Okay--another question for ya--have you considered miniatures, since you'd prefer something more mannerly? Many of them have fabulous bloom form that never collapses, especially if you're looking for that perfect, tight spiral. Most minis aren't that fragrant, but there are a few that are fabulous. I'm sitting outside right now, so I'll give you a rundown of some of mine that fit the bill: Voodoo - Tall & narrow grower. Lovely orange-juice colored blooms with yummy fragrance that are phototropic and change in sunlight to a screaming scarlet-orange. Pretty darn good disease resistance. Jean Kennealley, an apricot miniature. She has the bonus of fragrance, and gets pretty big for a mini. Spent blooms will flatten out & fade to nearly white, but I think she's spectacular. She's held a very high rating for a long time. Folklore is a hybrid tea with perfect spirals & yellow reverses to coral petals. Lovely scent, big shrub, good disease resistance. Grows taller than it does wide, at least for me. Gemini is a drop-dead gorgeous hybrid tea. New blooms open ivory with just a hit of a deep coral picotee, then it changes with sunlight to almost a completely coral flush. Mine like to pitch candelabras and I think that's due to the Grandiflora breeding line. Great scent. Flawless is a true, medium pink miniflora with a nice scent. It is very disease resistant for me & blooms like crazy, but it tends to have more decorative or frilly blooms than the classic high spirals. I love it nonetheless. I really want to recommend Secret, but I have to spray her to keep her happy. The scent and the blooms are worth it, though. It does not mind the heat and rain does not spot her blooms as badly as most of my other light-colored roses. How white is your white requirement? I grow Irresistible, another miniature. It has no scent, but oh MY!! The blooms retain their form for at least a week and a half, it grows spectacularly, it's very mannerly, and disease resistant. It is a bit cream-colored upon close inspection but looks white from a distance. Also in my white-ish category is World War II Memorial. It's technically a mauve, but from a few yards back it appears to be white. It has glorious scent, very good disease resistance, and I just cannot describe the way the blooms contrast with an almost forest-green set of foliage. The aroma is incredible. It does spot with rain, unfortunately, but it's one of the few whose spots aren't that unattractive. If we get rain while there are blooms present, it looks like a white rose with pink freckles. One of the hardiest I have is Garden Party, but I'd describe it as an ivory rose that likes to have pink petticoats every now and then. Very good disease resistance and AWESOME fragrance, but mine grows like Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors. I think I witnessed her eating a rabbit this morning. [Or maybe it was that Swamp Tea.] All of these are repeat blooming, and I'd say that Flawless, Folklore, and Irresistible are the quickest to repeat. Gemini is sluggish, but when she blooms, she chucks out about 30 at a time. I live where blackspot pressure is very high due to silly nighttime cooling and condensation. I spray for blackspot, but these are the best of my 60 roses that fit your bill. And since I am too lazy to edit my post [Swamp Tea again...dangit], I totally forgot Tahitian Sunset. I am in love with this rose and put her in a bad spot where I can't admire her while on the deck. It is a skyscraper of a hybrid tea with apricot to pink blooms that have a perfect spiral, and the scent is unusual. It has been described as anise, licorice, myrhh....but everyone at work loves to stick their nose in her when I bring her in. Very, very good disease resistance. These are some of my faves, and if you haven't been over to HMF to check out people's rose pics I would encourage you to do so. There is no better enabler for rose buying than this website and that one, combined.

I have a couple of rose suggestions for you, though I am in a warmer zone, John Davis, one of the explorers, grows into a nice cascading shrub, very vigorous. Admittedly it doesn't have fragrance but it's other attributes well make up for the loss. Double blooms in profusion, great repeat even without deadheading. In fall the foliage turns orangey red and it will get small hips if you leave some blooms to mature. In the winter the canes are lovely red. Mine deserves a more prominent spot than where it is planted. None of the roses I grow have as long a season of interest as this one. Darlow's Enigma is a found rose, vigorous, massive clusters of single blooms. Though the blooms are single, the fragrance is the thing. This one wafts. Now I know nothing about whether it's hardy at your elevation but helpmefind and High Country Roses list it as zone 4, so it may work for you. A couple more Canadians that I don't grow but want are Isabella Skinner/Victorian Memory(said to waft according to the link I will provide), and also Quadra (a very double red) but I don't think it's supposed to be fragrant. Check all of these roses out at Help me find. Also there are many roses societies in Co, you might find even more suggestions by contacting them rockymountainrose.org Oh, and I have roses that came from Heirloom and High Country Roses. Heirlooms are bands and High Country's are a little larger with more branching. My Darlow's and and John Davis were Heirloom bands and did just fine. The folks at High Country are very nice and could probably suggest more roses if you called them and explained your criteria. Good luck Barb Here is a link that might be useful: Isabella Skinner/ Victorian Memory

Hi UncleHippy Welcome to GW and there'll always be plenty of opinions for you to pick from in our responses here. In many cases, you have to decide between easy roses and highly fragrant roses, particularly if you like the "classic" rose shape (those are hybrid tea roses). Since you're asking about Knockout and EE roses, you know that these are more open flower shapes and indeed good for beginners. They should both be fine in the amount of sun you describe and equally easy to grow. In terms of impressiveness, I'd go with Kashmir. It has been thickly covered in blooms in a partly sunny spot in my yard, much better than my Double Knockout. Know that neither of these is consistently a "fire engine" red color - red as a gardening color varies a lot, and both of these tend toward the crimson side of the color scheme, though much redder than roses that are called hot pink. I agree with Rick (predfern) that your best chance for easy roses that have some fragrance are the David Austin roses. There are some drop-dead gorgeous "red" Austins that tend toward the purple side of things - Munstead Wood, Darcey Bussell, and The Prince are all easy and compact good bloomers for me. The Austins that tend more like red (but none are remotely fire engine red) like Tess of the D'Ubervilles or maybe Tradescant are less frequent bloomers for me than the ones I listed in the purple range. The hardiness of Austins is good for most zone 5 regions, but it can vary depending on the part of the country you're in - the east coast gets more trouble with blackspot that can weaken a rose if severe, and that might lead you toward roses like Kashmir more often. If you let us know the general region where you live we can help more with that. One compromise that you could consider about easy vs. fragrant roses is to plant low plants of frequent bloomers (like Kashmir) and then put a few more fragrant but stingier ones behind them (or between) so you get your hit of fragrance that way. It depends on how much room you have. Bottom line though is not to be scared of planting roses and don't let people tell you they need fancy care or expensive food or spraying if you don't want it. The roses you describe should be tough for a zone 5 winter and not need much care, though every rose needs dead wood cut out of it and some trimming at least once a year (nothing including perennials and grass is "no-care" in a garden). Have fun Cynthia

Oklahoma is one of my favorites: Firefighter is NOT dark red. It's medium fire truck red, on the orange/pink side of red. The variety selection in Oz is different from the USA, but a great old HT rose available in your country is Charles Mallerin -- ugly plant though. I have 3X gallon sized plants from Roses Unlimited growing out in #5 pots at the moment. They have bloomed, but probably still too immature to give that saturated black velvet effect. I'm no Francophone, so it took me many many years to realize the name is actually pronounced "Shawl Mahlran." Oklahoma & Papa Meilland are it's seedlings, you should skip the bush version of PM. I'm very jealous of the Climbing Papa Meilland in OZ, because it's not sold in the USA. I recommend you try Black Baccara. It's a satisfying garden plant with very long lasting florist type roses. The fragrance is light at best, but it's a sacrifice for petal longevity. Each 5" perfectly shaped flower lasts over two weeks on the bush for me. Dakota Redwing is brick red or burnt orange during summer and most of the year. I have yet to see a purple bloom, but now would be perfect conditions with cold nights and clear daytimes. The first year has been underwhelming.... I grow the miniature Black Jade near my doorstep because I like to affix it to my jacket's lapel when I go into town. It's a beautiful blood red colour. I'm ordering Black Magic this upcoming Spring, so can't yet comment on its performance. You can find pictures to all of these on HMF.