WOW! What beautiful pictures! Thanks everybody for sharing them. I was caught up in the fun of this, thinking of what rose flower I liked best, when I had a thought - most of the responses and pictures here focus on the beauty of the individual blooms. This is understandable, but it is also how 20th century hybridizers thought, and unfortunately it resulted in the development of: spindly upright ugly bushes; new roses with no fragrance whatever; & roses so disease prone that everybody had to spray poisons all over their gardens every 2 weeks! So, I would prefer a different definition of "beauty" - roses that are beautiful not only in their individual blossoms, but as an overall bush. Banksia lutea, as it bursts into bloom all over town, suddenly appearing all over large trees, and dripping down from on high, would certainly be my favorite. All of the teas are graceful shrubs if you have enough room for them, and also have gorgeous flowers. MAC is beautiful in my garden because it has climbed up several old plum & fig trees, and I can see blossoms from my bedroom window as I speak, seemingly floating all over the top of our fruit tree forrest. This has been going on non-stop since March! Ditto Cl Peace, which is now producing blossoms all over the top of a huge pomegranite bush - its third bloom flush so far this year. I have a dark red/purple many many petaled mystery rose that I found in our garden (from where it was growing inside of a Japanese quince bush, I would say it was planted at least in the 1930s) which I rooted & planted out by the street in the sun, right next to the sidewalk. It blooms for 10 months of the year, and is amazingly fragrant with that heady "old rose" fragrance. Our street is a busy street, as is the sidewalk. This rose is only about 4-5 feet tall, so the blossoms are very accessible to passer- byes who want to smell it. I enjoy watching people's reactions when I am near there weeding or whatever - it is truly a "beautiful" rose, as it startles people into a brief happiness! Jackie

Please stay away from Chateau de Clos Vougeot. It's a very weak and spindly plant, and I can personally confirm that it's a MAJOR PM DISASTER and also way up in the BS league. I wasn't even that thrilled with its floppy blooms. They never looked like that symmetrically petaled wonder bloom photo on HMF. I don't think the climbing version would be any better than the original I had. There are so many much much much better smelly reds out there, also among climbers. Check out the classic and strongly perfumed Ena Harkness, weak neck, but that's not bad in a climber. Or Climbing Etoile Hollande, or Crimson Glory. Or Gruss an Teplitz (check for hardiness though). Or Naheglut/That's Jazz. Or Dublin Bay, as others here have mentioned. As to Sympathy, I assume that it's the German rose Sympathie (note the difference in spelling ), bred by Kordes. It's supposed to be a very good rose, and smelly too (I don't grow it, though). Hooe this helps, Andrea Here is a link that might be useful: Sympathie

Thanks roseberri. I played it safe and planted New Dawn and Zephirine Drouhin on my large arbor out back(south side). I expect New Dawn to take off...not sure how quickly Zephirine will go, but it is a fairly large rose already and I didn't have much of a choice as it goes right by the walkway now that I have them both in the ground and can see how they sit. Both are blooming and doing fine though. Red and White Eden are still in pots. Regular Eden was sold out at the nursery. I feel like Red and White Eden are somewhat of a risk being relatively new plants(circa 2004) and hearing less about them, but I'll be quite happy if it works out. The spot I am putting them in is on the north side of the house, but far enough in front of the house that Red and White Eden will probably get more sun than any rose I currently have planted. You mentioned Eden would work for smaller settings, so I am only building a small 4'wide x 7'tall simple arbor for out front(haha just to make room for them). Something simple and just to walk through although with such a small yard it will probably become a focal point. If you are familar with Victorian Village in Columbus roseberri, then you can grasp the size of my small area. I'll have to keep everybody updated on how Red and White Eden do as Red isn't even an "Eden" genetically, and I believe White is a sibling of Eden. Both relatively new and I might wrap the whole arbor and roses with burlap this winter. Hard saying right now. I just want the arbor thrown up and the roses in the ground already! Can't wait.

Salut Allgold, Il est vrai que je suis passionn de roses et plus particuliement celles de Dominique Massad, mais je peux dire haut et fort (tu entends Dominique) que c'est sa faute car il nous a offert une rare possibilitpour les rosomanes qui est de visiter son jardin en pleine floraison ; et me au mois d'ao son jardin ait encore printanier sans compter qu'il est tout aussi geux que ses roses en nous laissant quelques merveilles planter dans nos jardins (n'est-ce pas les Dany que nous sommes tr tr gs) Si tu dires te procurer Francine Royneau tu devrais thoner la roseraie Guillot pour le commander (Domaine de la Plaine, 38460 CHAMAGNIEU FRANCE T. : +33 / (0)4.74.90.27.55 / Fax : +33 / (0)4.74.90.27.17 / http://www.rosesguillot.com/roses/fframe1.htm car je viens de m'apercevoir qu'on ne le trouve pas sur leur site qui miterait d're mis jour des dernies crtions. Tu peux le voir dans leur catalogue (p.49 11,4 l'unit 11,05 les trois et 10,7 par 5) ce sont de jolies roses simple d'une couleur jaune d'or d'ojaillissent de longues amines rouges qui en font tout son charme. Par ailleurs j'ai vu chez truffaut que certaines vari pouvaient s'y trouver mais je ne sais pas si elle s'y trouve. Puisque tu aimes les roses simples, si tu pouvais voir la rose Edouard Guillot, cela fait plus de deux ans qu'avec les amis on est en admiration devant cette machine boutons, tant elle est florife en bonne santet surtout ses fleurs changent de couleur avec le temps en s'ourlant d'un liserqui illumine son oeil. Une vraie splendeur (au fait je tiens te dire que je suis enseignante et pas du tout dans le milieu commercial, donc mes propos sont libres) Une autre curiositqui j'espe sera commercialiset que tu peux voir sur les posts prents, un rosier qui a des roses qui ressemblent rangement des clatiques, c'est surprenant. Mon go est tourn vers les roses pivoines tr parfums mais avec le temps j'apprie de plus en plus les autres formes voire me les rosiers botaniques qui, je l'espe, par le biais des boutures pourront s'(en)raciner dans nos jardins. Quelles sont tes prences ou tes futures acquisitions ? J'espe avoir rondu ta question. Amiti. N@dine.