I experimented and got a rose from Schultheis in Germany that I had never heard of before, 'Wildenfels Gelb', a Foetida hybrid from 1929. It's looking promising: has single or near-single flowers of very pale yellow, healthy foliage with character, and with all its species hybrid style, it's repeat blooming! I'm looking forward to developing my acquaintance with this rose, and possibly trying other mysterious varieties in their catalog.
My husband got me a fragrant red modern shrub rose a few years ago, and in spite of my skepticism, it's beginning to win me over: 'Astrid Graefin von Hardenberg' from Tantau. This rose is growing in compact clay and stone soil in full sun, and has built up into a dense, healthy, shapely shrub of reasonable dimensions, blooming all summer in spite of no watering. It's fragrant, and the flowers are a stupendous violet red, quite large when conditions are favorable. It has no climbing or rambling tendencies whatever, and yet somehow manages not to look like an overgrown Hybrid Tea. My plant is grafted; I don't know how it would do own root.
This wasn't a good year for the spring flowering so I don't have much to say for the roses that have arrived the last two years (last year was bad, too). I am happy that we haven't had any nasty summer heat until the last few days, and that along with the rain in June has meant that the Teas and Chinas have grown and flowered this summer, which is a nice change from their just struggling to keep alive. 'Duchesse d'Auerstaedt' put out strong new growth after her spring flush and a discreet pruning and has been flowering all summer; and although the beetles chew the edges of all her golden-globed blooms, they still look good at a distance, and the plant as a whole is glorious. If it will rain some in August and September, we can hope for a good autumn flowering from our roses, something we haven't had the last two years.
I also want to say a word about the charms of R. palustris, but my husband is waiting for the computer.
Melissa

My friend Deb found this growing out from under a blown off piece of metal roofing next to a crumbling shed at a neighbors place. There it was a once bloomer. I said we should call it Deb's Voluptuous Pink.
Recently I've come to know that the rose was introduced as Mary Wallace, for the daughter of the US Sec. of Agriculture. It was hybridized by Walter van Fleet, but not introduced until after his death by the ARS working in conjunction with the USDA (which explains some of the wonkiness about it being introduced quite a while after the hybridizer died.)
I have it on our fenceline, and there it thrives without care, water, fertilizer. I expect several nests of voles and moles are under it. It doesn't blink.
It does repeat well and the blooms stand out from at least two tenths of a mile away.
Mine isn't quite as floriferous at second bloom as the one from Autralia in the photos linked below, BUT it has been so great this year that I'm thinking of making twenty or thirty more and using them to surround our species garden. It's that good.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mary Wallace images

Abe Darby and Buff Beauty are thriving on neglect and root competition from grasses. I'm sure I could coax more blossoms out of them by deadheading, watering and feeding more regularly, but even without, they are leaping, growing, and throwing enough flowers to keep me impressed.

Yes, Abe Darby -- really not much BS or anything.

More and more I'm beginning to judge roses by how well they do in the summer, which in my case is at least three and more like four months of hot, dry punishing weather. The ones that have impressed me the most so far (at least a third are too young to make a judgment on) are Bishop's Castle, Le Vesuve, Souvenir d'un Ami, Blumenschmidt, Bermuda's Kathleen, Our Lady of Guadalupe and Blue Mist.

Ingrid

Francis E. Lester was at his best this year. Huge 15-20ft canes loaded with fragrant bloom. He's a once bloomer but with a very long show and he only gets water from the winter/spring rains...none thereafter.

Buff Beauty and Penelope were also great and Narrow Water is climbling up through the leaves of a tree and blooms are peaking out as well as blooming in the shade of the tree. Quite a garden picture.

I got Rev d'Or this year as a gallon plant from Sac City Cemetery sale and it's now in a 2 gallon with beautiful new red growth. It will get put in the ground this fall when the rains start again and I have high hopes for next year.

Diane

Endless rain and the second flush on Kronprincessin Viktoria was as large as the first plus it continues to sport pink. I was also impressed by the fragrance of the portland Remrandt thats at the NY Botanical gardens I think I have to have this beauty.

The erratic weather has impressed me. The blackspot and canker plagues have impressed me. And my rugosas have impressed me. They have grown into 100% healthy mountains.

Sherry, we live on opposite sides of the country and my garden is dry as dust and yours is dripping with humidity but strangely we're having so many similar experiences. Felicia and Francesca are gone from my garden for failure to thrive. Le Vesuve is my best rose in the summer and one of few with regular-sized flowers. The others are tiny! I too have Enchantress and Rosette Delizy and the flowers shrank and actually also shriveled. Duchesse de Brabant is withering away before my eyes. Reve d'Or is an exception, it's hanging in there but has only morning sun. I'm very anxious to see how your Alister Clark roses will do. Anna Olivier is a rose I'm now very interested in.

We just have to hang in there. As the roses mature, perhaps they'll toughen up and do better in the summer.

Ingrid

Sherry,

I feel as though you and I are kindred spirits. I, too, have been very disappointed because too many of roses I had "expected" to be winners for me have done nothing but cause grief. I, do, however, have some roses that seem to love my yard (Barbier hybrid wichuranas, gallicas, et al.)

I'm focusing on growing ONLY those roses that do well in my yard under my gardening practices. When I got into roses four years ago I had unbelievable success with my FIRST "shipment" of roses from Ashdown. Paul helped me pick out about 35 roses that would represent the major classes and would be good roses for me. Most of those roses are still top on my list! I got cocky, I guess, and started to expand. I was lured into David Austins by their intoxicatingly beautiful photos and descriptions. I think if I removed (gave up on) the Austins and about 50 other roses that are really poor performers, I would be in better shape. Alas, I'm still giving the roses time to come around. If I end up only with the wichurana ramblers, my moss, damask, alba, gallicas and some rugosas I think I'll still be happy.

Instead of adding anymore varieties to my garden, I'm looking to my seedlings for roses that will thrive on neglect. I'm also adding more evergreens, shrubs, camellias, etc. to take the pressure off the roses.

Ask this question again next year, and I will have a totally different response, I'm sure.

Robert

Roses that are holding their own against major tree roots.

Peggy Martin because it is growing very close to a large root of a silver maple tree. So far, I'm impressed and hopeful. It's not anywhere as large as another I've seen that was planted at the same time but I look at it as a way to control a monster rose. :) I hope it survives that spot. My second "line of defense" as I didn't expect PM to survive is to plant a ceanothus, which isn't really supposed to grow well here, but the tree root keeps that bed so dry that the ceanothus actually is doing well.

Likewise, Sally HOlmes, is planted very close to a major root on a pine tree, but it appears to be holding its own and it keeps blooms constantly. I planted it in a large cardboard box that I buried next to a tree root two years ago. So far, I'm impressed and hopeful. It hasn't grown much this year, but I'm satisfied and hope it will grow more next year in its third year.

And thank you to Patricia43 who passed on the idea to plant it in a box. I wouldn't have thought of that on my own.

I'm impressed with all the rose knowledge that gets passed around here. Thank you.

Since this is my first year with most of my roses... I expected them all to be wonderful! LOL But alas NOT!
I am impressed by:

Abraham Darby he is in his second flush, tons of blooms, NO disease or pest issues and actually looks like a bush! Just wonderful!

Christopher Marlowe lives in *cankerland raised bed* and it doing rather well in his second flush(7 blooms or so) and starting to look like a bush.

The Pligrim also in *cankerland raised bed* has appreciated getting out of his pot and has really grown, no second flush. But no canker! :-)

My real Antiques are babies from Ashdown. I will let you know next year. So far so good though.

Allison

Well...and I hate to say this because misery loves company but I'm impressed with how well my stuff is doing - pretty much across the board. BUT a lot of my roses are fairly new so they are still in the evaluating stage. Summers are hot enough here that BS ceases to be a problem for a few months (I guess intense heat is a good thing, then). I still have a lot of stuff blooming, albeit with much smaller (and fried) blooms and the thrips haven't been burned away, doggone it, (because it's nice and cool within the petals) but all the foliage is healthy and lush. Well, the foliage is there but something is dining continuosly on it so there are lots of holes. Even the Blue Skies (a Buck) that was the scraggliest, ugliest plant ever and was destined for a date with the shovel, looks pretty good at the moment. I do water quite a bit.

Most surprising (pleasant) to me were the Austins I planted that have absolutely thrived here. So far. I only have a few, Graham Thomas, Evelyn, Pat Austin, Carding Mill and Cymbaline, but again, SO FAR, they haven't had any problems at all and continue to bloom and grow. I was always under the impression that they preferred or needed cooler climates than mine.

I'm going to enjoy it now while the temp is still really high because I know that when it comes down some, back comes the BS and there goes my leaves! I feel like the bus in the movie, Speed - as long as I stay above a certain temp, I'm safe! The tradeoff will be that my blooms improve; is it too much to expect to have nice blooms and foliage at the same time?!

Lynn

I just can't resist getting Austins, they just seem to jump right into my shopping cart. Who would have thought that in my no spray garden I would be happily impressed with my new ones?

Cymbeline-no disease at all so far and beautiful flowers
Carding Mill-hardly any spots and cranking out the blooms

Despite the near drought that we are just coming out of in my part of Louisiana, this has been an incredible year for my roses. I'm having a similar experience to Lynn in SE Texas in that my roses are doing pretty well across the board. My only roses that are looking a little sad are Abraham Darby, Madame Alfred Carriere, and to a lesser extent Golden Celebration. In contrast, the perennial diva, Gertrude Jekyll, is acting like it is in the Garden of Eden - it is looking so good! Belinda's Dream, Earthsong, and Double Delight on Fortuniana roots are all looking wonderful with no disease at all and practically no spraying. Some of my other roses looking great are Mrs. BR Cant, Julia Child, Dublin Bay, and Westerland. My China roses, Ducher and Archduke Charles, are making very small blooms, but they are still very healthy looking plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: June report on my roses

I'm impressed by how tough roses really are. We've been dry, dry, DRY---about 1/3" in the past 3 months, and we're probably down 6-8" for the year. Top that off with record heat.

I try not to water plants--water is such a valuable resource that it really bothers me to use potable water for irrigation. So the grass is brown and even the weeds are wilting. The roses have pretty much stopped blooming, but they are TOUGH! Of all the plant in my yard, the ones I haven't had to water to keep alive are the roses. Some of the brand new babies have gotten a drink here and there, but they've all pretty much been bone dry.

Some of the ones that have sent up new growth have had it wilt at the end and die back, but then they're sending out multiple shoots from the dieback point. I'm calling it self-pruning.

Maybe next year we'll get more rain and they'll do a little better. The fact that they're hanging in there and I don't have to water really impresses me.

These are some tough little briars.

So glad to hear that people are having positive experiences, and of course, not happy to hear that things arent going as planned.

Plants are weird, this last winter was so weird, it killed about 50-60 percent of a 10 year plus rhododendron, however Crepuscule sustained little damage and I had a clump of dahlias return in the garden.

Go figure, nature is so unpredicable!

I must agree with melissa, palustris is extremely charming, I have it a less than great spot and its been blooming on and off for probably a good almost two months now maybe? I got home from a school trip abroad in early June and it really hasnt NOT had a flower on it at some time between then and now, rather impressive for a baby under two, three feet tall....pretty colored blooms and petal count, like a Japanese anemone. I have Ashdown's clone, which I think is supposed to repeat more. Either way another charming rose, I have it growing near some hyssop and the color of its flowers poking through the spires of dusty-purple flower and leaves of the hyssop is really attractive.

Like some, my roses quit blooming during the high temps we had this summer, but have started blooming again now that it's below 100.
The ones that really stand out in my garden are:
Perle d'or
Mutabilis
Julia Child
Cinco de Mayo
Carnival Glass (mini)

Good, but maybe not on the outstanding list:
Tamora
Prairie Sunset
Impatient
Showbiz

This year has really had its ups and downs. I lost a large Roseraie de l'Hay (flooding from neighbor's property). That really hurt! Oath, I know that's a favorite of yours, too. I already got a replacement.

Three new roses died soon after planting, two from a vendor loved by this forum (inexplicable!)

But I ended up very impressed with the gallicas The Bishop and Alice Vena. I really fell in love with old HT Grace Darling and rugosa Wasagaming (really has an OGR look).

I am very happy with the bands I received from Vintage last summer, so I bought 8 more during this summer. I really shouldn't have, I don't have many sunny spots left.

I had a good spring flush (after good spring rains) from so many, but (Bermuda) Spice has been the real workhorse this year. There was a short time after the first flush that Spice had no blossoms, but it has been covered for the last two weeks. Until a couple of days ago we'd had no rain for a several weeks. I haven't watered it all year.

I was definitely most impressed by Secret Garden Musk Climber, partly because I had such low expectations of it after reading some comments from colder US climates on this forum. My plant may be the only one in Sweden (from Loubert in France in 2007) but if it continues like this I must recommend that some Swedish nursery import it so more Swedes in warmer parts of the country can enjoy it. It is now over 4 meters tall, growing into and over a cornelian cherry and has flowered very well in spite of this year's less than perfect summer.

Marianne in Sweden

I've been impressed this year with just how well the majority of my roses have done completely no spray - for the second straight year. I never would have believed they could do this well, and I would never have believed how easy it is for me to take out the ones who can't live without the fungicide crutch. I expected a disaster and instead I've received real encouragement on this path.

I am also totally amazed that I still have once blooming roses with new buds that are continuing to open daily. Yes, the major bloom is over, but I can look outside the window right now and see beautiful blooms on Great Maiden's Blush, Alba Maxima and Old Pink Moss - and it's *August 1st* tomorrow, for Pete's sake. Never would have dreamed the season could last so long. I know the tourists have been crying, but I'll take the long, cool spring and cool summer any time!

Roseraie de l'Hay IS one of my favorites maureeninmd, it can do no wrong really,aside from spininess. I'm sad to hear you had to loose yours, and glad you got a replacement. I daresay I will always want it somewhere on my property, it's just that good of a shrub, glad someone else thinks that way too.

As is often the case, I'm in total accord with Anne. This is the best rose season I've had for as long as I can remember.

As Sheri put it: "Forget the roses that fail here and find the ones that don't!!"

The roses I grow, are loving the wetter, cooler summer we've had in the Northeast part of the continent. I've not watered once, not sprayed either and have no blackspot. Happy roses, seem to be healthy roses.

I have been ruthless in shovel pruning non-performers for the past three years. Poor health, lack of vigour, failing to boom and they're gone. I replace them with roses that I've researched and believe might become good performers based on that research.

Most of my roses are established. I have learned that roses in a cold climate take three to four years before they have the root system needed to perform at their peak after being pruned to near the ground each winter. I also have roses that are vigorous enough and healthy enough (in my conditions), so that they are growing and blooming exhuberantly in this cooler wetter summer.

I now have a list of roses that impress me every single year, my failsafe roses, so to speak. For my climate and my conditions the fail safe roses are: Folksinger, Redoute, Lillian Austin, Prairie Sunrise, John Davis, Northern Encore, Lilian Gibson, Hawkeye Belle, Prairie Harvest and the Crocus Rose. All standouts, all peak performers year after year.

This summer, possibly because of the apparently ideal growing conditions, and also perhaps because this is their third season, some others have also begun to stand out as well: Evelyn, Charles Darwin, Teasing Georgia and Abbe de Cluny are all, healthy, happy and booming exuberantly. They are also sprouting new growth and new canes and obviously planning to put on another major show soon.

Some new varieties I have planted this year, based on much research and mulling are: Geoff Hamilton, Caramel Antique, Christopher Marlow and Antique Fairy Tale. Based on their first year results, health vigour and rebloom are all very impressive. We'll have to wait to see how they do after a Northeastern winter though.

I already have five or six under achievers on the shovel prune list for next spring and have decided to trial some more of the Brownell roses, based on the results of the two I already grow, Break O' Day and Orange Ruffles.

Wishing you all a rosey summer.

Cheers, Rideau Rose Lad - aka - Rick

Well, Darlows Enigma as usual is beautiful all summer. I am really impressed with my Secret Garden Musk Climber this year. It has really filled in and come in to it's own. I LOVE my Mons Tillier. If it looks this good in its first year then I can't wait until it grows up! Lamarque gave me a few blooms and is quickly covering the arbor it is growing on. Also, even though it is not an antique, my Enchanted Evening is smothered in blooms right now. All in all a great year so far. This is my third year no spray and it is working out really well.

~Melissa

I wanted to add that 'Canary Bird' has been growing great guns with no help whatever: this is its second season and it has canes over five feet tall (it has never been watered and we have droughts every summer). It's one of the earliest bloomers in our garden and put on a good show this spring. This is our best species yellow or close relative. If I remember correctly it also had excellent fall color last year.

I haven't seen any passionate praise of 'Souvenir of St. Anne's' recently on the forum, so thought I would bring it up. This is in the same bed as 'Canary Bird', way down in the bottom of the garden beyond the reach of the hose, and it is the bloomingest, most cheerful rose there is; and fragrant! I want to try to propagate it this fall, but it puts new growth on so fast I may have trouble getting the cuttings.

This bottom bed is where we had a not so small slump this spring, and it made such a mess that I could hardly bear to look at it afterward. But finally we got around to weeding and mulching the bed, and I was pleased to see that most of the roses in it, and particularly the once-blooming roses of European origin, are growing very well. The Austins, which are mostly refugees anyway, aren't much to brag about, but the Gallicas, Damasks, Albas, and others, are many of them splendid!! I'll feel better if I remember them when I fret about those parts of the garden where it's almost impossible to get anything to grow, even with mulching and (gasp) a degree of summer watering. I'll be so happy when our shrubs and few trees get some growth on them. This is a frustrating time of year. It hasn't rained for a month, and all our energies go into just keeping plants alive, and forget about seeing anything grow. But some plants are doing well just the same. The Teas and Chinas are healthy and some are even flowering.

Melissa

I forgot to mention some positives and that reminds me that I too often dwell on the negatives, which really aren't that horrible compared to what some of you have had to endure. Three roses that are actively growing and even blooming somewhat in the heat are Bermuda's Kathleen, which is in a very hot spot agains a large boulder with full sun all day, Mrs. Woods Lavender Pink Noisette and Lavender Dream. They're still small plants but their ability to put on growth in the heat is very heartening. I do water quite a bit, and I'm sure that helps, but by next year I hope to be watering them a lot less. Bermuda's Kathleen is particularly charming with its multicolored blooms and I'm so glad I have this rose.

Ingrid

The ones that have impressed me so far this year:

Comtesse du Cayla (its blooms have afternoon shade which is a must for this rose)
White Pearl in Red Dragon's Mouth (great shade of red on its small, cheerful blooms)
Pretty Jessica (slow growing, but wonderful)
Pacific Serenade (love this mini)
Valentine ("just a floribunda", but what a trouper)

Randy