Also thank you all for the summer photos/threads. They are lovely and I will add to them as soon as I can.

You could likely train 'Reine des Violettes' as a low climber.

There is a climbing form of Souve dlM -- but I can't recall prickles or no. Mrs. Dudley Cross will be a Shrub. Period.

Does it have to be an OGR? If not, check out Renae.

:-)

~Christopher

Rhode Island Red, Crepuscle, Vanity, Lamarque, and climbing Clotilde Soupert all are low on thorns and have good fragrance.

Will Mme. Alfred Carriere do wel in your area?

I thought of 'Crepuscule', too. It gets big, is flexible and easy to train, and has few thorns. Naturally, beautiful, fragrant at least somewhat, and it should be good in a warm climate. Mine is having a fine reflowering in the teeth of a drought. 'Mme. Alfred Carriere' I agree would be good if it will grow in your parts.

I also would like to add Felicia and Gartendirektor Otto Linne.

Thanks so much! I've thought of Crepuscule and MAC and CS but couldn't really find any consensus about prickles/thorns. Which seems like a huge factor to me! But I guess that's another "limited space" issue. If I had even twice my yard (which is still not much!) I'd have thorny monsters everywhere without a second thought.

I'm sure each plant/clone/mother plant is different but it's always nice to have actual experiences of actual humans! As always I learn more here than I do on the rest of the web combined, thank you all.

Jeri, I have been wondering where I can put a RdV! Because I don't already have enough homeless baby roses.

And Valrose, I just "discovered" RIR yesterday hunting around for found roses and it looks absolutely stunning! I doubt I'd have that deep red color in my 90 degree summers but it would be worth a shot, especially if it's relatively polite.

(And Christopher, I've learned that OGRs are so much more likely to be happy here than moderns that my focus has gotten pretty narrow!)

Purezza

Wow! That's a lovely rose, and I suspect we have very similar conditions (New Orleans) so it's nice to know I might be able to have a nice dark red like that (especially since I have so much blush/pink going on already).

Jeri that is stunning. Is that a brug up there on Your Side? Either way it's reminded me that the wrought iron fence in front of our baby brug is naked. Don't want to murder the mailman but as luck would have it I've just found a big list of mostly thornless climbers!

I love Purezza. I have a two year old plant that I plan on training to go over the pergola above the patio. I'm hoping it eventually repeat blooms in the heat of Central TX

I have climbing pinkie (almost thornless) and NurMahal, which is completely thornless. They do well in my hot, humid, southeast Texas garden beds. Peggy Martin is completely thornless, but is scentless and does become very large.

Molly

Annie Laurie Mc Dowell, if it is available again..... It also is virtually thornless, vigorous and I have read that it can handle many growing situations.

Yes Lynn -- We have several Brugmansias, and I love that change of texture.

Sabalmatt -- Our Purezza seems to repeat better with increasing maturity.

OH, and re. Annie Laurie McDowell . . . We have a young plant here, and we're very excited about it. It's not often that DH goes out of his way to say he WANTS a certain rose, but he fell for this at first sight. Can you see why?

I had to have Peggy Martin in some form (I'm a sucker for a good story, especially a local one) so I am currently nursing an own-root band to be donated to my parents' fishing/vacation property, where it will have 75 acres of pine trees to eat. I have a feeling a lot of roses on this thread will find themselves out there!

I love brugmansias. I have a Belinda climbing up a pink one here. I have another 4-5 brugs in pots but not enough spots sheltered from the wind to place them..

They do very well here, though one of ours at the bottom of the hill has struggled a bit since being hit by a random freeze a few years back. I think we need to cut that one to the ground, and let it come back.

This one is in great shape, though, and about 7-ft. tall:

Jeri, that's lovely! We lost our peachy/pink one to the Great Freeze For Longer Than A Couple Of Hours of 2014 and only recently replaced it. Just bloomed for the first time and SURPRISE! It's yellow. I love it though. Poor guy got pretty beat up in the wind with TS Cindy last week but still putting out lemony yellow blooms and plenty of new growth all over, a real trooper!

Nik, my first thought was "good lord how!" when you said you were growing Belinda in one, but then I remembered I've never had one for more than a couple years. The ancient ones around town (presumably belonging to people who weren't too lazy to cover theirs for the Few Hours Freeze) are sturdy, leafy, trunky, gorgeous monsters. Surprise yellow guy will be treated like royalty for future freezes and will ideally become a rose trellis one day, thanks for the inspiration.

If Reve d'Or hasn't been mentioned, it's low on thorns, beautiful and quite trainable.

Zephrine Druhan is practically thornless. Can be grown as a climber or large shrub.

Ingrid, it hasn't, I don't think, and that is very very good to know because I have been coveting yellower things and people seem to love it. Cathy, ZD wasn't even on my radar but looks like people love it as well, thank you! I'm still not entirely sure Bourbons (or anything besides Teas/Noisettes) will like it here but there's only one way to find out.

'Rhode Island Red' is a good-looking rose, and I hear it's nicely fragrant. I love my 'Annie Laurie McDowell', but she's hard to come by, apparently. Her foliage reminds me of wisteria leaves, and she is fragrant and thornless and very lovely with an old-fashioned look.

Another to consider is 'Zephirine Drouhin'. I don't grow her, but I'd think she'd like NOLA? She's fragrant and thornless, and would probably have some b.s. there, but you're prepared for that, so no big deal. She is pink, though not a namby-pamby pink... And how many other roses can say they've helped Hercule Poirot solve a murder mystery (in Sad Cypress)?

Virginia

Cross-posted with Cathy!

lyannastark, this article in the Times-Picayune specifically mentions 'ZD' as a good rose for NOLA. Too bad the main point of the article was that you should be growing Knock-outs.

Virginia

LynnStark -- There are a couple of 2-story monsters here in town. God alone knows how old those are!

Virginia, thanks so much for that link, the first half of your post I was like "ugh I'm the worst googler, how did I not see that?" But yeah, turns out I judge newspaper articles by their... covers? I'm kind of amazed there aren't more local resources, but that's what this place is for. And as I mentioned I'm a sucker for a story, fictional or otherwise, hence my fascination with found roses. And roses like SdlM with seven thousand different stories, who cares which (if any) is true, the more the merrier!

Jeri, there's one I walk by all the time that belongs to an older lady whose family has lived in the same house for absolute ever. It's maybe 10x10 but it's so dense I could climb it and it's always in bloom, huge leathery peach trumpets. She is a regular at the neighborhood bar and I can't believe I've never pestered her about it. Or asked her what else she's got growing out back. Note to self!

Oh, please do! Plants like that deserve their history to be known.

Lyanna,

My mistake. I don't grow Belinda in the brug, I grow Ballerina. It is a smaller rose. That brug is quite large, 8ft tall and sturdy though, although statistically it shouldn't be able to grow much larger in my climate since we get one significant multi day freeze once in a decade.. In the winter it mostly looses its leaves and gets some tip damage but it has been coming back in the spring for the last 5-6 years. Main problem with growing brugs here, apart from the fact they are extremely thirsty, is the wind.