Gorgeous bloom, Eric!

Amongst the roses that are new for me this year, my favorites - at this moment in time! - are Heaven on Earth, Pat Austin and Pope John, (these were "mature" plants bought - not bands or bareroot). Both Easy Living and Going Easy are new in my garden and I love both of them. They're......"easy" and healthy.

I also have, new for me, a Distant Drums and I am intrigued by the blooms - very different! I also have a Distant Thunder (only a baby) and the bloom color is a bit different than it's parent, but we'll have to give it more time. Baby Faurax is showing some promise as having blooms also out of the ordinary and has bloomed and bloomed so far.

Lynn

I am loving all of my my Ralph Moore minis a lot right now!

My absolute favorite one right now is Julie Link.
not so mini though. :o)

I am awestruck with my Brown Velvet rose, an amazing rose in every way!

Eric,

That's sure a beauty! I've been thinking about Rouge Royal--I might have to reconsider with Jean Rex.

This year I put Sweetness in and yesterday it was full of mauve bloom and a very good fragrance.
Pope John Paul II is showing signs of thrips. The weather has been very gray and moist this past week. Still up there on the #1 list of favorites.
Cinco de Mayo is a happy surprise. I'm loving the amount of energy it puts into the blooms. Nice foliage too.
Pretty Jessica and Jeri Jennings are doing very well and I'm so happy they are next to one another.
The teas I put in last fall are flowering but still short. Of them all, only Catherine Mermet has powdery mildew. I think once it's taller it will be better.

I think Jean Rex looks more like a cerise Traviata (more quartered than Rouge Royale), imho...

My favorite surprise is Cinco de Mayo. I've got a bunch of bands from Vintage this spring, so I'm sure they'll be several in there, too. But right now I'm really impressed with CdM. Frankly, I'm amazed that the colors match the catalog p*rn photos. It starts out a nice *bright* rusty color and then the blooms transition (not really 'fade') very nicely over a good bit of time to that pretty mauvey-whatever-you-call-it color. To top it off, the smell will knock your socks off on the ride home (yes, I did a bad HD stroll - got one, then went back for two more (Armstrong)). Time will tell on mildew here in the mildew hellmouth for you Buffy fans, but it's been clean so far. If it stays that way, I may have to do an email campaign to get Jeri to get one so she can say she has one floribunda that she doesn't spray ;-) Anyway, so far a very nice, small bush that compliments so many colors in the garden (I have one between a Golden Celebration and a Crown Princess Marg. and it really makes both their colors 'pop' so much more) or small enough for pots (I put two on each side of the back slider).

Alfred Sisley from Roses Unlimited

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Oso Easy Paprika. This thing's a cute little workhorse.

Out of all my newbies, my standouts so far are Prairie Harvest, Anne Boleyn, Sally Holmes, and White Knockout (which looks coincidentally a whole lot like...Sally Holmes, right down to the peach-yellow buds). The Prairie Harvests are little one-gallon-size from Chamblee's, and they have not stopped putting on flowers and buds since they hit the dirt in mid-April. I'd almost rather they work on height for a while, LOL! Anne Boleyn is also a gallon baby, and her first flush was insane for a bush that's barely a foot tall--and such beautiful flowers, warm pink-peach. Sally H. hasn't been without blooms in almost two months, and they are HUGE and last at least a week--she's from Antique Rose Emporium. White KO I bought from a big-box as a two-gallon, beautiful dark foliage really makes the big white flowers stand out--also never without blooms. I was so impressed I recently went back to the same store to get another, and they were all gone, and haven't seen it for sale anywhere locally since.

Bunch of other newbies, but those sprang to my mind first.

Mme. Cornelissen, a sport of Souvenir de la Malmaison, is a beautiful, intricately petaled rose with pale pink blooms and creamy white flowers. Spice and Enchantress are putting out quite a few blooms even though they're fairly new bands, and are quite pretty. I love to see the little roses grow and develop; to me it's one of the most enjoyable aspects of rose growing.

Ingrid

That would have to be Lupe's Buttons. It has doubled in size (mostly width) since planting it this time last year and currently loaded with buds. I just adore this rose and its little pinkish blooms.

Second place would probably be The Faun. I liked it so much last year I ordered another one from RU this spring. Another workhorse.

Kate

I'm glad people like her as much as I do :)

Lagomorphmom, I revisited Rouge Royale on HMF and I agree, Jean Rex doesn't have as much of that "cabbage chopped in half" look that Rouge Royale or say Charles de Mills has.

Still a good red, with good form, that holds up in the heat.
Here is my favorite picture of her:
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Eric

Eric: That is a very lovely rose. You are lucky. I should get one too. How is it compared to WS2000? That is the one I put in this year.

Souvenir de la Malmaison was bare root last spring, this spring she is over 6' and blooming like mad with her fragrant pink/white blooms.

Full Moon Rising, a sport of Polka is a stunning fragrant yellow climber I just got and am in love with.

Pope John is one of the prettiest most fragrant roses I have and did well over our harsh winter as did his companion roses, Veteran's Honor. They are stunning red, have fragrance to die for and long lasting in the vase.

My Grahm Thomas is threatening to take over the house and grow right into the back room and Gertrude Jeckyll is doing the same thing in front. Both huge and stunning!

Senko, I would say the fragrance is definitely not as intense as WS2000. The blooms are not as flat either. The form of Jean Rex is more upright and vase shaped (so far), whereas WS2000 seems to want to grow wider than taller. I also have WS2000, this being by 2nd year with it.

Janegael, I'll have to try SdlM grafted! Over 6 feet! My little own root didn't make it through this winter.

Eric

I created a small bed along my driveway between the sidewalk and the street last fall and wanted to see if I could manage to get a small white rose to survive out there in our nasty winters when it would be covered in salt from the snow plows and only gets about 3 hours of direct sun. I ordered a Morden Snow Beauty, put it in and crossed my fingers. Not only was there little die back, it was nearly the first to bloom (neck and neck with my 2 fantastic Frau Dagmar Hastrup) and it has nice foliage with dainty single white blooms that last surprisingly long. Not a showpiece rose, but on my favorite list for being such a champ and really pretty blooming along side the peonies and iris I have next to it.

The spring standout of the new roses I have so far is Mary Rose. Little winter dieback and absolutely drenched in buds that are just beginning to open. SO pretty.