The oldest (in terms of how-long-planted) rose we have here is 'Climbing Sombreuil' (the Not-Tea Climber) which we planted in 1987.

I have a Cl Spray Cecile Brunner that my neighbours say was here when they moved in over 40 years ago. She has marvellous gnarled branches & is still very vigorous blooming from late June to mid Nov.

Jane

The oldest rose I have is Le Vesuve , purchased in the spring of 2008. Sadly all the roses I purchased in 2009 are no longer with me, except for one out of four plants of Mr. Bluebird, SdlM and Romaggi Plot Bourbon, the last still not much larger than in its first or second year. A pretty dismal record, although I do still have a few roses that I purchased in 2010 such as Miss Atwood and Mrs. B.R. Cant. Aunt Margy's Rose was purchased early on but unfortunately my records are not complete. My goal now is to hang on to every one I do have for dear life so that this sorry state of affairs will not occur again.

My three oldest were bought the same year, 2003. Heritage from Wayside, Aloha labeled as Honey Bouquet (I knew it was wrong because it was blooming. I loved the bloom and the fragrance), and Sombreuil at Home Depot in an end of season sale for $2.50. But I also have an unidentified old rose that we rescued that belonged to a friend's great-grandmother. I've only had it since about 2005, but we don't know how old it really is.

thank you all this is very interesting ....to me i figured i was just a "rosekiller" since so many of mine bit the dust at 8-10 years and they were supposed to be antique roses mine never really looked "sick" they just stopped growing and didn't really come "out" the next spring except for frances dubreil she took one look at me and turned up her toes three times...... i'm hoping to do better at our new home .....

zippeity, sorry to hear about your roses. But now you can have the fun of picking out new roses you want to try. : )

What gardening zone are you in? Maybe we can give you some advice.

My oldest roses (in terms of planting) are 3 floribunas, Eutin--planted about 20 years ago, some time in the 1990s, or perhaps even in the 1980s since that is when I bought my house and started working on my first gardens.

Eutin is also the first rose I ever planted--way back in the 1960s! Had a hedge row of 13 of them. And I've had at least one Eutin in every garden I've made since then as I moved across the continent and back again.

Kate

Sorry to say it's no longer with us, but our campus had a 'Mrs. B.R. Cant' that was photographed in 1953, quite large then (we have no idea how much older than that it may have been), and was finally removed in 2005, not because there was anything wrong with it even then, but because someone thought it was not in the right spot in the landscape.

Lagerfeld is the oldest, it has been in the ground for 23 years. Tiffany (#1), Pink Peace and Marchesa Boccella have been in for 22.

'The Fairy', planted 1981 as a rooted cutting. Then 'Aloha' a few years later.

My oldest rose is probably Flammentanz, the red climber that came with the house that may have been planted when the house was built in 1953, perhaps when it was an exciting new rose on its introduction in 1955. Or it may be the double cinnamon rose that lives at the bottom of the garden. I planted many roses when I moved to this garden in 1994 and about 20 of them are still here.

Reading this is a great reminder to me! My oldest rose is Alister Stella Gray, planted in a large pot 20years ago. I left all my beautiful roses at my old house when I moved, as the ground was filled with bind weed, but took this one with me 13 years ago. I just realized that I haven't changed the soil in 8 years, that will be remedied this winter!

I think the rose you choose has a lot to do with how long it lives (of course the care you give it is maybe just as important), as i'm purchasing new roses i'm keeping many of these in mind and Alister Stella Gray in a pot from 20 years ago is very intriguing as mine are all in pots now (waiting for the new bed and hopefully growing strong roots....

I have no idea what the name of my oldest rose is. It's a NOID gallica that my grandmother, then mom, then I have grown continuously for at least 75-80 years. It's a dark muddy magenta fading to grey-purple, prone to mildew and tries to take over the bed it's in. I wouldn't take anything for it, lol. It's been in MY garden over 35 years. I would like to someday find a name for it, but for now, it's just "grandma's gallica". Glenn Dale is the same age. The co-winner, which also came from my grandmother's garden would have been City of York, until it succumbed to RRV a couple of years ago.
John

I've never had a rose die of old age. None of my roses is showing any signs of senescence. Mind you, my oldest roses in my current garden were planted in 2003, which isn't that old. What I'm wondering (which is perhaps what you're wondering) is whether your rose growing methods are causing your roses to be relatively short lived. The first question that occurs to me is whether your roses were grafted, and if so, whether they were planted deeply, so as to be able to root from the scion and turn into own-root roses, or whether they were planted with the graft at or above soil level. Another question is, how you cultivate your roses: how you amend your soil, fertilize, water, whether you do pest or disease treatment.

Basically I think roses should live longer than 8-10 years. I don't know about modern hybrids, perhaps some are short-lived. I would like to hear from other rose growers on this, also about longevity of grafted roses. I mainly grow old and older varieties. Perhaps there are gardening environments in which roses will grow but not live very long. But I think it's worth looking into how you grow your roses and see whether there are things you could do that would give them a longer life. I basically expect my roses to be immortal, or at least outlive me. So far--with my limited experience--I haven't been disappointed.

I hope this is helpful. Melissa

The oldest roses I ever had were a Tropicana, Mr Lincoln, and Snow Fire that I bought at a Kmart body bag end of season sale for 50 cents each. That was in the early 1970's. I lost Tropicana in 2005. Mr Lincoln in 2007. Snow Fire in 2008. Pretty good deal for $1.50! They were the ones that got me started.

My oldest roses are also Kmart body bags, from 1984. Virgo,Papa Meilland,American Home, American Heritage, Chivalry and Apricot Nectar are still going strong but lost Oklahoma, which struggled during the drought,3 years ago, ( I have a large bush of Odorata rootstock remaining though!)

The oldest surviving rose in our garden is an ancient Anna Olivier (tea), which was planted, from family history, sometime between 1905 (when the lot was empty except for the brand new 3 story Queen Anne house) and about 1920. That makes it about 100 years old. There was also an ancient Le Vesuve, and an ancient Duchesse de Brabant, and an ancient Cecile Brunner (bush, I think, but huge - 8 ft by 10 ft by 8 ft) all about the same age as the Anna Oliver, but they eventually died. Good news is that I have 2-3 clones of each of those going strong in the garden now.

Jackie

I've talked about it before but my Pinocchio rose was plant here by my Mom in 1954 and is the oldest rose I have.

my first roses were all antiques and were planted in heavy sand the plants i amended the most were the ones who lived the longest some of them were in huge pots and were probably watered too much or not enough oh i take that back i had 3 or 4 david austins and the longest lived of them were abraham darby and another yellow whose name escapes me at the moment the abraham darby lasted over 10 years and the other yellow austin was simply overwhelmed by a mermaid rose which almost overwhelmed the house and destroyed a fence during hurricane ike or rita.......i have more time for roses now and more knowledge but people would come over just to see the garden which probably gave me a very positive feeling toward gardening and roses in general.....wish i had some of that sand back to go with my gumbo soil.............

oh and the antiques were own root or fortunia (did i spell that right?)

Thanks for the feedback. I get the impression that your garden was in the deep South, and perhaps your current garden as well. Florida, perhaps? (I'm thinking about the sand.) Did you live in a hot, humid climate? Were your roses adapted to that kind of climate? Did you feed your roses adequately, considering that with sandy soil you have to fertilize regularly (not the case with clay soil once it has been well amended with organic matter)?

As you can see, I still protest against the idea that roses have a normal life span of 8-10 years, and am still wondering whether a basic incompatibility between your varieties and the conditions in which they were grown shortened their lives. Of course I could just be wrong. I see that the propagation methods weren't the problem.

It sounds like it was a great garden and like you had a lot of fun with it. Good luck with your new one!

yes, we lived in a northwest suburb of houston tx when that garden was developed and now we live about 15 miles from the gulf of mexico (south of houston) and i agree about the length of a rose's life being longer than 8-10 years in general i was a "new" gardner at the time that garden was planted and had many obstacles including a massive amount of four oclocks and trumpet vines everywhere in the yard i spent an enormous amount of time i really didn't have trying to keep those in control i would love to have that soil back because amending it would be much "nicer" than building these raised beds with gumbo underneath and bermuda grass however we have a lot of wind here which seems to keep disease down and i'm retired now and have more time to spend on the garden (not traffic)