My favorite classes are:
Early oriental yellows (not an officiqal class, of course, but the mixture of hybrids) and gallicas.
I love other roses too, but these two group are the ones that always call my name when I see them in catalogs or in real life.
Olga

I can't say that I have one. The things I look for, fragrance, rebloom, bloom size & form (small to medium, single to loosely double), suitability for the southeast, tend to exclude large segments of each class. But I often violate my own values. I've got 8 once-bloomers (out of 26 roses), and more gallicas than any other class (4) unless you count found roses (5) as a sort of class. I have Mme Isaac Pereire (fragrance overruled bloom form) and a couple of others whose blooms are fuller than I would have "designed." I guess another way to look at it is that I love the variety that roses exhibit.

For me, It would be any that are shaped like
( Paul Neyron ) and has tons of petals. Which is hard to find for my Area. But I keep P.N. because of it's shape.
But I am thinking of getting ( Souvenier De La Malmaison )
I heard it does well here. Olgaflowers

I'm surprised no has mentioned Bourbons yet (I know SDLM and MIP were mentioned). I like them because they like my soil and climate (I do spray) and they seem to have the greatest sense of history to me. This class contains some great roses: MIP, Louise Odier, Honorine de Brabant, SdLM, and La Reine to name a few.

I'll be venturing into Tea and China territory in the Spring with some hardier varieties.

Eric

My tastes are ever evolving. First I liked Rugosas and Hybrid Teas, as long as they weren't yellow. Now I do yellow, and have gotten more into other types.

I also really used to hate the look of centifolias, but now I am beginning to appreciate their form and abundance of petals.

Of couse, I haven't really been a rose person all that long (another area that I am evolving and expanding in is shrubs in general).

My choice is based on roses I grow since that is the only way I can properly evaluate them. Teas have become my favorite class, with chinas coming a close second.
molly

I can't say which is my favorite class because I have quite a few favorites in many classes. I can only say that my favorites list is good only for the garden that I have in the climate it is in at the time I am putting out the list. Some of the roses that thrive in the south won't make it here. Some that do well here won't make it in the Pacific Northwest. Some that do well in PNW won't do well here. It just depends on where the garden is and what conditions are present and what rootstock, if any, is involved, but, that, as they say is another story.

Favorite, Tea. Followed by Chinas and Noisettes because they do well here. I love the Austin's although they are a BS mess here.

Carla

I love the Mosses-the lush full extravagant flowers surrounded by that fragrant moss. The buds are just heartbreaking. Gallicas feed the same need-almost- and are so wonderfully bushy and hardy here. I think I have maybe 60 kinds and am putting together an order to Vintage to get a few more that I dont have(have to with that 2 free sale) Teas are so wonderful and I loved the ones I saw down in California but they will not prosper for me here. When they do bloom the colors are too 'hot' for my misty green world. The blushy pinks, roses and Carmines of the European old roses blend in so much better here to me. Spinosissimas are my latest love-been adding all the new ones I find. I like the contrast of the foliage with the color of the canes...great hips too..the flowers are like hundreds of little butterflys.

patricia

It is interesting to look at the responses in this thread, and see how they break down along regional lines.

Gardeners who are SMART (and most of the folks here are pretty smart gardeners) love those plants that grow well in their environment. Thus, those of us with little or no winter will spend our lives in frustration if we try over and over to grow Centifolias, or Gallicas, or Albas, or . . .

Gardeners who deal with harsh winters will spend their lives in mourning, if they base their gardens on a collection of -- CHINAS!

Smart gardeners love the roses that WILL "prosper" where they garden. :-)

Jeri

Olgaflowers, since you live in Dallas, you must stop just "thinking about getting Souvenir de la Malmaison". You should go ahead and go for it. Once established, it thrives here.

Randy

I can't agree more with Jeri! I love Chinas because nothing flourishes better in NE Florida. Of course there are many teas with china blood that do well too. Noisettes are great here as well. I can't understand why they are grown more widely here because they love the climate. Devoniesis is an esquisite example of a rose that prospers here in Florida and is quite difficult to grow in other climates. Austins are not a good pick here with the humidity. I only have three that can take the humidity and not look like a fungus magnet.

Lois

Noisettes are great here as well. I can't understand why they are grown more widely here because they love the climate.

*** IMHO, if our economy favored REGIONAL rose-grower/vendors, I think they would be.
For a century or more, most rose-grower/vendors have relied on national distribution -- and the premise that a good rose was a good rose everywhere in the U.S.
If you think on it, ARS's "Roses In Review" program is based on that same premise.
WE here, however, KNOW that a rose can be a 10 in z9FL, and a complete waste of time, effort and money in a z4 garden.

Jeri (Who also loves Noisettes and Chinas beyond idolatry)

Teas, definitely. No, wait ... Chinas! Yes, Chinas. Or Teas ...

Well, I love Portlands. They are hardy and healthy and repeat-blooming fools here! They have the damask fragrance that I love. I love that they stay small and bushy to squeeze a lot into a smaller space.

I also love individual Bourbons, but some are more subject to BS and less hardy here, so as a class are not as bullet-proof. And I love Gallicas, but I wouldn't want a garden entirely of non-repeating roses. Ditto with Albas, whose scent I love the most. I also love English roses, though many have BS issues here. So that's why Portland roses get my vote.

Musk, both wild and hybrid. Like the smell, and the size and profusion of many of the wild ones. Have to admit the early and conspicuous browning of the anthers of some is a definite drawback.

Bourbons...I've yet to meet a Bourbon I did'nt immediately like for fragrance and form. They also tend to do well in NYC.

Thank's Randy
I will get Souvenier De La Malmaison
I wonder If I would find it at North Havens Gardens ?
That's where I find most of mine.
Olga,

Olga, I bought my SdlM at North Haven Gardens several years ago in the early spring. It was in a two-gallon container, growing on its own roots. I haven't been to North Haven in quite a while (there's a lot of city traffic between my home and there), so I don't know if they currently have any.

Randy

When I lived in Ohio it was Kordes shrubs-- Sparrieshoop, Westerland, Fruhlingsmorgen, Alychmist closely followed by Griffith Buck's shrubs. Now I'm falling in love with teas and noisettes, Chinas and Polyanthas. Falling in love is nice!

I rarely meet a rose that doesn't please me in some way. But most often while meandering through the old Vintage lot, it was the early hybrid teas that took my fancy, the delicacy of bloom, the subtle range of colors like watercolors, the fine perfumes. I love singles and also big shrubs covered with blooms so the tea roses are special favorites. Here are a few favorites beyond caste or class.
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Grosse Choux de Hollande-hybrid Bourbon

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Angel Bells, old hy-tea
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Buff Beauty--hybrid musk
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Blanc Double de Coubert--rugosa of divine scent
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Belle Storey--Austin
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Mrs. Charles Bell--early hy-tea
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tea-noisette, Mme. Alfred Carriere
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Compte de Chamborde--Portland
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Ellen Wilmott--early Hy tea
I like all the classes!
la

My dilemma is that the roses that really grab my heart are the ones I can't grow - Gallicas for those colors, Mosses for those heart-breaky buds, Damasks for the pebbled foliage and their fragrance.
Nevertheless, I stubbornly grow 'Leda'. So I get some mildew...for three glorious weeks, I have damask roses!

Leda, in Southern California
{{gwi:327782}}

A

ENGLISH ROSES are my favorite. The cupped and quartered flower forms are breathtakingly beautiful. Fragrance is usually strong for this group. Beautiful pastel colors. Growth habit is so diverse that depending on cultivar they can be grown several different ways. Best of all they repeat bloom.

The Bourbons are my second favorite (especially those like SOUVENIR DE LA MALMAISON).

I'm well into my 40th year of growing roses in a cold climate and at one time or another I've favored every class of hardy roses known to man. For the past ten years or so, I thought I'd finally settled down with Austin English roses. Now I'm surprising myself with a desire to grow polyanthas and polyantha-like roses. Yep, the same class that Graham Thomas dismissed as "scentless and soulless". I'm still trying to figure out why I feel this way but maybe the link below to Digger Dave's photos of 'Sweet Chariot' (a polyantha-like rose, in my terminology, and an important player in my plans for next season) will help.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sweet Chariot

I can well understand Graham Thomas opinion of polyanthas if he'd only seen them grown the way common in the 30s, in classical rose gardens with regimental rows with bare soil between each plant. I have seen this manner of planting in a period garden in Sweden and it was very boring although historically correct.

I have only three roses of this class, Marie Pavic, Katharina Zeimet and Mevrouw Nathalie Nypels. I use the first for the front of a mixed border below Madame Plantier, and Nathalie in a mass planting of a dozen plants.

I'm all over the map on favorite classes of roses. I'm very fond of albas and damasks for scent and gallicas for their wild coloring. I love rugosas for their scent and fabulous wrinkled leaves which turn gold in the fall. I do like many of the Austins, too. And I really like the hybrid perpetuals, so long as I restrict myself to the scented ones with some disease resistance, which is not the whole class, I know. Here in my area these are fabulous roses. Perhaps they are my favorites.

And I love striped roses of any class.

Rosefolly

I'm like Rosefolly, I'm all over the map too. I don't have lots of space so I've tried to have a nice assortment to enjoy, because each class seems to have its own strengths.

I do wish to see someday, in person, a tea rose in full bloom since so many of you love them so.

Mike,
Graham Thomas could not have grow Marie Pavie, because there is no way he would of said that about polyanthas if he had.
Remy

Here is a link that might be useful:

Remy, I agree, there's nothing "scentless and souless" about that fragrant beauty.
I respect Mr. Thomas a great deal, but if he did say that, he surely never grew Marie Pavie or her equally great pink sport, Marie Daly.

Randy

In the poor fella's defense, I think we must consider that they may not have performed for him as they do for those of us fortunate enough to live in very mild climates.

Jeri

I am too new to know but I do love this thread. I am limited by climate but also by my soil which rules out rugosas and polyanthas. So I will try not to fall in love with any.

Since I have one of each on order: bourbon, HP and china, as well as a few English Roses, I will see what I can grow. It may be too cold for chinas and teas here, I'm not sure. That is the stickywicket: we really have a winter but extraordinary heat and humidity in summer, like most of the MidWest.

Redsox, do you mean polyanthas also get chlorotic, like rugosas? I was thinking of ordering Marie Pavie next year, but my soil generally hovers around PH7. I have to apply sulphur and iron chelate to keep my rugosas happy. Will I have the same problem with Marie Pavie?
Judith

There aren't a lot of strongly fragrant Polyanthas. The only ones to come to mind are CLOTILDE SOUPERT, MARIE PAVIE (and its pink sport Marie Daly), and PERLE D'OR. The others might have a slight to light fragance, but nothing that could be described as "strong". SWEET CHARIOT is classed as a miniature and VINEYARD SONG as a shrub. They may look like Polyanthas but don't actually belong in that particular class.

Give the late Graham Stuart Thomas a break. The legendary rosarian lived in the United Kingdom. The climate across the pond is nothing like what we experience here in the states. The cool/moist Pacific Northwest is the closest and even then there are differences. I also get the impression that Mr. Thomas liked big billowy shrubs, which are simply not practical in our small yards. I love Polyanthas. They can't be beat in the front of the flower border and in our wonky climate are very easy to grow. The climbing sports are also wonderful garden plants.

My favorite Polyantha is Clotilde Soupert. She'd be just about perfect if she didn't have that little balling problem.

I didn't have a chlorosis problem with Marie Pavie -- and anything that CAN be chlorotic, WILL be chlorotic here.

The stumpy Baby Faurax is awful (as are many purply Multiflora things).
The Kosters and their relatives do fine.
Yvonne Rabier is badly afflicted.
Perle d'Or, Cecile Brunner, and Lady Ann Kidwell have NO problem, but Sweet Chariot and Vineyard Song are afflicted.

Jeri

I sure hope no one thought I was being too harsh on Graham Thomas. I have his book 'Treasured Perennials' and most of which he loved, I have an affinity for also. So I found his comment odd. I do realize his climate is much different than here. Still "Souless" is much harsher than anything said here. : )
Remy

I am very much in love with Portlands! There are so healthy, vigorous and all have such a strong fragrance with repeat blooming.

My favourite is Rose de Resht which is almost constantly blooming followed by Madame Knorr which has the strongest fragrance!

Oh, Remy -- I get very annoyed with the Sainted Mr. Thomas some times.
I've been reading his "Clippings From My Garden Notebooks."
Thus far, NOTHING he deems an "essential" to the garden will grow here.
It's just an illustration, I suppose, of the way we have to ADAPT to suit our own conditions.

Jeri

Generally what is blooming at the time, but if pressed for an answer I would say I must agree with ispahan.

There is nothing wrong with coveting roses we cannot grow. That is why God made greenhouses. Not that chickens have them, but what can I say. It would be fun to buy them for my southern relations, if I could get them interested in roses in the first place (DINS.)

Last year I tried so very hard to convince one of my friends to try an Alba. NO GO on something green heathy and one of the rare things that we can grow here without any attention what-so-ever other than the dreaded deer attack.

Foghorn

i like all classes, but to pick a favorite i'd have to go with species for the variety and hardiness. also the ability to grow true from seed.

Well, I almost feel like a traitor to admit that chinas are no longer my greatest love, but now that my teas are old enough to really show their stuff, I acknowledge the singular beauty of this class. My first few years with the teas left me somewhat disappointed, but they have come into their own in the past year.

"Spice" (most call her a tea, some persist in naming her china) is now the size of a Mini-Cooper, and last week before our first freeze still had about four dozen blooms of exquisite perfume and carelessly graceful, nodding form.

Mrs. B. R. Cant, Monsieur Tillier, Mrs. Dudley Cross, Rosette Delizy, and a dozen others of that ilk are my showiest belles of the ball.

One final joy that I can now report, my nose is apparently maturing as well: in the beginning I could only detect a faint tea scent as unique from other roses, but this year I can tell which rose is wafting from 15 or 20 feet away- not just that it's a tea or a noisette or whatever, but, which rose variety!!!

My husband would say it's time I start obsessing over something else, I have way too much rose on the brain...

My first few years with the teas left me somewhat disappointed, but they have come into their own in the past year.

*** Yeah. They're sorta like Ugly Ducklings that way. :-)

Jeri

Jeri, you cut me to the quick when you call Baby Faurax stumpy. Can't we agree on the word petite?

Yes, it's the tiniest of my bands, but completely healthy and I'm looking forward to the cute little flowers. The IHT's you enabled me into are doing very well, and every once in a while I have to pinch off a bud so the bands will grow better. Heinrich Karsch does have a bit of blackspot but I hope that will pass.

Ingrid

I'm sorry, Ingrid. The descriptive doesn't have a thing to do with the blooms, which are lovely.
But, truthfully, this nice little rose does not have a graceful plant habit. It's short, upright, and, well -- STUMPY!

The Sequoia B.F., which is maybe Raymond Privat (??) has a much more graceful habit. It also does not have the chlorosis problems which plagued the "regular" B.F. here.

Here are two moods of Raymond Privat:
{{gwi:327794}}

and the link, below:

Jeri

Here is a link that might be useful:

Remy, nope, I didn't think you were being too harsh on Mr. Thomas. I think he's awesome, perhaps my favorite rose author. But I don't take the same position as he does on every rose. We understand where you're coming from ... no worries.

Randy

Jeri, Raymond Privat is beautiful. I hope I haven't made a mistake. As I recall, when you first mentioned RP I had already ordered BF (like about 5 minutes before!) If BF doesn't work out at least I know what to order to take its place in the lavender bed. (I was also just kidding; I can see even now that BF IS stumpy.)

Ingrid

Ingrid, why don't you order Sequoia's Baby Faurax NOW?
(They're both small.)

Jeri

Remy,

You can relax about GST. We all know that he was a very gifted but also very opinionated author. Come to think about it so are most rosarians. We are a passionate people.

One thing I know for sure: when reading rose books look first where the author gardens and compare the climate/soil with your own. Most rose books produced in this country are written by rosarians in California. Good examples are Clair Martin (100 Old Roses for the American Garden), Rayford Clayton Reddell (The Rose Bible) and Carolyn Parker (R is for Rose). I love their books but have to take their advice with a grain of salt. Ain't no way my Mid-Atlantic climate and acidic clay soil is like their California/Mediterranean climate and alkaline clay soil. I used to envy the California rosarians with their long growing seasons and perfect florest quality blooms but they can't grow Austins nearly as well as I can. Same goes for some of the antique roses. Sometimes having winters is a good thing.

Best wishes,

Patrick

I tend to like opinionated authors, at least of a certain kind: passionate, knowledgeable, experienced. If you're going to write a book about something in which you have a lot of experience, you ought to share your opinions. You know your tastes will not appeal to all, not even to some who are knowledgeable and experienced. If you are honest about your own taste, others will come to know it. They will know which opinions to accept and which to doubt. And as Patrick shows, you should assume your reader/gardener understands the importance of climate and soil.

A book should be considered part of a funny sort of conversation. It's funny because no matter how much you argue with a book, it stubbornly keeps asserting the same opinion. But if it's written from the heart, something of the author's love of the subject will show through.

Mike

Digger Dave's photos of 'Sweet Chariot' ARE NOT VERY NICE!

Well they are VERY nice, Zone 5 hummmm.

I have just the place.

F.L.

Jeri, to tell you the truth, I think I'm "rosed out" for this year. Seven more roses to plant and then I just want to sit back and wait for the (hopefully) great joy of watching all the little ones grow and bloom next year. We'll have planted 53 roses this year and many companion plants and I think that's enough. Always good to leave something to dream for in the future.

Merry Christmas to you and all the wonderful people on the forum.

Ingrid

I think I'm "rosed out" for this year.

*** And it is a good time of the year to pause, and think about what you have done in the past year.

Jeri