I do not grow many English roses and I gave away several of them. But here are those I like and that do well, or OK enough to keep them in my coastal zone 8 garden. Needless to say, all Austins need spraying.

My favorite is Abraham Darby because of its many petaled blooms, great fragrance and variable colors. AD is not among the best for the southeast though because it balls in wet weather. But when AD is good it is very good.

The best English roses in my garden are:

Prospero Beautiful dark color, flowers open and stay on the bush
Christopher Marlowe - fast repeat; blooms stay on the bush quite long and do not shatter, foliage is quite healthy.
English Garden - short rose, very nice yellow with a touch of apricot in cooler weather
Sharifa Asma - strange foliage that looks coarse or twisted but the blooms are beautiful and very fragrant.
Crown Princess Margareta too new to evaluate but I like so far what I see. Clean foliage (so far), beautiful and complex colored blooms in shades from pale yellow to deep apricot.; This one is going to be big and will need support; the canes are very flexible and floppy so I doubt that it can be trained as a bush but I am sure Olga could manage that.
Jubilee Celebration -again, it is new in my garden but I like it. ItÂs not easy to describe the color; bloomed a lot even during the past extremely hot weeks. It was clean in the hot summer days; now I noticed a few spots, nothing dramatic so far.

The rest

The Squire I wish I had a grafted plant! I love the blooms - the only Austin that offers cut flowers that last for a week. I love it but it is still a baby in its 3rd year.
Geoff Hamilton Mine is a very good bloomer but the foliage while was very clean last year this year is ugly, has some kind of crude - I confess we didn't spray too much this year and it shows. However, the plant didn't defoliate after 4 months without being sprayed. It grows to 7'-8' but it is a nice bushy form, no need to stake it or train it on any structure.
Ambridge rose was extremely slow to establish but it is a bloom machine now; my most bs prone rose in this group; definitely needs regular spraying because otherwise it defoliates.
WS2000 I hope WS will be able to upgrade and make it into the "honor class" Right now I see defoliated canes, cane dieback and the flowers are grayish pink in full sun. I intend to replant it to some other spot where it gets only morning sun.
Sophie's rose also own root but only a year old, looks more mature than the Squire but I got it as a nice size 1 gallon last fall.

Heritage - Almost forgotten! With minimal spraying the foliage can be kept clean; blooms a lot but it should because the flowers last for about 10 minutes. It is a huge rose, I cut it back to a 4Â rounded bush after every flush.
The worst was Gamis Castle ; it is gone.

Romanticas - next time, OK? It would take longer -They are one of my favorite groups.

Traviata, Pink Traviata, Frederick Mistral, Heritage, Graham Thomas. This is not all necessarily repeat bloom but based on health of the plant in my area. I have to admit I have had very little blackspot this year and have sprayed minimally but hardly any bloom. It is time to get a new hobby.

I'm happy with Heritage, Sharifa Asma, Abe Darby, Mary Rose, Jude the Obscure, Molineux, Crocus Rose, WS 2000 and Graham Thomas. Glamis Castle and Kathryn Morley were terrible. Tamora and Evelyn have under-performed and I'm trying to decide whether to relocate them or to shovel prune. Used to spray. Don't anymore.

I love Pat Austin. Non-stop bloomer for me, very little BS and I am a very infrequent sprayer. I have kept Abraham Darby because of the scent, but the plant itself is awkward and gets a lot of BS. Those are the only Austins I have kept. I shovel-pruned several, among them The Prince, Sharifa Asma, a mis-labeled pink one that I still can't identify, Graham Thomas, Tamora and a few more that I don't remember at the moment. The Austins are NOT for people like me, who find spraying to be the worst gardening job of all. That's why I grow mostly chinas and teas. Denise

I have in my NC garden Tamora which was planted in part shade last year barely bloomed. I moved her in Feb to full sun and she grew and bloomed beautifully all summer. I also have Mary Rose. She bloomed more this year, but then again she was in a pot all last year. Sharifa Asma's blooms were beautiful but not too plentiful as goes with Heritage, although Heritage bloomed more than Sharifa. Abe darby was planted in Feb but never ever grew a single bud or leaf and eventually turned black...so he's history. Not sure I will try again. As for their foliage...I sprayed the first half of summer with Immunox 3 in 1 and never had any bs or other issues. Once it got to upper 90's and triple digits I stopped spraying and so far everything thing still looks pretty clean.

Tammy

My ten year old Leander gets better each year. It's now a free standing nine foot tall large vase with blooms coming at upper leaf axils. At least three cycles of bloom each year and it is well leafed out (and hasn't been sprayed in about 28 months.
Lillian Austin is more sprawly (but could be trained upwards) and the depth of color of her blooms remains excellent (also ten years).
James Galway, a mere baby at four or five, has the same growth habit as Leander with dense rosettes of pinkness. Again no spray and leaf retaining.
Fisherman's Friend is my tall oft repeating !red! Tess repeat less often, but when in bloom earns her spot.
Of lower growing Austins, Anne Bolyn is excellent and in other years was covered in wave after wave of pink blooms, so much so that I added more plants.
I've written before of how my clones of Heritage aren't great; I no longer grow a hedge of Graham Thomas- the ones sold by Parkwayside twelve years ago did the downhill shuffle of RMV. It was a great hedge of twenty plants; I miss it, but it had only three good years and then piffled out.

The best for me have been Prospero and Heritage. They both have great flowers with good fragrance on well-behaved plants with decent blackspot resistance. Heritage is a big shrub and Prospero is quite small-- probably should be planted in a group of two or three. It does fine on its own roots, though-- I have it in both kinds.

The flower of WS2000 is just magnificent in my climate, and it blooms freely. It has trouble with some spot disease, probably cercospora, but who cares in this case. Blooms are 4" with a hundred petals, gorgeous crimson-purple tones, and fragrance to make you gasp.

Traviata does have excellent disease resistance for me, and the longest-lasting flowers, but the plant is an oversized HT rather than a shrub, and I don't know if Phillip wants modern red in his very traditional garden. Pink Traviata looks promising, but I don't have it.

What is cercospora? It sounds bad but not too bad.

Thanks for your suggestions. I do plan to get Graham Thomas this fall. I'm also considering Heritage after reading your comments. I've had good luck with Mary Rose, Pat Austin, The Pilgrim, and Tradescant. Kathryn Morley and Evelyn were duds. Sounds like Leander, Traviata and a few others are worth considering.

It's just a stone's throw from here to Sheveport (if you have a really good arm) ... does that count as Southeast? Probably not, but for what it's worth, Heritage performs beautifully here and is my favorite of the two Austins I grow.

Randy

In my mid-south area, the Austins that have performed best for me have been Abe Darby, Pat Austin, Mary Magdalene, Crocus Rose, Tamora, Tradescant, Perdita, Wise Portia, to name a few. Golden Celebration has out performed Graham Thomas in the yellows and Symphony has about put them both to shame with Happy Child a close second. Ambridge Rose is good, Portmerion has come into his own after 4 years and Dove is a favorite. Admired Miranda is looking like she deserves a permanent spot and if Immortal Juno will bloom more, he'll be on the top list..huge blooms to rival Paul Neyron.

Ann,

When you said 4-5 years, a mere baby.... that was VERY useful info for me. Thanks. Sometimes I wonder if my roses just need more time to get going.

Robert

Golden Celebration, terrific in its first year, healthy and blooming steadily, fairly clean foliage and Oh! what a fragrance. Tradescant was mentioned by a couple other people-- our plant is a low spreader tolerating morning shade (NOT recommended, EYE didn't put it there)--the blooms are longer-lasting than many Austins and a beautiful dark red. Tamora, sigh. Very BS prone and not a generous bloomer. Was going to plant her in the bed but she's staying in the pot...until I need the pot for something else!

About Tamora, Barbarag, the growth habit of an own root Tamora is almost Gallica like, lots of underground rhizomes that put up canes. In a pot, even grafted, you're not going to get the spreading rhizomes and, thus, you're not going to get anywhere near as many vertical canes, nor will you get the bloom that would be on those canes. So, you might want to give her a chance in the ground.
Robert,
My test is that the rose needs to be better each year. I don't ask for fast growth, just that each year be better than that one before. I'm not into heavy fertilizer or water (with our droughts, we irrigate but not as much as I wish we could) and as long as the canes get stronger and healthier each year, I'm satisfied.

Ann

Ann, I don't often hear about Leander. I've always loved the pics. Do you happen to have a pic of your full Leaner bush? I'd love to see it. I love Austins. My current favorite is Ambridge Rose but it took a bit for her to come into her own.

Traviata will get big in a warm area. Here it is a year and a half ago:

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Here it is today. Keep in mind that Belinda's Dream in front of it is over 5'. The fence is 6'
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It blooms prolifically. This photo isn't good since it's getting dark but you can see all of the buds on it:
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It's one of my favorites for the vase, It holds for a good week or more:
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Nancy

'A shrosphire Lad' is the first to bloom in my garden - the flowers are HUGE and beautiful. It starts off with this apricot color in full sun, and gradually fades to light pink. The opening buds reminded me of a hybrid tea rose. Gradually those outer petals open up, leaving this 'neatly folded petals' at the center of the bloom.

So far I love this rose - it has this strong, 'dry' rose scent(?) in sunny days. I can almost smell this rose without burying my nose inside those petals. I think the scent is stronger than Heritage, but I prefer Heritage scent instead.

Unlike Heritage, the petals of ASL last for a long time - approx 4 days before they get blown away, leaving a clean tidy,look.

Since I've got this rose recently, I can't comment much on its overall health. The leaves lack luster.

Heritage is another lovely rose too - highly recommended. Healthy, Glossy leaves - and keeps pumping out lots of flowering buds to make up those scattered blooms.

The Pilgram, Gertrude Jekyll. Both extremely vigorous bloom machines. Highly fragrant. Jekyll especially responds to hard pruning. Jekyll is among the most fragrant roses known. Both will lose a few leaves but can be satisfactory with no or minimal spraying. Jekyll is also a thorn machine. Heritage nice as well.

Would somebody chime in with news of Leander? Have heard people praise its fragrance but to put it in my small garden I'd like to know if it repeats well and is reasonably healthy. I'm echoing Teka's question..