Bonica. I inherited this from the previous owner of my home so I don't know how old it is, but it's never been without blooms this season. Of course sometimes they've been more profuse than others, but I've had three prolific flushes off Bonica in early May, June, and July with sporadic flowering between.

Sigh. You never want to hear this. But I am going to tell you anyways. AUSTINS. I have 40+ varieties and they bloom repeatedly from June to October. First flush is always the best, of course, but second and subsequent flushes can be almost just as good if you cut them back a bit when deadheading. I have had hundreds of flowers on my roses since the end of May this year. My Austins even start putting up new buds before the previous flush is over and deadheaded. And I only fertilize with compost and leaf mulch.

I have about the same experience as you with OGRs and other purported shrub rebloomers. After the first flush and deadheading, I am lucky on some of them if they put out a few sparse flowers once or twice before they call it quits.

If you want boring and nonfragrant, and still stubbornly refuse to revisit Austins, try Champlain, a Canadian Explorer that blooms its fool head off all season.

I am not sure what you are really getting at with your question, but the issue of who repeats well and who doesn't is a complicated question when all the factors involved are considered. The age of the plant is important for many of the OGRs such as Portlands and hybrid perpetuals along with whether they are own-root or grafted and onto what rootstock. The weather is a big factor. I have seen that if we have a late freeze in the spring, many of my roses are affected adversely to the point where some bloom only once or even not at all or very late in the year. This year we did not have a late, hard freeze, and the plants have been doing reasonably well. Some, however, have never recovered from that awful Easter freeze of '07. They are still struggling and may just have to be replaced. Temperature extremes and water supply are also factors. If it is too hot, a rose can go into a heat dormancy mode and just sit there until the weather cools off. It is because the temperature is outside the optimum enzyme activity temperature range for that plant. The issue of disease control is important. Sick roses don't feel like blooming any more than sick people feel like going out and running a marathon. I have tried very hard to keep diseases down, and it does pay off. Pruning practices and accidental damage influence the plant also. Soil conditions are also a factor. I have found that plants that grow wonderfully in a pot with good potting soil frequently do not do much when I put them into the ground in the garden. Available sunlight is also a factor.

Overall, I think I have quite a few I could nominate, but the ones that do the most constant flowering are Lili Marleen, Fisher Holmes, Lavaglut, Pink Parfait, Winchester Cathedral, Simply Marvelous, and Golden Fairy Tale.

Roses that have a big spring flush, ... rest for about a month, and then supply a few continuous blooms for the rest of the season ...

Carefree Beauty (Buck rose)
Knockout roses
Eglantyne (Austin)
Quietness (Buck rose)
Bonica (Shrub rose)
Nearly Wild (Shrub rose)
Mary Rose (Austin)
The Fairy (Shrub rose)

Of the set, the Knockouts are the most likely to always have bloom.

I think that a key is to have a variety of roses, so that some will be in bloom at any given time, though all of them will not be in bloom at the same time.

My belindas dream hedge I put in (7 bushes) has over 300 buds and blooms right now and has had about that many all season. It looks and SMELLS divine all the time. I DO keep it deadheaded and watered... I think its a misnomer to think that roses will be in bloom 100% of the time. Repeat bloomer or continual bloomer to me means it will bloom repeatedly, maybe in flushes, maybe in spurts, all year it is not a once blooming rose. Are there roses that repeat well without dead heading them? You can see on the photo that there are TONS of buds, blooms and some that are in need of removal all at on e time. they have looked like this most all season.

{{gwi:302308}}

this rose looks like this NOW, today, even in our 95 PLUS day temps for weeks on end now. It is under the eaves of the grooming shop and is shaded quite a bit as well. If I had read up on it first I would not have planted it here and MAN what I would be missing!

Trier! Beautiful rose with little blossoms that is already reblooming for me. I got two as bands this May and they were blooming when I picked them up. Now, they're blooming again and I just love them.

Fairy rose and Cecile Brunner rebloom, but Cecile isn't quite as cold hardy. Just got Lavender Lassie, Lyda, Excellenz von Schubert, Gartendirecktor Otto Linne and Echo Baby Trauschendon (probably not all spelled correctly) so we'll see how they do.

Most of my roses are once blooming, OGRs, but I'm hoping the Indigo roses (portland) will rebloom well :)

Oh, and I got four John Cabot Canadian Explorer roses on sale at Lowe's. Hardy to -40 F. and on their own root. They don't have much fragrance, but they're blooming non-stop and the deer haven't bothered them much. They look beautiful out in the kitchen garden with the purple butterfly bushes and catmint!

Abraham Darby. He is never without blooms. Hardest worker in my yard and worth ten other roses. I would never be without him! Also the rugosa Blanc Double de Coubert rests only a bit between flushes.

As I look at my yard in this miserable heat....I see the shrub rose Chuckles just blooming away - as always. It is a pretty neon pink with so many blooms! It finishes one round and starts another. I really like this one and never hear much about it. Like it so much I bought another this year and planted it by my gate so I can see it when I come and go. The Bucks are good rebloomers for me - Bright Melody, Dorcas, and I have some new ones this year that are blooming: Honeysweet, Barn Dance and a few others I cant recall right now. The OGRs like Mrs. BR Cant, Maman Cochet, Mme. Berkeley, Perle d'Or, Mon. Tillier are hard at it even in full, all day sun. Dortmond has always been a reliable rebloomer as well.

There must indeed be differences in region, soil, sun, etc., that account for blooming. Although I would count Eutin, Blanc Double de Coubert, and SOME Austins as good repeat bloomers, they certainly are not continuous bloomers in my garden. Eutin has to rest here for 3-4 weeks between bloom cycles and Blanc Double rarely bloomed enough to count as a flush--and rested in between its spurts.

Of my Austins, Molineux and Mayflower are the best re-bloomers, coming closest to continuous blooming (if you count a few scattered blooms here and there).

Two others that have good repeat are floribundas: Cherry Parfait and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Now that I think of it, Elina (HT) has strong re-bloom, but several weeks down time between bloom cycles.

Then there are all the others that dawdle around trying to make up their minds whether they should re-bloom or not. They always do eventually, but not always impressively to say the least.

Kate

I second the quote for Austins in general and the strong recommendation for Abe Darby in particular. This particular handsome boy - I have two of them - have just gone through their first flood of blooms and now are just starting their second. I had removed the last of the first flush last weekend and now i've got two more full blooms and about 2 dozen raring to go. These are not quite two year old plants in the ground yet and so far this year alone I've had about 70 or so flowers between the two of them in their first flush and loads of new growht with what I think was about another 2 dozen buds in the second - and a few just startign to bloom again.

Wise Portia is another one that is amazing - the flowers are beautiful since she has such lovely petals - and she is another prolific lady for flowers.

I've been so inspired that I bought two more Austins this year - a Glamis Castle which I planted in late May and *it* is getting its second flush of flowers now also with about 6 or 8 of them. And its just been in the soil for a bit under a month! Its barely a foot tall too. Don't know enough about Glamis Castle or Pat Austin yet to say too much about them but I'm optimistic.

In the meantime, I really think that both Abe Darby and Wise Portia (if you can find her anymore) are incredible bloomers - prolific as well as repeating.

My climate is totally different from Jim's but I can also say that Glamis Castle is a very good rebloomer, probably the best of my Austins, although it's by no means my favorite rose. Still, its appearance and reblooming qualities make it a keeper. For me it's a very dense and compact bush. I won't mention my other good rebloomers since they would die in Jim's zone.

Ingrid

Your best bet for a repeating OGR is Rose de Rescht. Nahema is a good repeating climber.

Illusion

Here is a link that might be useful: link for above

Bonica is my best repeat bloomer. It's a continual mass of buds and blooms.

Austins, in particular Windermere. Happy Child had a lovely second flush, better than the first, even as a 1 year-old band. My Cream Abundance, not an Austin, had a smaller second flush than the first, but still pretty fair seeing as how she got run over this winter and cracked off at the ground.

Kristin, that picture is amazing!!!

(This was supposed to be a reply for the above post but I abbreviated the title and it ended up as a new post. For some reason the original title didn't get carried over.)

Henry is right, Illusion is a winner.I should have put that on my list. Now as to others named here IÂve not had good luck. Bonica for example. When we first moved here from S. CA my wife wanted to plant 9 of them. They all died the first year. AustinÂs also but more spread out as they were planted individually. I really loved Graham Thomas. It grew big had these beautiful flowers but unfortunately it died the next Spring.

About that time I discovered Kordes. It really is sad that they are so unknown in this country although Palatine has had some success along with Pickering and Hortico is selling them here. The reason that I like them as they are tougher than most and besides that generally are, to my taste at least, beautiful.

Wow Kristin, I'm envious!

My Zone 9 garden is not quite Jim's climate but my always have blooms roses are Iceberg (one in almost complete shade); Mutabilis; La Marne; Europeana; Darlow's Enigma; Fabulous; Gruss an Aachen; Nastarana; and Little White Pet. The ones that are near everblooming with distinct but short rest periods are Yves Piaget; Chrysler Imperial; Just Joey; Color Magic; Don Juan; Altissimo; Tamora; Pristine and Double Delight.

Again..Almost all the the 50 David Austin roses I have are in bloom all summer long..Of course the first spring flush is the best but ALWAYS have at least some roses on every bush

I live in an area with a short growing season, and often cold summers and repeat flowering is an issue. Constant bloomers are not that many of, but a few like Elmshorn, Astrid Lindgren, and other floribundas do. They all repeat, but they don't all flower well into autumn. Cold wet weather tend to make many roses ball late in the season, and don't stand a chance to unfold.

Good repeaters here; Aloha, Dornröschen, Westerland, Charles Lefebvre, Francesca (moschata), Marie-Jeanne (moschata), Lichtkönigin Lucia, Little White Pet, Candlelight, and Sympathie. These stand out as very good repeaters in spite of not so ideal climate and circumstanses, and might be worth checking out.

Jim, Henry, what's the petal count on Illusion? Fragrant?

Kristin, stunning photo!

hoovb

Illusion is a full and attractive double I don't know the petal count. It's a Kordesii so not fragrant.

I suppose I should have mentioned survival as a criterion. I imagine that repeaters are numerous where soils and climate are agreeable.

I was interested to see Elmshorn on Tao's list and I think Sympathie also. Elmshorn has the probably unique trait of shedding all of the flower parts after blooming which may help it repeat as there is nothing to deadhead.

I meant to mention Rheinaupark a really obscure rose, now only available from Hortico and Martin and Krause. It has been in bloom all summer. Very bright red flowers that last long on the bush. According to Botanica is very hardy, with a low end rating of Z3. A Rugosa seedling is in the parentage.

I am in a warmer zone (6b) and possibly roses just do "pop out of the ground & go like gangbusters," so I don't know if these apply, but all these work for me:

Bonica - prefers to be deadheaded/pruned lightly - responds with repeated full flushes - but after reading what jim (in your zone) noted about the bushes dying, might not work in your zone. Also, no scent.

Bella Roma - looks best when deadheaded/pruned, but will rebloom without that attention. Insanely fragrant, too.

Zephirine Drouhin - still relatively new in my garden, but while the re-blooms are not yet what I'd call a "flush," this year after a brief rest period it's blooming again. I'm now having constant blooms scattered through. I haven't deadheaded this one. Amazing fragrance as well.

Lady Elsie Mae is my latest find. I'm in 6b and she has boomed nonstop for three years, ever bit as abundant as Knockout. Her booms are single but born in huge clusters. The entire shrub is covered with color all the time. I deadhead all my roses. They don't seem very attractive without a little attention.

I found Lady Elsie May in the recent book by Peter Schneider who gives it a good recommend. Sounds like my kind of rose. Tough! Also by Noack who has introduced some good roses.

Another clue to a good rose is how many nurseries carry it. For LEM there are quite a few which for a rose introduced in 2005 is a good sign. And this is from my aging CRL (2007).

Darlow's Enigma! It is shockingly incredible--just keeps going! It bloomed first and it's still going--in my bad soil--after my Vermont winter.

--Lisa

Lisamerle, mine too! I also forget about poor DE, but it doubles in size every year and blooms away even in much shade.

Gotta agree with all the posters who extolled Darlow's Enigma's repeat blooming capabilities, Jim. The doggone thing just keeps on bloomin' !! :)

Debbie

All of my roses bloom at least three times each summer. The ones that are usually in constant bloom are Betty Boop, Gracie Allen, Knockouts, Home Run, Crimson Bouquet and Rainbow Sorbet. The spring bloom and the fall bloom are usually the best on my roses.

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I had a DE some years ago but it died before I had any idea what it could do. Later I learned from a soil test that the soil there had a really low pH. Just about every rose I planted there died except Charles de Mills who prospered. Shows you why OGR's are still around.