Munstead Wood. Darcey Bussell, Sophy,s rose all do really well here in Texas. My friend has Tess of the Dubervilles. Beautiful in pictures and she says it's stinky fragrant.

I am a very different zone than you and only have one DA red. Munstead Wood. Fabulous rose. Always in bloom (except for right now), but I want it to rest.
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In zone 5 you might find it best to focus on cold-hardiness. The Austin site recommends LD Braithwaite for zones 4 & 5.

Here is a link that might be useful: DA recommendations by zone

In my warm weather garden Darcey Bussell blooms year round rarely with out a bloom

Munstead Wood and Darcy .

Munstead Wood is plenty hardy in z 5, the deep color is gorgeous and it has good repeat. Mine have stayed fairly short but began to develop sprawling growth; they are very thorny.

Benjamin Britten in my garden is is not red, it's hot pink. The flowers ball a bit in wet weather and shrivel in the heat. A bit of afternoon shade would help. It's healthy though, and very hardy.

I can't really judge Braithwaite because I've only grown it one year, but I enjoyed the bright red color, which I had heard criticized as turning to a cherry pink. Mine remained quite red. 1st year growth was robust and bushy.

Thanks everyone for your feedback & pictures. I love how dark the blooms on MW is.

Hoovb, thanks for the link! These are all ones I can get locally, so they should be pretty hardy. This is a family-owned gardening center and she holds a rose hardiness class every spring, so I don't see her as someone who would sell a rose that wouldn't survive a typical Iowa winter but it's good to double check!

ratdogheads, thanks for letting me know about Benjamin Britten and that MW is hardy for you. I think I will pass on BB - I am looking for more of a true red or a dark red.

Hoping someone comments on Prospero @ some point too. The photos of it online are so pretty it looks photoshopped.

Michaela

William Shakespeare 2000 grows well here and shows no die back. Our winter temps typically drop to 0 to -5. WS 2000 has a great spreading habit. It grows about 5' high and 6-7' wide. It blooms continuously from May to November. The blooms are held upright.

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Here's another Munstead, photographed last 5/31. Darcey B. is a better bloomer here, however. She'll be in the next post.
Sylvia

Darcey in July.
Just bought Oklahoma, speaking of reds. Not a DA, but a great red according to many posters here.
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I don't know of a DA that is a true red, mine lean more towards the burgundy tones. Any suggestions?

Hi Michaela

I've tried to grow Prospero once or twice and it wasn't hardy for me. Munstead Wood, Darcey Bussell, The Dark Lady, The Prince, and William Shakespeare 2000 all are reliably hardy. I'd say the first two are the darkest "red", but none are fire engine red for me. Sophy's rose is another one that's mostly hot pink, and Wm Shakespeare is definitely on the pink side in my heat too.

Cynthia

I think L.D. Braithwaite is one of the brightest reds. It looks a little pink in this picture but most of the time it seems true red to me. It's a shorter, compact Austin. I was given an own root Fisherman's Friend which impressed me last year. It repeated well, grew fast, and is a very beautiful deep red with a powerful fragrance. Here's L. D. Braithwaite:

^that's a gorgeous shot...

..I might get 'Heathcliff' this year if I see it.... it's a shorter growing variety for us... some others tend to get too tall for what I'm looking for right now.... I wonder if you've looked at this one Michaela...?

Oh wow, I missed a ton of responses. For some reason all of these went into my spam except for Malorena's response!

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Harry, thanks for sharing your thoughts on WS2000. I thought this rose was more of a dark pink than a red but it's so hard to tell on a monitor. I've been eyeing it for a while on heirloom. I'm glad to hear it's done well for you!

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Sylvia, both of your roses are beautiful. Thank you for sharing them!

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Cynthia, that's too bad about Prospero, but thank you for letting me know. Munstead seems to be my favorite from all the photos, but of course the local nursery doesn't carry it! I am still adding it to my neverending wishlist.

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erasmus, thank you for your feedback on Braithwaite! What a beautiful rose.

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Malorena,
I had not seen heathcliff before, but it's beautiful! At first glance, I'm not finding it available at any of the sites I have purchased DAs from. If you add it this year I hope you will share how it does for you!

Michaela

I have several of them. William Shakespeare 2000 does reasonably well. It is sprawly, and its flowers want to turn towards purple. It does smell good. LDB has the brightest red flowers and blooms conservatively. It doesn't have lots of flowers at any given time, but it does repeat. It also rarely has the petal count that the catalog pictures show. Its fragrance is light. The Prince has plenty of fragrant flowers all season. They can burn in the heat and are more towards the purple color in cooler weather. The Squire has a nice color. My plant is an own root plant that doesn't seem to have much vigor yet. Munstead Wood usually does quite well for me. It is quite dark and can also be towards the purple at times. It does smell good also. This one does take our heat better than some of the others. Fisherman's Friend has large, fragrant flowers, but it doesn't rebloom for me reliably, if at all. Last year it failed to flower at all because of our late freeze and snow in May. It is also very lanky and very thorny. Benjamin Britten is a very reliable monster bush. It blooms all season. Its flowers start out more of a vermilion color and fade to a hot pink. I hope this helps a bit.

I planted Heathcliff last summer. I'll reserve full judgment since it's a new plant, but I was unimpressed. It bloomed once, never showed signs of repeating. The growth is similar to a hybrid tea or grandiflora, upright, sparse foliage. The color was a deep magenta. On the plus side, bloom form was attractive and the petals had good substance.

Another DA red that I grow is Falstaff, which is an exquisitely beautiful rose on a rather homely plant that doesn't repeat very well.

If you'd like a true red on a gorgeous healthy bush with excellent repeat and hardiness, look at Ping Lim's Kashmir.

bustopher, thank you so much. It helps a lot. I love reds that are more purple, rather than pink so that's another vote for MW and WS2000!

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ratdogheads, thanks I actually have kashmir and do like it but I am looking for DAs right now.

Michaela

I have L D Braithwaite and I love it! Seriously, once it begins to bloom, every time I catch a glimpse of it from the corner of my eye I smile. It wants to get big so I am moving it from a container on the deck to the front yard. It is red, not pink or purple, and it smells wonderful. Hands down one of my favorites!

I have L.D. Braithwaite for a few years now (actually my first D.A. rose) and love it. She is a great bloomer for me. The first flush is always a showstopper. I wouldn't call it a true red, more of a reddish purple to me. I just planted Othello last spring. Again, it isn't a true red but more reddish purple too. It is too early for me to judge its growth.

jodelo, thank you so much for sharing your experience w/ LD Braithwaite. It sounds so lovely. I am leaning towards grabbing that one in the spring.

I will have a 15% off coupon from the nursery for signing up for a "Growing roses in Iowa" class. I plan on removing a big, old flowerless shrub that is as tall as our roof that is growing outside of our kitchen window this spring. So it would have lots of room to get big - I don't have a TON of places in my yard that allow that either. Thanks again for sharing your feedback!

jjpeace, thank you so much for experience w/ LDB & Othello. I was eyeing that one on Heirloom this weekend and was wondering about it. I wouldn't mind too much if it had a purple hue to it I love purple! :)

Munstead Woods is my favorite, good health, fragrance, and rebloom. Had blackspot issues with Darcey Bussell. Othello was too thorny and gangly for me. WS2000 died suddenly one winter, perhaps weakened by BS and then winter killed. Prospero was runty (12").

lori thanks so much for sharing, what a beautiful rose.

Beautiful photos! Heirloom Roses has 10% off all their red roses (end 02-16-15) including the David Austins. Lady Emma is included as well, although more orange than red. I got Tess and Lady Emma. Tess is kinda pinkish red but she is included in the sale as well. 24.95 & no shipping fee.

I have Lady Emma, and for me she is a wonderful tangerine, great form and fragrance too. She seems to be a little fussy about heat, she doesn't like it. Here in the PNW she finally showed an inclination to get busy growing last summer (4th year in my garden) so I am hoping she wows me this summer, although even when she was on the puny side her blossoms compensated.

I have only two ('Prospero' and 'The Prince'), but I don't know if I'd recommend them for you. They're not tremendously vigorous (mine are own-root), but I saw that as an asset for where I planted them. I wanted them because I grew them once before, and was willing to put up with their "issues" to enjoy them again. If I had the space for some of the more recent (and more vigorous) DA reds, I'd get some of the others mentioned here. I think the more vigorous ones would be better bets in your climate, since they'd bounce back better after Winter damage.

:-)

~Christopher

Those Rouge Royale roses look scrumptious!!! Beautiful!!

Carol

Have you considered Tradescant? I had this rose at my previous house and I loved it. Beautiful red, looks very similar to Rouge Royal. If I can find a picture I will post it.

Carol, Thanks for your praise on Rouge Royale. I just planted 3 more of them on Fortuniana rootstock. This rose is so fragrant. Can't wait to make a bouquet of all Rouge Royale.

Suebelle

Still trying to find a way to post pictures from Photobucket. There's a link, but not a picture.

..I think what you have to do with Photobucket, is copy the 'Direct Link' on your photo bucket page for the photo you want, and then click on 'Photo' in the posting message box with takes you to your pictures on your own p.c. .... you then paste the direct link into the 'file name' box at the bottom of your pictures page and click on 'open'... this should transfer it to here and you should see the green whirly thing going around as it uploads it...