Welcome to the forum, Jenny. I live in a hot, dry climate and these are some roses that have done well for me:

Tea roses are wonderful, although not terribly fragrant. One that is fragrant is pink Duchesse de Brabant, which would appreciate afternoon shade.

Mlle. de Sombreuil grew and bloomed very quickly for me, still blooming now in the heat. White in color. Will make a lovely statement when full-grown.

Carding Mill, an Austin rose, is apricot, disease free, blooms a lot, great in the heat, not much fragrance. Still very valuable.

Reve d'Or is a wonderful climber but don't put it on a hot house wall. Pinkish-apricot, very lovely and floriferous. Grew quickly for me.

Le Vesuve is a large pink tea rose, grows very wide, it is thorny but well worth having; in fact, I have two.

Young Lycidas, an Austin rose, purplish, very fragrant and beautiful, no disease, does well in the heat.

La France, the first hybrid tea but old, large pink and fragrant flowers, one of my favorites.

Souvenir de la Malmaison, a pink Bourbon rose of great beauty. It is fragrant but has a somewhat beery scent. My best rose for beauty, flowering, health, bushiness and heat tolerance. It's a must if it works in your climate, which it should.

Bishop's Castle is a fragrant and beautiful pink Austin that does well in the heat. It tends to sprawl but I've kept it short by cutting way down into the branch when I deadhead and fairly drastic pruning in the winter.

There are many more but I'll let others tell you about their favorites.

Ingrid

Thank you Ingrid! So helpful.
I'm having the hardest time with this...

Little White Pet is my favorite rose for large pots, and also likes to be planted in the ground. Stays 2 - 2 1/2 feet high and wide. Small, perfect rosette blooms, blooms almost continuously. White, of course.

If you are willing to have a large once blooming completely thornless climber (into trees is fine, up your house is fine if it is more than one story) I would recommend Yellow Lady Banks (banksia lutea). It loves heat, and blooms a tremendous amount - for 2 1/2 months straight here. The largest known rose in the world is a banksia which grows in Arizona, so I think it would like your climate.

Of the teas, I love Le Vesuve. Large pink blooms. Blooms 11 months of the year here.

You might look at Old Blush - it loves heat. It is a china rose. I don't grow it, but it is worth looking up.

You can look up all of these roses on Help Me Find/roses, and see lots of pictures of them.

Jackie

For smaller shrubs, you might look at the polyanthas, but I think as a group they are probably less fragrant. There are numerous old threads discussing polyanthas that you can search for on Gardenweb. Here is one from last year:

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardenweb thread

My dad grew great roses ... picked for fragrance.

In Phoenix, the flowering and pruning season is not the same as the rest of the country.

They sulk all summer, and you want them with a lot of leaves to shade the plant, so spring pruning is bad.

Prune them back in early fall (Late September, early October-ish) so they can recover and grow and flower during the cool season. When hot weather comes, don't prune and don't expect many flowers.

Mulch well, water deeply when you water. Don't over-amend the soil, supplement the iron and use soil sulfur but not oodles of organics.

Some shelter from the afternoon sun is good, east side is great, on a shaded north side is not good. Against a south wall is lethal for the rose unless you can shade it in the summer.

APHIDS: Don't panic and spray. The hummingbirds will eat them, as will verdins and sparrows and lacewings and everything else. A bud can be encrusted in the morning and almost cleaned off in the afternoon.

Lazy ... Your advice would apply to most of Southern California.

Jeri

I was just looking at one of the "Singularly Beautiful Roses" newsletters (from 2012), and Stephen Hoy had an article titled "Hot Roses" in it. It talks about roses bred by Judy Singer in Tucson and includes a number of photos. I'm not sure how close Tuscon's climate is to your climate, but I assume that they would have some similarities. Anyway, the article has a link to Judy's website, and Judy's website has a link to an article she wrote "Notes From a Desert Hybridizer". HMF doesn't seem to list vendors for any of her roses, but Judy's article does list some other roses that do well for her.

Here is a link that might be useful: Singularly Beautiful Roses newsletter

I'm in the Phx area also (Tempe) and would recommend Zepherine Drouhine climber, thornless, Alister Stella Gray, tea nOisette and tea roses. These teas have don well for me:

Mme Joseph Schwartz
Maman Cochet
Catherine Mermet
Mrs BR Can't
Monsieur Tillier

And there are many others but these are my stand outs. Try to give them afternoon shade if you can. And they will look terrible in the summer no matter what you do.

Other great roses are Souvenir de la Malmaison and her sport Kronprincess Viltoria which is a new rose in my garden (first summer) and has been great thru our horrible summer heat. I really like Bolero too.

Good luck!

Mrs. Dudley Cross' is one of my favorite Old Garden Tea roses, she blooms a lovely hue of pink and yellow in spring with a sublime cream hue in the center. In late summer and autumn the blooms are covered with a light crimson hue.
Very few prickles, so few she is said to be thornless.
'Lady Hillingdon' is the best apricot rose I've grown, lovely scent, and it blooms nearly constantly all through the growing season from February past Christmas, nearly twice as long as any of our Austins or Floribundas.
'Susan Louise' for a climber, mine has no prickles on her lowest 4 feet of canes. Big mostly pink roses with a cream center, along with Lady Hillingdon has the longest bloom season of any rose I've grown out of more than 200. Light fragrance.
Another vote for Le Vesuve, the blooms have a pert delicacy which I find charming. Another nearly constant bloomer this rose has a smoky scent.
Those would be my first picks. The Old Garden Teas are my favorite roses for their vast subtle hues of pink and yellow, always elegant, never vulgar in coloration. I love the fragrance of Lady Hillingdon, Anna Olivier, Mrs Dudley Cross and Comtesse Emmeline de Guigne which changes from pink to pure peach depending on the season, its' fragrance has notes of stone fruit scent. . Old garden Teas need and prefer little pruning and once established I never fertilize them because they don't need it when planted in well amended soil.
Photos of each may be seen at helpmefind.com/roses under Search.

Best wishes for splendid roses,
Lux.

Lazy ... Your advice would apply to most of Southern California.

Jeri

I would highly recommend Pretty Jessica (David Austin). It takes a beating and keeps on ticking. I just for the life of me can't remember how thorny it is! It is dark outside so checking on it won't work either.

I would also recommend David Austin's Princess Alexandra of Kent (pink). It does have thorns on it but blooms like crazy in the heat. I also recommend Munstead Wood (beautiful red). It has thorns as well. Lets see if I can find pictures.

Munstead Wood
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Pretty Jessica
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Princess Alexandra of Kent
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I second Jeri on Princess Alexandra of Kent (heat) and Munstead Wood. PAOK is prolific, the blooms are huge and exceptionally fragrant. Our best cut Austin of the 20 we grow. I feel MW is one of the prettiest of the Austins. The color is so rich and the fragrance is intense to my nose. MW needs a little afternoon shade.

I would also add Christopher Marlowe, prolific, continuous, and a very unique color (see photo) with a fresh scent. Jubilee Celebration has the strongest scent of our Austin roses, even stronger than Jude the Obscure and Gertrude Jekyll.

Lee

Another shot of Christopher Marlowe

Mrs. Dudley Cross loves the heat here and in Texas. Much hotter than here. See pic.

FYI Jubilee Celebration will need afternoon shade in your heat.

This post was edited by leezen4u on Fri, Sep 12, 14 at 19:07

Wow, I live Christopher Marlowe. I wonder how it would do here...but of course I have no room, but that won't stop me, unfortunately:)

I am going to suggest SDLM, Ingrid enabled me to this rose and it is one of my favorite. Takes the heat and has beautiful fragrant light pink blooms.