I'm sure you already know that HelpMeFind.com is a great source for photos and descriptions of roses.

Sheila's Perfume, French Lace and Jardins de Bagatelle are three of my favorites. In my garden they are healthy and bloom well, but I live on the other side of the country from you, so that's no guarantee.

French Lace is a classic & one of my favorite floribundas. I've found Sheila's Perfume to be very stingy with its well-shaped blooms and to have (personally speaking) rather garish coloration.

Sheer Magic is a tall bush with very beautiful, healthy foliage and LOTS of flowers. The flowers are highly phototropic--so, for me, SM produces its most attractive blooms in the early spring and fall -- in midsummer, however, they're kind of a ghastly flesh-colored anemic pink with an orange border. Very little scent. SM gets one more year in my garden, then I suspect it will get the old heave-ho. You're north of me, so perhaps the less intense sunlight in your garden would enhance the performance (ie, beauty) of this rose.

I think you're right- it is too early for feedback on the new JP roses. But that didn't stop me from getting Enchanted Evening for next spring! I was tempted to get Dream Come True but I ran out of planting space. I can see the loss of more lawn in my future...

If you are speaking of Fryer's HT "Cloud Nine", I have one own root from Heirloom (new this spring) so it's way too early to say yea or nay about keeping it. However the color is a vibrant and attractive coral pink; it has fragrance, and some of the blooms have had a perfectly drilled center. No disease so far (I spray fairly regularily), but as I said this is a new own root and still in an 8 inch pot.

Prairie Sunrise is a really nice rose. Stays a nice medium size, has gorgeous fragrant blooms. I've grown it for 4-5 years. Blows a bit fast.

Cloud Nine, the Fryer rose, I have grown for 2 years. It has really great classic HT form, lotsa petals, good substance, and blooms a lot. The blooms are kinda small though. I have specific local issues here with ongoing botrytis and thrips throughout the year with certain roses, and Cloud Nine is susceptible to both.

I grew the original LeAnn Rimes (you call it Perception (LeeAnn Rhimes)), back when it was first introduced. This rose wants to go monster huge, and doesn't rebloom well. I gave it a few years, but it was definitely not my cup o' tea. Great blooms when it bloomed, but way too few and the monster bush made me ditch it.

French Lace is one of my all-time favorite roses. A truly great rose. I have three of them.

Jardins de Bagatelle is another of my all-time favorite roses, but it is susceptible to my balling/thrips problems. Other than that, it is very fragrant and very beautiful, and pretty darned disease-free.

I live in a cool coastal Calif climate, so my comments about my botrytis, balling, and thrips problems probably would not affect these roses for you.

Susan

I gave my Sheila's Perfume away, because I found that her blooms were beautiful initially, but then after a day or so they would look "old" and unattractive. If I were you, I would try to find a bicolor of this nature which retains its coloration -- I know that are are some out there. Further, I had black spot issues. Happy rosing, CJ

I grow Prairie Sunrise, Paradise, French Lace, and Jardins de Bagatelle.

I love the color of the blooms on Prairie Sunrise. My plant is still very small but this year was more productive than its first two years. I was told that it would be 'no spray' but it isn't the case, it gets blackspot.

Jardins de Bagatelle has wonderful fragrance and it has beautiful blooms but yes, botrytis could spoil the blooms - I will spray with some calcium solution to prevent that. (see MichaelGÂs posts on this issue. I wish there were such a simple and inexpensive solution to treat the thrips.)

French Lace is beautiful; mine is in a very bad overcrowded spot, so it cannot give her best there.

Paradise is very tall (mine is grafted on fortuniana) and very productive - I constantly cut blooms for the house or do deadheading.

I just ordered Cloud Nine and the Lions rose - so we can compare notes about them a year from now.:-)

I have had my Shiela' Perfume for four years. I really like the blooms initially as they have nice color and form and also have a very strong but nice fragrance. The only problem is they only stay pretty for a couple of days. If you want to cut them for a vase, do it early so they stay a pretty color. The Shiela's Perfume bush is vigorous growing and winter hardy enough and seems to stay relatively disease free. Overall, a pretty good rose I would say.
Paradise is new to me this year and has been outstanding from the onset. Vigorous and disease free growing and lots of beautiful flowers.
Sheer Magic, Southern Belle, April in Paris are also new this year and so far have been very good roses that I would recommend to anyone. All were started bareroot in pots and broke dormancy well before transplanting to the garden bed where they continue to establish themselves. Southern Belle and April in Paris were part of the J&P Hybrid Tea Test Rose Panel this year. That is why I buy them every year.
I have already ordered the Lovestruck, Enchanted Evening floribundas, and also the grandiflora Dream Come True from J&P for next Spring.
I think that the pictures of the new J&P offerings for Spring 2008 are some of the best I have seen from them in years. I only hope I haven't been duped and end up with a bunch of duds! The Mardi Gras floribunda and the Dream Come True grandiflora look especially inviting for their excellent color combinations.
John

Paradise, vigorous and bushy both grafted and on its own roots. Lots of blooms. The biggest for me are in the first spring flush, thereafter they're smaller but more numerous. Always good HT form. Needs spraying but is generally healthy. I find Paradise to be more susceptible to chemical burn than most roses, so keep it well-watered before any spraying or chemical fertilizing.

Sheila's Perfume--I second what's been said by others above. I like the coloring, but it's intense. Blooms are shapely, but too infrequent and not long-lasting enough.

Prairie Sunrise I've only had 4 months, but is really healthy and already producing one bloom after another at a respectible rate. I love the fragrance and color (color reminiscent of Just Joey but not pale on the edges). It does blow a bit fast, but the repeat seems to make up for it. I expect that will only get better with maturity, too.

Killed Paradise, but I bought it early on when I didn't know how to treat for blackspot properly.

Killed two French Lace. Were potted, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Were fine the first year, croaked the second.

Jardins de Bagatelle was also potted and also didn't do well in the second year. It was lovely and highly fragrant. Botrytis kept it from being a real stunner when it was good.

I don't have Lion's Fairy Tale, but I suspect that any in the "Fairy Tale" series, especially if you get it on multiflora rootstock, will be a winner here.

Thanks everyone for all the great responses, this will help so much in deciding what I want to order.