shrub.

You cannot go wrong with Jacques Cartier (which some experts want to rename "Marchesse Boccella", don't know why). I have had 3 Jacques under living room windows for many years, and the rich scent rewards us nightly!

Jacques is very similar to Comte de Chambord, but Peter Beales gives Jacques the edge as having "more refined flowers".

Rose de Rescht is lovely, but does't grow tall enough (not for me anyway) to qualify as an under-the-window rose. You might never get a whiff of him on a still night.

I would not choose Rose du Roi, because I find it does not rebloom very well. Also it does not have as much scent as the 2 others.

Rose rescht is a tough hardy rose that is so easy to grow. It has been outstandingly healthy for me and grafted plant grows to compact 3-4 feet tall bushes that does not freezes back in even very cold winters. It tolerates shade very well and and has a very strong wonderful damask scent, that is able to carry on air. good for a under the vindow rose. own root it grows to a larger plant, mine are 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide. the colour is a magenta reddish pink and the flowers are not very large about 2 inches across. It reblooms very well. Here is a pictures of the rose own root:

Here the rose in the bottom right part of the picture:

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And another one of the same bush from a different angle and colours seems a little strange.

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Comte De Chambord is among the very best OGRS. Takes 4-5 years to build up to a substantial rose bush. Very beautiful flowers and very floriferous in the first flush of flowers.
Absolutely wonderful strong damssk scent with out the sharpness of rose De rescht. Blooms are rich 2 toned pink and about 3 inches across. It is not a very easy rose to grow. Can struglle a bit the first 3 years and need support since the eavy flovers cannot support themselves. Later when it has more canes and structure it is good to stake it when it blooms. Flowers can have tendecy to ball in wet weather, but when it blooms in sunny dry periods there is few OGRs more magnifiecient that this ... but sometimes it does not do well in some gardens and just becomes a few straggly canes.it is not as hardy as rose De Rescht! And not as healthy either. When it looks the best after about 5-6 years and onwards it looks like this:

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Rose de Recht

I live in Northern CA, so these roses may be quite different in my climate. I grow Rose de Rescht, Rose du Roi, Comte de Chambord and Jaques Cartier aka Marchesse Boccella. While I love my RdRescht, it black spots very badly and looks good only in spring and fall. RdRoi is fairly new, but this spring it has been blooming non-stop. Love the color on this one, but do not know about the BS or rebloom as yet. CdC's flowers are beautiful and smelly, but the bush is rather spindly right now and it gets BS. I hope mine develops into one like Cupshaped's. Finally I will talk about JC aka MB--this rose is in constant bloom, the foliage is impeccable and the bush form is quite nice. The fragrance is to die for. I would choose this rose if I could only have one, even though I prefer the darker pinks.

Achingly beautiful shot of le Compte, Cupshaped. Denmark as so far north of California I'm sure our growing conditions have nothing in common. I've held off because of reported disease issues, but I think I need to reconsider after seeing your shot. Wow and thank you.

Beautiful pics!

Thanks for all your input.

I've narrowed it down to Compte and Jacques Cartier that some of you plugged. I'm still not sure which, so I'll ask one of the Lindley's at GLR when I'm out there this Saturday for their advice. :0)

They picture of Comte De Chambord shows 3 grafted plants planted 3 in a cirkel like David Austin Recommends planting Austin roses, so they grow together and form one single bush.

Jacques Cartier on the other hand is one of the few roses in my climate that will become a bush planted solitarily. But patience is required with this rose, unlike a grafted Austin rose it takes 4-5 years for this rose to shoot enough canes to form a bush --- but then it only gets better each year. The first 2-3 years one wonders if this rose will ever be able to form a bush s a little patience is required. I grow both the normal JC and the White sport of JC.

Cupshaped--White sport of JC? What is it called? How does it grow? Would love to see a picture as all of your roses are so beautiful.

I grow all four - Rose de Rescht, Rose du Roi, Comte de Chambord and Marchessa Boccella/JC.

Of the four, MB/JC has been the most satisfying - an amazing, large (5' x 5') shrub that blooms her dang head off. I'll echo what others have said about giving these roses time to form shrubs though - 3 years isn't really enough time. More like 5, I'd say. I've always pruned her very lightly, but I'm going to try pruning her a bit harder this year, after her first flush, to see if I can't get her to stay in bounds a bit better.

Rose de Rescht has formed a nice, dense 3' shrub. It's a natural meatball in my garden. It was hit by a car and knocked out of the ground during the winter of 2005. Picture DH and I replanting a rose in a snowstorm - that was fun. Anyway, it didn't phase the plant a bit. It's one of my favorites.

Rose du Roi is still too new to me to have formed a strong opinion. It's starting to throw some real canes though, and the flowers are gorgeous.

Comte de Chambord has had a tough time in my garden - I planted it in a really bad spot while it was too small to compete, and it just sort of sat there for about three years. We dug it up and put it in a pot last summer, and now it's starting to look like a bush... but still a tiny bush. I have hope for it though - the flowers are so pretty.

We had a really crappy winter with pretty wild temp fluctuation (a lot of my Teas showed damage for the first time ever). This has been a pretty poor season for spotty leaf crud as well - got 'em all right now, I think (except downy or rust, thank goodness). I do not spray. Rose du Roi is pretty spotty right now, but the other three are basically clean (subject to change without notice).

jbfoodie asked: "Cupshaped--White sport of JC? What is it called? How does it grow"?

-It is just called "White Jacques Cartier" and is available from at least 3 rosenuseries here in Denmark.(Not helping you much ehh!!). Here it is mentioned on HMF (see link)

I see HMF does not have pics of the rose but I will upload some to HMF when my roses begin to bloom in about 3 weeks. It is only availble in Denmark and Germany. It has all the same charateristics as the original Jaques Cartier except the colour is not blush pink but white, sometimes with some red tints like Leda (Painted damask). I do not have a very good picture of the bush nor the flower, but it is the rosebush in the bottom right of this picture.

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I do however have a picture of a original Jacques Cartier bloom just opening:

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The Portland roses should be more widely grown in colder climates since they do so well here and are very hardy.
Rose De Resht and Jacques cartier is very easy to grow and tolerates much shade. Blooms very well even with only 3-4 hours of sun. CDC on the other hand requires a good sunny spot and optimal care to do well.

All 3 are so healthy and I have never seen the "crud"leaves on these roses some mention. RDR and JC never needs spraying in my garden, because they seem almost resistant to disease. The leaves are always perfect on these roses. CDC does get a little mildew in my garden and I spray a little.

Here is a link that might be useful: White Jacques Cartier

"in about three weeks" --

You are not allowed to have roses in Denmark before we get roses in the US upper South this year!

"You are not allowed to have roses in Denmark before we get roses in the US upper South this year"!

LOL! well it has never happened before ... but it is so hot, sunny and warm here. And the last 7 month has had the highest ever recorded temps, so yes with all the buds the roses are having already now ..it can not be long. Hope yours are blooming soon too! Oh I love roses ...

Cupshaped, you are breakin' my heart, lol! I would love a White JC. Your White JC 'bush' shot looks lovely. Please post some photos when it blooms. Maybe someone will bring it to the US for propagation one of these days.