I love Pierre Notting, but it's not a prolific bloomer. It gets 3 maybe 4 flushes. And it's got a spindly habit, not a great bush form. I'm thinking of pegging it this year.

My Rose de Rescht only reblooms sporadically after the first spring flush.

All those criteria? Earth Song is the only one I can think of in my garden.

kate

4x4, blooms prolifically, full flower, great fragrance. That would be 'Bolero' (Meilland, 2004). Slow to get going, and perhaps not a shrub, but it is shrubby, and fits the other criteria.

Hoovb,

Has your Bolero become that large and is it mature? I have a few on order and if it becomes 4x4 I will definitely have to re-think placement of them.

Lynn

In my garden it would be Bishop's Castle and La France. Both have very fragrant and double pink flowers and neither have gotten large for me. I intentionally cut back Bishop's Castle when I cut off the old flowers so that the branches won't become floppy. In spite of that it still blooms fairly well. La France I haven't pruned in the three years I've had it and it's still small, although for some people it seems to get much larger. It must be me. It does bloom rather prolifically and I love its fragrance and the flowers, which are large and cupped. Both of these roses do well in my dry heat.

Ingrid

Thanks for all the notes and suggestions!

Isn't Bolero white(ish)?

I love Bishop's castle but DA's in my yard get all octopus-like and without blooms, even after pegging.

Ingrid - where in socal are you? How do DA's do in your yard? The only ones that work for me are the climbers because they're super long and flexible.

Also, I could fit it a smidge more - 5 feet wide by any height is actually fine.=)

Anyone grow the following:
Ebb Tide
Maggie
Comice de Tarn-et-Garonne
Madame Ernst Calvat
Madame Dore
Coupe d'Hebe

Thanks!

stacian, I'm in north San Diego County, about 20 miles inland, at 1700 feet elevation. I have no room for climbers and avoid the octopus-armed ones like the plague. Sophy's Rose, Potter and Moore, Chaucer, Charles Darwin, Wife of Bath and Pretty Jessica, in addition to Bishop's Castle, all stay small for me. My rather light soil may have something to do with it, but Austin does have smaller roses. If he lists them as being 3 feet or under they're inclined to stay on the smaller side in almost any climate. Four feet or more and you may be in octopus territory.

Ingrid

I had Comice de Tarn-et-Garonne and it was a pretty and fragrant rose but I soon realized this was going to be one of those large and lanky Bourbons that spread all over the place, which made it unsuitable for its spot or really anywhere else in the garden. Not a spectacular rose by my standards, but it left before it was mature so it's possible the blooms with age would have become larger and more outstanding.

I have Madame Dore and in a number of years it's never grown taller than barely two feet. It's the shortest Bourbon I have but the flowers are quite lovely. It's had some issues with blackspot which I think it caught from Burgundy Iceberg.

Ingrid

It took 10 years for 'Bolero' to get 4x4. Easily manageable, one of the many things I like about it. Most every other rose here is a monster.