Thank you all for your suggestions. Bolero is a white that I have been considering. L'Aimant is absolutely beautiful. I do so love Harkness roses, but one of my favorites is Lawrence of Arabia. Beautiful apricot blooms, but it has horrible bs issues. Moodyblue, how does your L'Aimant fare? HMF states that it is suseptible to bs. Gorgeous blooms though. Love it. Let me know. CJ

I am so happy someone asked this, as I also LOVE yellow roses and since I am very new at growing roses in general I am always looking for new suggestions for yellows. I have both Shockwave and Julia Child, and it is extremely hard to choose between them. To me it honestly depends on which is more important to you, vividness of yellow, or scent. The color on Shockwave is an amazingly vivid Crayola-yellow, the color doesn't fade until right before the flower blows, they last surprisingly long on the bush, and it seems to produce buds continually. They aren't the most fragrant yellow, there is a pleasant mild fragrance that I definitely enjoy, but Julia has it beat on the fragrance side of things. Shockwave also seems to have more of a hybrid tea habit, it is much taller and skinnier than my Julia (but she's still young yet) Julia is my newest rose and hasn't really had the chance to show me what she can do in terms of volume of blooms, but the few she has had so far have been very lovely, they are a much richer butter- yellow color, fading to soft yellow and eventually to white as the flowers age. So far the flowers seem to last a little longer on shockwave, but I think it's too early yet to really tell. My Julia has a decently strong licorice fragrance that I have heard will only get stronger as the plant ages. I can't wait to see her in full bloom, about 12 buds popped up out of nowhere in the last day or so, and she has only been in the ground for about 2 weeks! That HAS to be a good sign :) I have a midas touch HT that is growing up from a bare root I planted this spring, it seems to be growing fairly slowly, but that is probably my own fault because I had to move it from the original planting location (shame on me for my incredible indecisiveness) It seems to be finally putting on some more growth, hopefully it will continue to do well, I will update as it comes along. One more thing, my least favorite yellow award has to go to Happy Go Lucky, although the blooms are beautiful, and the foliage is a lovely bright glossy lime green, the flowers both loose color very quickly and don't last long on the bush at all. When it blooms only the inner half of the rose is truly yellow, it starts turning white from the edges in before the flower is even halfway open. It does flower fairly continually, so I will probably keep it around for a while, but it certainly isn't my favorite. I took a chance on this one, it was a new rose from Weeks this past year (I think) and I couldn't find any reviews on it anywhere, and I bought it on a whim. It was described as being a rich non-fading yellow, but certainly does not live up to that in my garden. Oh well, maybe she will get better with age. I think if I really HAD to choose, I would probably go with shockwave, purely because I LOVE that bright lemon yellow, it just puts a smile on my face. BUT, I am super glad I don't really have to make that decision, because I'd much rather have BOTH. I don't know if I really helped with your decision at all, but I hope so! I'm sure you will fall in love with whatever you end up with! Jessica.

If you are willing to accept a rose like Julia Childs that fades to pale yellow, you might want to just start out with a pale yellow rose; Honey Bouquet. Although a Floribunda it blooms mostly one to a stem, and the color deepens in cool weather adding an overlay of apricot to it's yellow blooms. Northerners worry about cold hardiness, but in our hot zones many of us worry about heat hardiness. This rose is exceptional in that regard. Excellent bloom longevity on the bush and in the vase during even 100 degree days, with no shrinkage of size or lose of petals.

I'm glad lori_elf offered her comments, as she has experience with your zone and its disease pressures, and recommends many once bloomers. I LOVE them, Gallicas perhaps in particular. Some of my favorites: 'Ypsilante', 'Tuscany Superb', 'Mme. Zoetmans', 'Centifolia', 'Chapeau de Napoleon', 'Shailer's White Moss', 'Belle Amour', 'Robert le Diable'. You will notice that several of these haven't been mentioned by others who have posted here. That may be because they're susceptible to black spot, which isn't a problem in my dry summer Mediterranean garden; on the other hand it may be because they haven't grown them. There are many many wonderful roses among the old once bloomers, and just because a variety isn't named in this thread doesn't mean it isn't marvelous. I wonder what gardeners in your conditions think about Rosa hugonis? This gets massacred by cane girdler in my garden, but where it's happy it's one of the most magnificent roses there is. There are others related to it: they're known collectively as the early spring yellows. When I started gardening I preferred repeat blooming old roses; more is better, right? But the more I grew the once flowering roses the better I liked them, and now they're my favorites. I also greatly adore the Teas, Chinas, and Noisettes, but they would be touchy in your zone, if you managed to grow them at all.