I live in San Diego County, a little different but not that much. I do know that tea roses, chinas and noisettes should do very well for you. My favorite on line source for a huge variety of old roses is Vintage Gardens in California. Rogue Valley Roses in Oregon is also quite good. Both are shipping now. There are others and I'm sure you'll receive more recommendations.

Favorites in my garden are Mutabilis, Angels Camp Tea, Mme. Cornelissen (a Souv. de la Malmaison sport with exquisite flowers, Bishop's Castle, Blumenschmidt, Mme. Joseph Schwartz, Cl. Pinkie, Westside Road Cream Tea, Reve d'Or, Celine Forestier, Souvenir d'un Ami, Rosette Delizy, Cottage Rose, Lavender Dream, Grandma's Hat, Mrs. Dudley Cross and Le Vesuve. You can find info and photos about all of them on Helpmefindroses, an incredible online source of information about roses.

Welcome to the forum. We're all a little crazy about old roses and hopefully before long you will be too.

Ingrid

Ingrid -- I thought I ought to let you know -- Clay and I are coming down to Carlsbad this coming Tues., to speak at California Coastal R.S. (on Rose Rustling).
They meet at Heritage Hall in Magee Park, Carlsbad. (See below)

I don't know how far from you that is, but if you can make it, we'd love to meet you.
(OCBrian, you too!)
:-)

Jeri

Here is a link that might be useful: California Coastal Rose Society

I'm behind the Orange Curtain, too.

'Comte de Chambord' is really good, any Tea (not hybrid tea), 'Rose de Rescht', 'Eugene de Beauharnais', the newer Austins (the pre circa 1990 cultivars tend to get huge and don't bloom a lot--'Tamora' and 'Prospero' being exceptions to that).

Louise Odier bloomed the first year for me and never ever bloomed again, 8 years.

It's not the best time of year to be adding roses, kind of the picked-over dregs of the crop is what is left. I'd wait until bareroot time in January to make major additions.

Louise Odier bloomed the first year for me and never ever bloomed again, 8 years.

*** You did better than I did!
I tried twice, and never got a bloom. I suspect it needs more winter chill than either of us can give it.

Brian, you can also grow Noisette Roses. Both the mostly-climbing "Tea-Noisettes," and the older, Shrub-form, cluster-flowering Noisettes. Those do well in most of Southern California.

Hoov's right about presently-available roses being pretty much "picked over."
This is a good time of the year to visit public gardens, and see what appeals to you.
A day-trip up to the International Rosarium at Descanso Gardens would give you hundreds of roses to look at.

Also, many of the best roses -- Old Roses in particular -- are available by mail order. They're available through the year, but they come as small own-root plants, and need a little protection as they get past infancy.

Jeri Jennings
Heritage Roses Groups
http://www.heritagerosegroup.org/home.htm
http://www.goldcoastrose.org

Here is a link that might be useful: Descanso Gardens Web Site

Thank you for the invitation, Jeri; we'd love to come. What a pleasure it will be to meet you in person, and the subject of your talk is certainly of interest to me. See you there!

Ingrid

It's a deal. :-)

Jeri

Hey ocbrian (love the name)
I'm in the south oc and am having fabulous luck with my new teas (planted mostly last fall from Vintage). While my hybrid teas keep me busy swearing (under my breath, of course) with rust and powdery mildew, the teas are quietly bursting forth with foliage and blooms. I am most thankful to Jeri Jennings,HoovB and Jerome for making me aware of what old roses can grow here. I have very little space so cannot grow the noisettes but Austins love it here and I have no complaints about any of mine. They are a pleasure to have and only get better with time. Wish I had 4 times as much space and time and energy too!
Mary

Wanted to jump in and say that the bands from Vintage that I recently received certainly aren't "picked over"and are almost 1 gal size. I do pot them into 1 gals and wait for them to grow out a bit then will probably plant them late fall early winter. Vintage bands are larger than any other I've purchased.

Don't wait ocbrian! Get them now. :>

Diane

Hi OCBrian,
I am Simona, I live in Santa Monica and my garden is very much influenced by the ocean. I have mantra I try to repeat when I buy roses "Tea, China and Noisette",they all tend to perform very good for me.
As far sources I tend to equally distribute my paycheck with: Vintage Gardens, Rouge Valley Roses, Antique Rose Emporium, Ashdown and lately Rose Unlimited since I am going crazy for Viru Viraraghavan's roses.
Simona

Wow!...thanks for all the help and fast reponses! I'm very happy to have come across this site. I'm only 25 years old and have been in love with gardening for 10 years and own my own interior plant service company with my partner for a couple years now. I have had roses for about 6 years now, but only till about October of last year did I really start getting into all the different types and collecting them. So I'm glad to be able to come here to read and ask for help from so many wonderful people who have a passion for roses and gardening. I just had happened to go to Laguna Hills Nursery today and bought a Neptune which I know does well out here, but I bought my first David Austin Gertrude Jekyll on impulse. I hope that will do well. I have bought a few of my first antiques from Rogue Valley Roses but they were just bands that were available, so have sometime to really learn about them. I will take all your suggestions into thought and will wait till January to get more roses now on. Thank you & I will be seeing more of you guys!

Simona -- What Viraraghavan roses do you have?
Here's Viru and Girija at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, the day after this spring's Celebration of Old Roses.

Jeri

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What are Viraraghavan roses?, I haven't heard of them yet.

Maybe someone can tell about their experience with Francis Dubreuil. I saw it at the Huntington in Pasadena, and even thought it had only one bloom, I would grow it for just that one, it was so beautiful.

Maele -- The rose in commerce as 'Francis Dubreuil' appears to actually be 'Barcelona,' a HT from the 1930's.

Lovely rose. We grew it here for a long time, but on its own roots, it did not perform well for us in our coastal coolth.
:-)

It was periodically troubled by mildew here, if not sprayed, but that is a problem here.
If I were to grow it again, I'd love to have it VI and budded. Lovely fragrance.

Jeri

Hi Jeri,
How neat I wish I had met them too, just to say thanks for the wonderful roses they created.
I have Faith Whittlesey, Garnet Crest, Krishna's Peach and Alister's Gift. All they are doing awesome in my garden, they put my Austin's roses to shame. Alister's Gift is my favorite, but I have a fondness for hybrid gigantea, she is a rose on steroids. If I keep this pace in the next two years IÂll buy them all. BTW Rose Unlimited rocks!
Ocbrian- Viru Viraraghavan and hid wife Girija are two great rosarians that breed roses from the line of R. clinophylla and R. gigantea.
Simona

Hi Brian, I live in Newport Beach, in the Newport Heights area. Louise Odier has done very well for me, blooming profusely this past Spring. It started as a band from Heirloom Roses two years ago. Another antique rose that has done extremely well is Quatre Saisons, Autumn Damask, that I got from Chamblee's in Texas. They send 1 gallon plants.

LOUISE ODIER
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LOUISE ODIER
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QUATRE SAISONS
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QUATRE SAISONS with guest
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Hi Jeri,
How neat I wish I had met them too, just to say thanks for the wonderful roses they created.

*** The great thing is that they are Great Rosarians (in every sense) but they are also wonderful people.
Roses do introduce you to some of the nicest people on Earth.

Jeri

Great pics of your roses curly, I love your Louise Odier.

You also might consider Mme. Isaac Pereire, which grows well and also has a fantastic fragrance, one of the best fragrances in an OGR.

MME ISAAC PEREIRE
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Brian -- Mme. Isaac Pereire is a lovely thing.
She is, however, also quite a martyr to rust in many Southern California locations.

That's why I was so happy to discover the rose we know as "Old Town Novato," which has much the same character, but is far more disease-resistant. The bloom is also (IMHO) made more interesting by a lovely silvery reverse.
It is available from Vintage Gardens as "Hudson Crimson," and I recommend it with a whole heart:

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"Old Town Novato"

Jeri

Thanks everyone. What about Heritage? Does that do well in so. cali?

I don't know how well it will do in southern California, but I had it in PNW. It was a beautiful shell pink that bloomed well, but it went from bud to full open to petal drop in 2-3 days. It would not last. My biggest problem with this rose was rust. It rusted badly, and I almost lost it. If rust is a problem in your area, watch out.

Heritage rusted some here, and shattered quickly.

Jeri