1. Favorite RED / MAGENTA - Maggie. I especially like the flatish (not high-centered) form that looks like nothing so much as a dancer's full array of bright rosy skirts. Even though it's a Bourbon, it's extremely healthy and easy to grow. Low in thorns, large in bloom size. The blooms last a long time in the vase, and you can stare at it forever without tiring of appreciating its beauty. 2. Favorite ORANGE / APRICOT - We don't have this color yet that I've seen, though tiny Crepuscle (noisette), when it gets large enough to bloom, will be a faint shade of this. Maybe. That's a low-thorns healthy rose with large blooms too. 3. Favorite YELLOW - Julia Child. I like its butter yellow color, but even in the summer when it fades some, you can still tell that it's a yellow, not a white. 4. Favorite PINK - General Schablikine. Often called a red, it has always been a dusty deep pink here, regardless of season. We've had it from two different nurseries and the color was a dusty pink in both cases. It's a beautiful, beautiful color that contrasts nicely with the lighter pinks that we have a good many of. Its form is flatish and full-petaled. Fairly low in thorns, good-sized flowers that keep on going late into the fall. Evergreen in North Carolina. 5. Favorite PURPLE / VIOLET / MAUVE / LAVENDER - Reine des Violettes, assuming it's going to eventually get around to blooming here. (I've read that sometimes it takes awhile to establish.) Low/no thorns, and so far the picture of health here. 6. Favorite BICOLOR (Example - Double Delight) - Cinco De Mayo. This is a party rose, pure party rose. If you plant Cinco De Mayo, you must prepare to take a bloom in the house, clinch it between your teeth, put on your dancing shoes and dance all over in a big ruffled skirt. (Guys can wear kilts, I suppose...) The rose's only negative is that it's a bit thorny. Otherwise, it's amazingly healthy, and beautiful in its combination of colors with ruffly edges. It blooms less once it loses much of its sunlight, but it never gets a bit of any kind of disease (grown organically, at least). 7. Favorite WHITE - Lion's Fairy Tale. Healthy, healthy, and will take a bit of shade and still bloom well. Large blooms. 8. Favorite CLIMBER - Madame Alfred Carriere. We don't have it yet, but I'm figuring on ordering it this fall. 9. Favorite FLORIBUNDA - Gruss An Aachen. It's simply a perfectly beautiful rose, and it smells wonderful too if you get it in just the right temperature. 10. Favorite GRANDIFLORA - Eutin. The pictures at Help Me Find are so heavy with the numbers of blooms in its bloom clusters that you'd swear they must have been Photoshopped, but no, those huge numbers of bright red blooms are actually what we're seeing here... growing next to our pergola in far, far too much shade. It is getting a little powdery mildew in all that shade, but a hard spray with the hose once in awhile gets rid of it instantly. If shade is your problem, this is your rose. A little bit thorny, but you can't always have everything, and its interesting foliage looks good in the landscape. Evergreen in North Carolina. 11. Favorite HYBRID TEA - We don't have a hybrid tea, but we've had two pinks (tossed due to Rose Rosette Disease) that show a lot of hybrid tea parentage and we'll buy those two again soon: Belinda's Dream and a tiny very attractive small shrub with a bloom that looks like a tiny version of another Belinda's Dream: Rose Rosette. 12. Favorite Old English, Rugosa, Romantica, or David Austin - David Austin's Mortimer Sackler, hands down. The blooms here have looked exactly like those featured on David Austin's website, and this rose is healthy, healthy, healthy. Beautifully delicate looking and lovely to sniff, too. 13. Favorite LANDSCAPE ROSE OF THE YEAR award (I just made this one up because there's no list that ought to leave out this rose!) - Mrs. Dudley Cross. If you can only have one rose, this one is it. It's luminous creamy colored blooms are breathtakingly beautiful and they're eyecatchers in any vase too. Give yourself a gold star if you buy this one, because you made the right decision! And add a second star if you can also buy General Schablikine to plant beside it; the pink of General Schablikine perfectly reflects the faint dusty pink edging of Mrs. Dudley Cross in cooler weather. They look splendid together in a vase. Quite healthy if grown organically. Evergreen in North Carolina. Ours is a no-spray anywhere any time yard and all these roses are suitable for growing that way, at least in warm and humid blackspot-prone North Carolina. Best wishes, Mary Here is a link that might be useful: Mrs. Dudley Cross

Thanks everyone for the comments so far. It seems crosses involving Twilight Zone or any of the mauves are heavily favored, and I don't blame you! Twilight Zone just came out this year but it is such a gorgeous rose, and definitely an improvement over Ebb Tide. Diane, in my opinion I think you have the right idea with using Ascot in breeding. Cynthia, there is no time like the present, and don't be intimidated by the numbers! When they say worth keeping they mean is having commercial and market value, and most of the fun in rose breeding isn't about money or finding americas next super-rose, it's the anticipation of what you might get. Also every breeder, like roses, is unique and has his or her own personality and I believe that is reflected in the roses each breeder comes up with. For example I bet when I mention the names Radler, Swim, Carruth, David Austin, Moore, Sproul, etc. a certain type of rose comes to mind. I'm not sure I have a defined "style" yet but rest assured I am determined to revolutionize roses in my own way. My dream/goal is is to create thornless fragrant shrub roses, in beautiful colors, high petal count, with the disease resistance of knock outs. Some people say well that's just the perfect rose but l believe there's no such thing and never will be since different people value certain traits more than others. Sure my goal is ambitious, but just watch, eventually I will succeed! :)

I LIKE that Torenia! Must have LOL! Well this years new faves are: Opium Poppy (Peony types and regular single) Cosmic Orange Cosmo. I'm completely learning to love orange! Bells of Ireland....next time I won't dump them out too soon! They popped up thru the 4' Marigold that over-crowded them...but I DID see the potential for next year!! Morning Glory 'Star of Yelta'...bloomed early and still sporadically blooming :D Heliopsis...just the plain common yellow species. I am SERIOUSLY considering replacing all the Maximillian Sunflower with these...at least the ones in flower beds! Cactus Zinnia...nice big flowers. Wasn't thrilled when the puny plant (one surviving out of 4 germinated) first bloomed. It was small and not attractive so I cut it back into the foliage and it came back big and beautiful! Parks Cutting Blend Zinnia....didn't grow as tall as the package described, but definatley will try again. Minnesota Midget Melon...not very productive, but they sure are juicy and taste great! My goal is to provide a better area for them next year. Giant Red Indian Mustard...completely new to me for any mustard green. We love it! Got more growing now. Jericho Lettuce...got more growing now too! Was still very tasty in July heat! Collard Greens 'Georgia'...more of this growing too! Never had them before, so can't compare with other varieties. All I know is they are yummy yummy :D African Daisy 'Jaffa Ice'....the orange ones. Wasn't too impressed with the one flowering ones. The orange was have been blooming like no tomorrow since the start, but the white, though pretty, were basically just taking up space and blooming every once in awhile. I think that's it :D Vera

I've also had very good luck with Sears. Probably it depends a bit on your local store's manager, volume of the store, etc. I was thinking today of taking a picture of the very slight dark circular line around the handle of my DW that caused it to come to me at, dunno, something like 75% off its retail. My local Sears is so small and so happening (while somehow managing to be the sleepiest store you've ever set foot into. It's just when they are selling it's something else again) that when they decide something has to move I swear you could get them to pay you to remove it. They are big enough to seemingly not even care about whether and how much money they happen to take off you personally. It's really a bit weird in some sense. I'm not complaining, mind you. My point is mostly: YMMV.