I haven't looked at them recently, but the difference between the Austins and the Romanticas used to be that Austin had bred for an arching, shrub-like habit.
The Romanicas, OTOH, were Hybrid Tea Roses in every way but for bloom form. IOW, very upright. No arching habit or nodding bloom.

It sort of depends upon what you want from the plant.

Jeri

Are these roses for Zone 5 or are they a no-no? Barb

"but the difference between the Austins and the Romanticas used to be that Austin had bred for an arching, shrub-like habit.
The Romanicas, OTOH, were Hybrid Tea Roses in every way but for bloom form. IOW, very upright. No arching habit or nodding bloom. "

I have found this to be true as well, though some of the flowers such as Rouge Royal nod a bit because they are so heavy with petals. Still, the Romantica growth habit is most often HT-like.

A few (very few) of Austin's have an HT-like growth habit. 'Perdita' is one example. I thought I read that 'Queen of Sweden' is rather upright as well.

This is true that a lot are HT, Flori. They also describe some as shrubs. Surprisingly, the link to Meilland above is a very short list of their Romantica. There are many more, oddly, then on their website. Plus, I couldn't find a 2009 site update?

Allison

Are these roses for Zone 5 or are they a no-no?
Barb,
How hardy any individual rose variety is depends on it's parentage and how deeply the graft (on budded plants) is buried. Check helpmefind.com for the hardiness listing of each rose. Like many, it varies by variety not necessarily by class or hybridizer.
While the hardiness listed may not be completely accurate, it can be a guide in deciding if you wish to give a variety a shot in your garden.

The English Roses are a bigger success story, but The Romantica's do have a few that have become much sought after like Eden, which in 2006 was voted "World's Best Rose." I know this because my aunt grows this rose and talks about it whenever I visit her garden. It is a beauty to be sure.

Barb,
We grow these Romanticas, they have overwintered successfully for us in zone 5a, but we bought them own-root from Roses Unlimited. I did try Yves Piaget grafted on multiflora from Pickering once, but it didn't survive. May have been due to its location, I don't know.

Rouge Royale-Ask Molineux(Patrick)about it-his fav red! fff
Eric Tabarley (Red Eden-climber)-wonderful red clusters!
Polka (climber) Huge peachy/apricot ruffled blooms
Traviata-AWESOME red blooms-thick substance, no disease
Yves Piaget-like a pinky/lavender peony...fff
Paris d'Yves St. Laurent-tall & spindly, gorgeous ruffly coral pink blooms....
Note ** fff Very fragrant
Note ** "Climbers" height: Polka (3rd or 4th season) has only gotten to about 6 feet, but I imagine it will eventually get a little taller!
Red Eden (2nd season, so far it's about 4 feet & very floriferous) Some say it balls too much for them...so far it is fine here...and all we've had is rain all spring!
I've read the same about Abbaye de Cluny (won't open for some).

I can't say enough about Traviata! I want another one or two! Rouge Royale is getting bigger every year, but I need to move it to a sunnier place I think, as it is very healthy, but not very many blooms. The few blooms it gets make you swoon-they are perfect & smell incredible! Some caution not to let it get in too much hot sun because the petals get crispy....so far not the case here.

Hope this helps, Barb. I can't recommend RU high enough!
:0) Phyl

Personally, I much prefer the growth habit of the Romanticas over the David Austins. Those David Austins flop on the ground if we get even a small amount of rain during bloom season while the canes on the Romanticas are quite strong. The upright habit means they don't take up as much room as the wana sprawl Austins. The blooms last longer usually also.

I have Francois Rabelais own root that I got at Roses Unlimited, its a wonderful rose.

Some others:

Abbaye de Cluny
Auguste Renoir
Bolero
Eden (Pierre de Ronsard)
François Rabelais
Frederic Mistral
Guy de Maupassant
Janice Kellogg
Jean Giono
Johann Strauss
Leonardo da Vinci
Comtesse de Provence (Liv Tyler)
Maggie
Michelangelo
Paul Ricard
Pink Traviata
Polka
Sunlight Romantica
Sweet Promise
Tchaikovsky
Traviata
Toulouse-Lautrec
Yves Piaget

Around the year 2000 when the rose world was big-time ga-ga over DA roses, J&P introduced a line it marketed as 'English Roses Bred in America'. Naively, I bought several varieties of them. The only one that remains in my garden, & shall always remain there (in multiples, actually), is Keith Zary's very excellent 'Royal Wedding'.

J&P carried 'Royal Wedding' for quite a number of years, first as a grated plant, then as one of its 'New Generation' own-roots. I was relieved to learn a year or so ago that Roses Unlimited now carries it.

In my garden, 3 'Royal Wedding' bushes are given the distintion of having their own bed which, during spring flush, they share with delphs (grown as annuals) and with dark blue salvia during the remainder of the season.

Yves Piaget was one of the first of them.
We grew it for three years, and I never saw a bloom open. This tempered my enthusiasm for any of the rest of them.

Jax -- So J&P dropped that "English" line, eh?
Really, after John Walden left, they backed off on the Shrubby lines he'd been working on. And too bad, too. Some of them were interesting, innovative roses.

Jeri

I have Royal Wedding also. Its a very nice rose.

From list of the Romanticas that decobug has mentioned I only grow Eden and Frederic Mistral, but I don't find that at least the flowers of these two roses look like the English roses, that are bread by David Austin. Can't help it, to me they look very different. Am I alone with this perception?

But don't get me wrong, I love both roses and feel, that they are very beautiful in their own right!

El Catalá is a Buck rose...

I agree about the bloom shape... I have Yves Piaget and Polka and although they have a full shape, they don't look 'English' to me...

How about Stile 800

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Markiz -- That's a stunning photo of 'Stile 800'. I was tempted to try that one, but opted for 2 other Barni roses -- 'Roberto Capucci' and 'Nico Fumagalli'. So far, I've found them to be not very floriferous (they're now in their third season). How is flower production on 'Stile'?

Also wondering where you garden. My Barnis showed quite a bit of winter damage this spring, so I'm curious about their hardiness as a group.

All of my roses are in their 1st year from pots that I purchased them in. I have White Eden(Palais Royale) and Red Eden(Eric Tabarly) romantica climbers. I also have 3 English roses. Both varieties bring something a little different. I love all my Austins....the nodding on my Pat Austin gives it a unique look and it always seems as if Pat Austin is looking down or over at the other plants in the garden.

So far my Red Eden shot out about 7-8 blooms in it's first flush for me. I love the deep red, strong cup shape of Red Eden. The blooms last FOREVER. I had some of the blooms on there for 2 entire weeks and only removed them because they had rust on them. I picked apart the petals and counted 187 petals in Red Eden.

White Eden is starting to grow more for me now. It's first flush.....if you want to call it that is coinciding with it putting out new growth for it's 2nd flush. The first and only bloom is budded up right now and will most likely bloom tomorrow or Saturday, so I'm excited to see it, especially with all my other roses putting out new growth for their 2nd flush. Both Red and White Eden are climbers that grow similarily to HTs, although so far they are not as dense in foilage as a lot of the HTs I see. I'm unsure how they will handle the cruel Ohio winter here. I am trying to grow them up a small arbor and I am going to protect them this winter and hope for the best and hope for little dieback. We shall see.

Jaxondel, I just got it in May, sorry.
Lana

Just to confuse, not all Romanticas have the old rose style blooms. Peter Mayle has a classic HT bloom, with high centers. It has thick stiff canes and blooms are very big and highly fragrant. It and Frederic Mistral are the only HT's to prove cane hardy to our recent -15C winter.

Eden, Polka, Johann Stauss, and Frederic Mistral have all been hardy in my zone 5 garden, although I have to prune off a lot of winter kill in the spring. I lost Guy de Maupassant & Peter Mayle to a bad winter. While many of the Romanticas have been hardy for me, they have not had the degree of hardiness that most of my David Austin roses have. I've only lost one Austin (Evelyn) and do not have nearly the degree of winter cane damage that I have with the Romanticas. That said, I'm glad I have both!

Clair Renaissance, Isabel Renaissance and Sophia Renaissance are three available in the US from the series introduced by Oleson along the lines of the English Roses.

I had mentioned Roundelay on another thread, which I grow:

Here is a link that might be useful: Roundelay

Here's another vote for Clair Renaissance from Poulsen as well as Well Being from Harkness (Morden Man has posted some great pictures of the latter). Both are beautiful and fragrant and do very well is coastal zone 5.

Ruth

About the only Romantica to survive in my zone 5a garden is Bolero. Frederic Mistral is still hanging on but at this point has only one 1' tall cane. Liv Tyler, Rouge Royale, Peter Mayle and Yves Piaget all died. All were own root from Roses Unlimited.
Don't forget the Generosa roses. Jardins de Viels Maisons (recommended by Martha Stewart) has old rose bloom form.

I have a couple of these, but they are so different from one another I didn't even know they were a "series". I have
Traviata (beautiful but burns in the sun)
White Eden (pinkish centers so not really white, beautiful and large blooms, hasn't started climbing yet)
Johann Strauss(don't know yet)
and I've seen Polka (outstanding!) and Red Eden (beautiful in spring, dried and burned blooms now).

Anyone have experience with Frederic Mistral or stile 800 in hot summers?

I have "Sweet Promise" which has done well so far. I love the cupped form of the blooms, the color blend, and the fragrance, which is intoxicating when caught at the righ time. The canes are usually pretty long and thornless for the most part. Biggest complaint is that it is not very vigorous, and stingy with the blooms. It was also the last to bloom in my garden, and I'm lucky if I get a 2nd flush. But I like the form and fragrance so much, I don't mind the slow growing habit.

CJ

Some of the comments on this thread reinforce the thought in my mind that I should never buy a rose without knowing what the plant / bush itself looks like.
It would be very disappointing to me to order a rose because of its old fashioned looking blooms, only to find out that the plant itself screamed modern hybrid tea (tall, narrow, no branching). What a disappointment in the garden that would be.

Randy

I've grown ALOT of the Romanticas & Generosas since 2000 and the only ones I have left are Eden and Guy de Maupassant.
Eden is breathtakingly beautiful, has very long lasting blossoms but a stingy bloomer and basically scentless.
English roses have done better for me but alot of them have been shovel pruned too. For those looking for some hardier English roses...I'm in a rural low spot so might as well be Z4 but the following Austins have hung in there and done well for me:
Constance Spry (a must have!)
Cressida (incredible unique fragrance/might be out of commerce)
St. Cecilia (planted next to the house)
Geoff Hamilton (planted next to the house)
Heritage
Leander
James Galway
Wm. Shakespeare 2000
Note most of these are old Austins.
Not sure what that means.

Anybody growing "Heaven on Earth"?
Very fluffy English style.
I think its a J&P rose.

Yep-love it....I know Celeste loves it too! :0) Phyl