Hmm..hadn't considered Frederic Mistral before, but it does look interesting. Already have Julia Child, but would like at least another good yellow or two.

Hi KS. I think it depends on what you want out of your roses. Sugar Moon is very fragrant and makes a nice garden plant. I am not familiar with the other two whites. I have Ebb Tide, Munstead Wood and Twilight Zone. TZ is a strong purple, MW is a little more red. Ebb Tide is somewhere in the middle, but has smaller flowers but has a great fragrance. I have QE, but the climbing version, which can be a real beyotch. But I love love love the pink and the bloom form. I haven't found another pink I like as much. Dark desire I just added last year. It can get big, puts out long canes. The flowers are dark red to purple. It does have a tendency to have white stripes in the flowers. I hope it will mature this year and put out more blooms. I had New Zealand, and it's a very pretty rose, however the petals don't have a lot of substance and tend to get very damaged very easily.

I suppose the most important thing for me is fragrance...I could put up with a lot if the blooms had a unique or very strong fragrance. Other than that, it would be nice if the plant were healthy enough to have frequent bloom, and that the blooms were substantial enough to last at least a day in the vase. The shape or size of the bush or whether or not the leaves have spots or tend to fall are of much less importance. Having a tendency not to die would be good too.

I've only grown (or seen) Ducher in warm southern gardens; risky choice for a pot. Fragrance is light here.

Dark Desire; seems everybody has ordered this rose. I ordered two! I love the name, way too soon to tell if I'll love the rose. Saw no hint of purple in early blooms here and could detect no fragrance. I'll definitely give them 2-3 years tho. Stephens Big Purple was very stingy and I'd say its color is nothing special compared to the newer introductions.

Seminole Wind for a big show; it would be much bigger and wider than America in 6A. America would probably give you better repeat and blooms with a more refined hybrid tea form. Seminole Wind would be the hardier of the two, if polar vortex is a concern.

Queen Elizabeth would only be for nostalgic reasons. Many other tall, fragrant HT's out there which offer better repeat, better health, and probably better fragrance. Frederic Mistral is destined to become a classic, I think. Memorial Day is a love it/hate it rose--I'd keep it on your wish list and try and see it in a public garden or a nursery first. Personally I love the antique tint of the color but it was a martyr to thrips here and I never saw a bloom without brown edges, yech.

Sunsprite is unique in both color and fragrance: IMHO it has not been superseded by newer varieties. Open blooms display pretty stamens and are divinely fragrant; the deep deep yellow is beautiful with the dark green holly-like foliage. Best of all, it seems to love colder climates.

If you love classic fragrance and classic high-centered form, take a look at the grandiflora Grande Dame. Deep raspberry-pink blooms nod slightly which just charms me; great repeat and a tall-but-not-wide healthy bush. Great in the garden and great in the vase.

Whatever you choose give them two or three years to really show their stuff. Some roses are just slow starters!

Barbara

I grow Ducher in Dallas. I can hardly detect fragrance unless I stick my nose in the bloom. It's a nice, tough & tall plant listed as Earthkind. I'm not sure it would be cold hardy enough for the Midwest as it seems to be mostly a tea rose. Too large in the South for a pot.

3. America grows upright with stiff canes, it would need to be trained while young. It is not disease resistant for my mom in Philly.

Personally, I like Wild Blue Yonder better than Twilight Zone in my climate. TZ fries more in our heat, but WBY turns more cerise. Then again, I probably shouldn't be commenting at all since I don't like most purples which just look muddy or grey to me.

For a white rose in a pot, my guess is that Ducher wouldn't survive zone 6a. My preference is for shorter plants in pots, like Bolero, Fair Bianca or Moonsprite. There is always Iceberg as well.

QE wouldn't be my first choice for a pink, since the flowers have little scent, have poor form except in bud, and the bush is tall and gangly. Memorial Day has lovely flowers and heavenly scent on an ugly bush. Thick thorny canes and not a lot of them (not as bad as Falling in Love though). There are so many pinks out there, maybe if you specify a bit more: flower size, type (hybrid tea? Austin? Floribunda? Shrub?), bush size, etc, I'm sure people will have their opinions.

Fragrance is the most important for me, followed by how it looks in a vase. I'm not to particular about bush appearance as long as it is healthy enough to bloom. I already have Quietness and SDLM, which I love. Just looking for another fragrant one.

Firstly, don't let Diane's awesome pictures fool you. My roses does not even look half as good as hers. I am still trying and trying every season. I suspect she photo shopped them especially if she live in a desert. I just need proof. (grin).

Secondly, on one hand JC most definitely. TZ on the other hand, I am still conflicted about this rose. I planted one last spring and by mid summer, half of the bush dropped its leaves and was a bs magnet. But that could be my area though.

Thirdly, I grow QE for many years. It is a good rose but probably is surpassed by newer roses. It is a tough rose and the flowers are beautiful. The pink is just right, not too soft and not too gaudy. However, it is not bs resistant in my area.

jjpeace, I must defend my honor....no photoshopping...and I wouldn't know how to do it if it dropped on my head. I can barely do a link, and often have to have my grand daughters help me. But thanks for your comment. And I do live in a desert--we got just a little over 8 inches of precipitation for all of 2016. However, like California's current rains, we're having a record winter of snow, so we're out of the drought. I don't think the roses are going to look so good this spring, though. Too much cold. Diane

This picture of Queen Elizabeth (the light pink) and some of my other roses was taken in 2005. There were three QE bushes in that bed and they were some of the most vigorous roses I've ever had. They were on Dr. Huey, from Edmunds. I do have one now that is on multiflora, it's been a runt so far. I do know, however QE can be a very good rose!

Diane (nanadoll) I can't express how beautiful your roses are! Love seeing them!

Sara-Ann, what happened to your beautiful Queen Elizabeth plants? I'm sorry you no longer have them. Thanks for your compliment--I don't deserve it. You grow many more beautiful roses than I do.

Noseo, I was interested in what you said about Wild Blue Yonder. I grow it, too, but I have the opposite reaction--I like TZ better. I will admit that WBY has improved color wise over the years. I've grown it since it came on the market--the year Ebb Tide and Julia Child arrived (what a year that was). Everyone bought Ebb Tide, but WBY won all the ARS honors. I got WBY because it was labeled incorrectly--it was supposed to be Julia Child. Anyway, my big complaint with WBY is its tall, gawky growth habit; plus, the new long canes snap off so easily in the wind. I have to tie up parts of it every year. It's very vigorous, but has no scent that I can discern. Diane

Wild Blue Yonder

More Accurate Color

I have Queen Elizabeth and like it - hardy, has nice fragrance. If you have sentimental reasons for getting it, go for it! It's a nice rose and will remind you of your aunt :). Mine was a $3 body bag rose, so if you're on the fence you can probably find it at Menards or Lowes this spring. Another "old timey" pink that's great is Quietness. I have Seminole Wind, but was new last year so I can't tell you much on size -- but the flower clusters are huge and bright, and last a long time. Several flushes over the summer, no disease issues here. I love Dark Desire too, and Munstead Wood. Have fun shopping!

Thank you, nanadoll! I appreciate the compliment, your roses look so healthy to me, and I don't think there is anyone who can match the beautiful colors of some of your roses!

Beginning in the early 2000's I had been doing a fairly good job of growing roses, which I've been trying to do since the mid 1980's. Probably around 2007, there was a combination of things, including a drought, that put my rose growing on hold for awhile, also I didn't have the time to devote to my roses to give them the care they needed. However, the QE bushes were the last ones in that bed to give up, they hung in there for several years. I had a few surviving bushes scattered around my yard in various places when I started over in 2013. I have much more time to devote to my roses than I did then.

I am really not much help on the fragrance side of your questions since I can't smell most roses, but I can reply on the garden merit and "likely to not die" in the cold Midwest. I agree that Queen Elizabeth, New Zealand and Memorial Day are hit or miss for both survivability and health in our zones. Dingo has obviously had success with QE, but I've tried at least 3 times each to grow each of the roses above and they have never survived my zone 5 winters, even in a protected zone 6 spot. You have a zone advantage on me, so they might do OK in a somewhat protected spot for you. Frederick Mistral is a better rose in the long run than these and more frequent bloomer as well.

I also agree that Munstead Wood is worth its own independent real estate, and I think Dark Desire is a fabulous garden rose with intriguing colors and terrific frequency of bloom. It gets much bigger than MW so would need to be at the back of the bed, whereas MW can be compact. Ebb Tide is pretty meh for me so I'd replace it with MW in a similar spot if I had to choose. Stephen's Big Purple is a total wimp, and MW or DD far outshines either Fragrant Plum or Heirloom.

Among your whites, I'd go with Sugar Moon by reputation for fragrance, frequent bloom, and hardiness. Full Sail and Margaret Merrill have both died twice on me, but not yet in my protected spot, but I don't think they're robust over the winter. You haven't heard many comments about Earth Angel because it's such a new release, but it stays compact for me (no more than 3') and would be great in a pot. Frankly, I class this one as cream rather than pink in my yard, though it can be blush.

Among the yellows, I agree that Julia Child is a good rose all around, and if others say it's fragrant I'll believe them. Sunsprite survives fine for me but doesn't bloom very often, and I don't detect a scent (but it might be there). MIchelangelo is only marginally hardy for me and wasn't all that notable as a bloom. I can't think of any other fragrant yellows that I can smell, though I've seen reports of scent from Poet's Wife (a new Austin release). You might also consider Desdemona among the newer Austins for a white - I think Marlorena mentioned scent and she loves this one.

If you're willing to consider the Austins, I find that some of my most fragrant roses come from the Austins - notably Sharifa Asma (blush pink, toe-curling scent), William Shakespeare 2000 (hot pink), and Jude the Obscure (light apricot, not as hardy) come to mind. My other toe-curling wonderful scents are from Frances Dubreuil/ Barcelona (burgundy), Maggie/Eugene E Marlitt (hot pink), and Just Joey (apricot, only just hardy for me). Oh, Beverly (pink) is supposed to be fragrant among the Kordes roses, and it is a reliable bloomer all season and very hardy and tall.

Among climbers, the most fragrant one I grow is Aloha and it's rock solid hardy with nice HT form in a solid pink. I'd totally choose that one over America. Polka (apricot) is supposed to have some scent as is Nahema (a pink - to die for blooms), and they're worth looking into. Nicely hardy all of these.

Have fun

Cynthia

Thanks for all the insight, nipstress. I tried Aloha and it had almost total proliferation on its blooms here. It could have just been a bad example of Aloha, think I will try again from a different source, but probably not this year. I have Maggie and Sharifa Asma, and they seem to be doing well here. Ebb Tide has been doing really well for me, almost as many blooms as Julia Child, and a wonderful fragrance. As noted, of course, the color is very changeable with the weather. I think you all have talked me out of New Zealand and into Frederic Mistral. Think I'm going to get Dark Desires and skip the other purples this year, since I'm already getting Munstead Wood. I also have Umbra, which though a once-bloomer, is big and beautiful and fragrant and veery purple when it is blooming. QE I'm still on the fence about, but may wind up getting it just to remember Aunt Clara--she had rooted one from a cutting and was very proud of herself for having done so. This was back in the sixties, when own-root roses were heresy. Haven't decided on a climber yet, but just remembered I got Isabella Skinner last year. It is still rather small and in a pot, but think I will try it as my climber this year. (I had kind of forgotten it was a climber because HMF sorts it into the shrub category). Sugar Moon seems like a winner as well.