Jess, I have some recommendations for you on thornless roses. You must have 'Nur Mahal' It is a completely thornless Hybrid Musk rose. There are not even any tiny prickles underneath its leaf mid-ribs. Smooth baby, smooth. It's an insanely healthy rose in my area. The Antique Rose Emporium carries this boldly colored beauty. Very fragrant. You must have 'Pink Gruss an Aachen' This is a very old rose that has been enjoyed for many, many decades. It is the PINK sport of Gruss an Aachen, and this pink sport is extremely close to being completely thornless. And, like Nur Mahal, it has absolutely no prickles under its leaves. Pink Gruss is much harder to find than the original Gruss. I recommend ordering it from Chambless, from where all 5 of mine came. Nice light fragrance to my nose. You must have 'Heritage' (David Austin's English Rose) This rose does have a few thorns, and they are sturdy ones, but from what I've seen, it is by far the closest of the Austin roses to being thornless. Mine had only about 6 thorns near the base of the plant, and no thorns on the top 2/3's of the bush. I say "had" because I simply snapped them off and they have never grown back. The blooms on this rose look like an old centifolia ... just perfect. In my garden, this rose blooms like crazy from spring through first hard freeze. A very unique and enjoyable fragrance that is always present. Additional favorite thornless roses for me are: 'Basye's Blueberry' - 100% thornless (available from The Antique Rose Emporium) 'Valentine' - Almost thornless and an excellent landscape plant 'Reine des Violettes' - 100% thornless, IF you buy it from the right supplier. Mine came from The Antique Rose Emporium and it's smooth & beautiful. I highly recommend getting this rose from that source, from Vintage Gardens, or Countryside Roses. Some sources carry virused specimens of this plant, but those three are reported to have clean ones. Some other sources sell a thorny rose under this same name. I would have listed this one up top with the "must haves", but you stressed that you wanted "repeat blooming" and while this one DOES repeat bloom, it does not do so as much as the three "must haves" that I listed. This rose is very close to being my very favorite rose of all, and each year it blooms more and better blooms. This rose was introduced in 1860 and it is a living piece of history. It's fragrance is the best of all my roses. Unfortunately, I can not recommend 'Mrs Dudley Cross' to you, because your zone is too cold for her to thrive there. But down here, she's a must have. Mine is completely thornless and extremely resistant to any fungus. Randy

Jeri, what makes this year's selection of antique roses at Northaven so exciting is that I am almost positive the source is The Antique Rose Emporium. ARE carries this entire list of roses by these exact names, including their own hybridized Texas Pioneer roses that are on the list posted above. So, I know that these will be high quality, disease-free, own-root specimens. You may want to take up your identification concerns with ARE, because this local garden center merely purchased the roses wholesale from the extensive offering at ARE (as Barbara suggested). My own-root 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' came from Northaven several years ago, and it has been a shining jewel in the garden. And they sometimes carry roses from Chamblees as well, because a couple of years ago, I got my "Jefferson Rose" from there (which is really the rose, 'Softee'). It is a long road trip across a good part of Texas from here to Brenham, so it will be nice to shop the roses "in person" at Northaven. Whoo Hooo! Randy

I must have lost my mind because I just ordered Crepuscule, Reve D'or, AND Climbing Crimson Glory, due for delivery in September. I have been evaluating my property and decided that I could find the space for few climbers, two of those listed above will hopefully find happiness growing up the side of my house, I am hoping to get an "invisible trellis" installed in one or maybe two places on the outside of my house for them. The remaining rose(s) will grow against an ugly chain link fence that divides mine and my neighbor's back yards. The one that goes in the back yard will probably have the most growing space, but will also have to deal with the most shade, I am thinking maybe crepuscule could go there? Out of these 3 which one do you all think will grow the largest/smallest? I know ramblers get quite large and can really devour any structure in their path, but since crepescule isn't technically a rambler, I didn't know if it would have the same massive size, or if just the shape of the plant is similar to a rambler. I have read in various places that all three of these roses can get quite large. I visit HMF often, but I still seem to have a hard time deciphering growing habits and sizes, it seems like they can vary widely based on climate and just the individual gardener because I am constantly reading conflicting statements of size of one plant as different based on what website I'm looking at. I am a little intimidated by the task I have put ahead of myself, I've never had a climber, ever, but if I never try it will never happen, so here goes nothing! This post was edited by Dinglehopp3r on Sun, Jun 29, 14 at 23:29

the DA literature says it grows to 3-4 feet - don't believe it. In my climate it makes a very nice 8 foot climber I believe I've seen Graham Thomas make a very small 5-6 feet climber even up here north of Boston (& then die back to almost nothing during a particularly harsh winter). milieu serene, are you familiar with the Climbing Tea (vs. "Hybrid Tea") & Noisette roses? They are older roses that often, but not always, have a more relaxed flower form, yet they also often have the advantage of being bred from wild roses that naturally grow in a climate not unlike yours. In fact, the first Noisette rose came from a South Carolina plantation, back in the early 19th Century (or late 18th). They are all dependable rebloomers, even in hot summers, and it's not unusual for them to suffer little from diseases when grown in warm/hot, humid climates (the advantage of being bred from wild roses of the semi-tropics). If you aren't familiar with them, I encourage you to also take this question of yours over to the Antique Rose Forum. There you're bound to get good answers from other rosarians in the Southeast who can give you good recommendations about yellow Tea & Noisette roses that will handle your climate well. (Oh, and yes, a good number of the Noisette & Tea roses are varying shades of yellow, or yellow with pink &/or orange.)