For me, the best "nearly thornless" true OGR's have been the below three. The sizes listed are if you don't prune (except for dead wood, crossing canes, etc). These are mature sizes. They can be kept a little smaller if you do prune.

Mrs Dudley Cross (8 ft x 6 ft)
Reine des Violettes (7 ft x 5 ft)
Gilbert Nabonnand (6 ft x 6 ft)

And there's three "moderns" that I highly recommend too:

Basye's Blueberry (6 ft x 4 ft)
Nur Mahal (not sure yet, mine's too young)
Pink Gruss an Aachen (4 ft x 4 ft)

There are others, but these six are my favorites. I didn't list 'Heritage' because I consider it to be "low-thorned" rather than "nearly thornless", but I couldn't garden without it, and it is fairly harmless.

Randy

Marie Pavie, Marie Daly, Crepuscule

I've seen Ladybanks at the Sac historic rose garden grown as a sprawling shrub.
It is completely thornless. Crepuscule gets quite large though the one I have is (so far) very manageable.

Rosa Mundi.

Home Depot has Reine des Violettes in special pots with plastic wrapping for $12.99. I think the line is called "Scentsational" or some such nonsense. They have other OGRs such as Gen. Jack and Compte de Chambord. I bought mine last spring and it survived the winter. Thornless, too (unlike some).

I don't know if the grow habit would fit but Zephrine Drouhin is thornless....

Paul from Alabama....

Tausendschön (or "Tausendschoen") is thornless (or very, very nearly so). It's also been used a bit in hybridization, so there are almost thornless descendants of it, too. Here's the HelpMeFind link:

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=6211

Paul Neyron and the Bermuda Mystery Rose "Soncy" are nearly thornless, too.

Ronda, on my list of favorite nearly thornless roses above, I should have mentioned that although G. Nabonnand's canes are mostly thornless, each and every leaf has plenty of small prickles underneath their mid-ribs, and they will definitley scratch you. The others on my list have far fewer, and some have none, of those "under-belly" prickles.

Randy

Weeping China Doll seems to be pretty clean of thorns
Olya

Clotilde Soupert and Paul Neyron are practically thornless.
Crepuscule too is but that's a huge rose won't be good along a pathway.

Renae, not an older rose, but it could be mistaken for one. Louise Odier.

Reine des Violettes is supposed to be nearly thornless and it's a repeat bloomer. The leaves are supposed to have a peppery scent. It needs heavy feeding. (I'm getting this from my book, not from first hand experience).

Carol

Madame Alfred Carrier is sparse on thorns. Size? "Indeterminate" - i.e., it can grow on and on and on if you let it.

Reine is a marvelous rose but it gets large here. Paul Neyron gets pretty big himself. How much room do you have and how big a bush are you looking for, Ronda?

Carol

'Chloris' is totally thornless as well.

I really like Marie Pavie or Marie Daly for that purpose. Both will stay a nice size, have fragrance and bloom a lot. My MP have always been healthy, but only MD made the Earthkind list.

Mme. Legras De St. Germain is pretty much thornless too.

Canadian Carol,
Your book is correct : )
Remy

Ohhhhh good suggestions so far.

Carol, I can use anything from 3 x 3 to 8 x 8.

Please keep in mind this will be a no-spray garden.

Louise O.

My clone of Crepuscule must be different, because it has a moderate amount of hooked thorns. I'm always surprised to see it on a "thornless" list.

You can do an Advanced Search on Helpmefind - you can, under plant habit, indicate that you want "thornless, or nearly" and under breeding indicate that you want roses before a certain date. It will then give you a list that's far from perfect, but a good place to explore some other options. You can put in other criteria, too.
Anita

It's not by chance that Marie Pavie is not on the Earthkind list; she gets blackspot here every year.

There are three roses that I grow that are truely 100% thornless, if you're interested. They are the old hybrid musk, 'Nur Mahal'; the rose that Dr. Robert Basye bred by back-crossing a modern rose to a wild rose, 'Basye's Blueberry'; and the miniature rose, 'Softee' (aka "Jefferson Rose").

Randy

My 12 X 8 foot Louie Phillipe has a very few, tiny blunt thorns on the very base of its canes.

Thonotorose, that's interesting about your Louis Phillipe. I've also noticed that in this area, the roses most often called 'Louis Phillipe' are like you said ... have very few thorns. And most of the roses grown around here as 'Cramoisi Superieur' (the one with more petals) usually have plentiful, large, hooked thorns.

Randy

Thonotorose, I forgot to ask ... where did you get your Louis Phillipe?

Randy

Cornelia, the hybrid musk. Mine is small, so I can't tell you a size, Ronda.

Spice, the Bermuda mystery rose, and Ducher, the china. I'm expecting Spice to get 6' tall at least; but I'm not sure. Ducher is smaller.

Randy,

I believe that I got it from one of the Texas outlets, Chamblees or ARE. I just noticed that neither website lists this rose as thornless.

I walked to school quite a distance through Tampa in the '60s. On those walks I passed this wonderful rose and smelled it every chance I got. I was very aware at a young age that it was thornless. In fact, this was before I knew it's name.

In my 30's, thanks to an article in the local paper by John Starnes, I found out what it was called. It was the first rose I bought to plant here when we moved to this property in 2000.

It is lovely. Very scented, wafts often. I would call it a cherry red with a slightly lighter center. Cupped, and for me here in central Florida, flush after flush after flush. The first year it really preformed, I counted fifteen flushes!

I am amazed at its size. It is next to a patio with a cover. I have tied it to an upright and now am looping the upper canes over big hooks hanging from the roof edge. I would say it is 10-12 feet now. And this is with a max of 4 hours full sun and planted in limestone and toxic rubble landfill. (Before I knew.) I give it fertilizer a couple of times a year and have given it two doses of alfalfa tea in the last 8 months.

It is the first rose I fell in love with and the plant that sent me into my lifelong love of gardening. Thanks for the fond memories.

I enjoyed reading that about your Louis Phillipe very much!

Randy

I grow a Louis Phillipe, from a cutting taken at the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. It looks real close in features to my Cramoisi Superior, which is from Chamblee's. However, there are subtle differences, as has been discussed on this forum. Both have a decent # of thorns, with some bare spots on the canes. My LP is definitely not thornless. On HMF, they list it as follows: "Short, armed with thorns, bushy growth habit". To confuse matters further, they show a picture of the rose growing over what looks like a tall trellis- hardly a short bushy form.

RM is the first 'thornless' rose I have gotten up close and personal with. It is strange yet very nice to be able to manhandle a rose as needed and yet not have any bloodletting.

Cemeteryrose, I was having the same thought about Crepuscule. The one I know is nowhere near thornless. I wonder if I have the wrong thing. I got mine from a source in northern CA. It would help if I could remember the name of the nursery...

I am taking notes....

Does Louis Phillipe need to be sprayed in the South?

The Cracker Rose grows all over Florida. I have never seen it suffer from any BS.

I was at the Botanical Gardens plant sale this spring At USF. A vendor had 2 pallets of red roses labeled Louis Phillipe. They were not. They might have been Old Gay Hill. Or Fabvier, my best guess. Possibly Gloire des Rosomanes, or White Pearl in the Red Dragon's Mouth.

Another vendor there also had the wrong red china. That one was thorny. I did not take a closer look at the pallets. After I saw the wrong flower shape,... too few petals, I was done. I will never make THAT mistake again. Who knew?

Not OGRs, but these Austins are reputed to be nearly thornless:

Pretty Jessica
Heritage
Brother Cadfael
Lilac Rose
James Galway
Rose-Marie (Heritage sport)

Another one that I find to be low on thorns but not mentioned here is Comtesse de Cayla. It doesn't make the best cut flowers but is still one of my favorites, along with G. Nabonnand.