Thanks for the list, I'm definitely going to look these up and see which ones are must-haves for me.

Somehow I've GOT to start whittling my list DOWN....sigh....at some point I guess I'll have to start shovel-pruning the roses that aren't wowing me, to make room for new possibilities. The problem is, I hate to kill a perfectly good plant, I'm just not sure I can bring myself to do it....

But in any case I love to drool over new possibilities, so thank you!!

The trick is to start with the ones which aren't AS disease resistant or which aren't AS heavy flower producers. Sometimes you can easily find a home for a plant, but not always. When you finally find that "OMG! I MUST grow THAT!", you'll be surprised how easy it is to cull something that is "OK" but not "WOW!".

My list is too long, but the ones I really yearn for that I feel I could grow successfully are Flamingo Dancer, Orfeo, Rambling Red, Plaisanterie, Purple Lodge, Candice, Stormy Weather, Green Ice and Verdun and E.B. LeGrice, Golden Buddha, Perennial Blue and Dakota Redwing, most of which aren't remotely Antique. I feel I'll get them eventually.

However, the ones I'm actively seeking are more in the species and once-blooming category for landscape and curiosity's sake, such as R. Plectranthus, R. Minutifolia, The Hemp Leafed Rose and the mosses. I already got the Chestnut Rose and Repeating Swamp Rose, so I'm on my way there. I suppose based on that criteria I should add the Green Rose. I like the odd ones.

"R. Plectranthus"? Perhaps your auto correct "fixed" R. sericea pteracantha ? I don't think Minutifolia would like your winters and, from experience, the rain levels in South Carolina were sufficient to drown it. I sent one to a professor friend at Clemson University. It didn't make it through the first winter, and he is skilled and knowledgeable with roses. He is assembling a rose germ plasm at the university.

That's the one. I was rushing and didn't recall the exact name! Sad about Minutifolia. I should start a post about roses with unusual aspects. Have you seen the Hemp leafed Rose? I think it's the mosses that smell so great. I remember at the Wooster garden there was a piney scent wafting in the air. I think it came from the mosses, but without a map I could never remember from which roses it came. I miss that garden. : ((

I haven't seen it in person, but it impresses me as perhaps being caused by something similar to what causes R. Watsoniana. I had an odd branch on a Careless Love decades ago which I rooted and struggled to retain for several years. The foliage was very similar, heavily embossed and the flowers weren't HT-like but more of a rosette/dianthus appearance. I wonder if it's viral or an RNA oddity?

I've found R. minutifolia at Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano. https://californianativeplants.com/ It's endangered in the wild....

Yes, Tree of Life and Suncrest Nursery both sell the California form of Minutifolia.

Thanks everyone for their recommendations/wish lists! - And to Grace Carroll for the highly evocative descriptions and comments!

It was great fun to go through these and daydream about the possibilities.

Luckily for me, I'm not partial to mauve/purple roses, and I tend to look for strong fragrance (unless there is something else exceptionally charming about the rose), so I was able to limit the expansion of my wish list to only a half-dozen new candidates. LOLOLOLOL

Oh man, this is impossible because I'd pretty much like to try everything! Mostly I'd like space to grow large climbers, big teas, and once-blooming roses -- especially fragrant ones. Sombreuil (Colonial White) and Jaune Desprez are a couple of climbers I'd like to plant. I have a baby Devoniensis -- and if I had a good spot I'd like the climbing version. I'd also like a sort of porch that could be opened in summer and closed with polycarbonate panels in winter, where I could grow Marechal Niel, some citrus plants, and passiflora edulis (this fantasy is getting out of hand -- I need to win the lottery!) Mrs B. R. Cant, Mrs Dudley Cross, and Dr. Rouges are some teas I would like to try growing. If I could ever find Annie Laurie McDowell I'd get rid of other roses to grow her (I tried with a "maiden" plant last year, but the graft never took --- heartbreaking). Madame Hardy and Celsiana are on my list, along with Kazanlik and Ispahan. Great Maiden's Blush and Fantin Latour seem like roses I'd enjoy. Centifolia variegata seems lovely. Just about any moss rose or crested rose I could get my hands on I'd love to try -- Crested Damask is on my list for sure, as is Mousseux du Japon. Can you tell that I have a real problem? ;)

Oh PS I'm so excited about my 1-year-old Grandmother's Hat that I'd love to add Tina Marie. GREAT fragrance.

Have you handled the new growth, flowering tips, peduncles, sepals and ovaries of Grandmother's Hat yet, KS? SMELL all of those parts. Gently rub them with your fingers and smell both the plant parts and your hands. Wash your hands them see if you can also smell that sweet, peppery cedar scent on your hands after washing. It's DELICIOUS!

It IS! Amazing. Truly -- to me the new growth smells like cardamom, which I love. I feel unreasonable love for this rose, and I've only had it for a year. :)

Wonderful! A truly "scratch'n sniff" rose!

These are the sorts of characteristics I'm talking about! Does anyone know to what zone GH is hardy?

I'm not sure, but it is thought to be a hybrid perpetual -- you can probably grow those in your garden, right? Might as well try it! :)

Yes! Many of the HPs are hardy to Z5! : )

K.S., great minds think alike! Last year I had a guy construct polycarbonate sashes for my porch, which I can swing up in the summer and close in the winter. Right now I've got a curry tree (i.e. south Asian plant) that is still green, hasn't gone dormant yet. (Although of course this was a warm winter.) Also the porch enclosure helps keep the heat in the house. Overall it has worked out excellently.

Also, I have zone-stretched a number of plants by planting them near the house; I have heated floors and the warmth seeps out, with the result that some of them don't even go dormant, even in some of the colder winters.

As for the teas you mention, I have a hedge of what will someday be huge tea roses planted in the back of my property, also many chinas; and they are doing fine. I think I've lost only one or two back when they were potted babies. So I think they should do fine for you too?

slumgullion, I would like to see a picture of those sashes. I have a friend who is thinking of doing the same. I have a vestibule of glass that stores my houseplants. Unfortunately, I learned it can get too cold for newly rooted roses. :-((

Slumgullion, I'm so happy to hear that this idea works! Hopefully I'll be able to pull it off wherever I end up next. Right now I've got passiflora edulis absolutely taking over my living/dining area (which is actually kind of nice, given how much I like seeing plants in winter). I agree with you that I could probably grow many big teas in this zone, but I just don't have space. Hopefully someday soon!

Vapor, Grandmother's Hat does just fine in my zone 5 yard and should be perfectly happy in your zone 6. True, mine is on the warm side of the house in virtual zone 6, but it's more or less cane hardy there, which means it's hardy to zone 5 and I would be tempted to try it in zone 4. Assuming it's actually an "official" OGR class rose, it's by far my favorite OGR. I rather think it's the kind of rose that does well just about anywhere zone 5-9. It's a keeper.

Kim, thanks for identifying WHICH of my roses gave me that lovely peppery smell when I deadhead. I knew my Reine des Violette did that, but I couldn't identify which rose(s) in the warm OGR/tea bed gave me that scent. Nice to add it among the many other virtues of GH.
Cynthia

my wishlist:

-every Old Garden Tea rose ever bred.

and every Tea-Noisette to surround the Tea garden.

That's all I want.

Lux.

HU-284226487, Lux, it's YOU? How neat! I've missed you! You're welcome, Cynthia! RdV and GH (and her color sports) all do it and there are more, too! Jacques Cartier, Comte de Chambord, Mutabilis (pull off the dead and dried "hips" and smell your hands!), and a number of others will do that. Generally, most of the Portlands, Damasks, Centifolias, some of the Gallicas pretty much should be expected to provide those scents. Occasionally, you encounter an HP which will do it. Of course all of the Eglanterias do it. Many species do, too. Not all, but many. Soliel d'Or and the Foetidas, Lawrence Johnston and some of the other Hybrid Foetidas all smell like Juicy Fruit Gum. Wander around fondling Chinas and notice their peppery scents to those parts. Perhaps GH has her scents from the combination of Chinas and species behind her? Fedtschenkoana has the "Nobel Fir with hardwood smoke" scent to those parts. Its offspring morph that into spruce, pine and other evergreen scents, at least into the second generation. There are SO many neat scents to discover!

And, I totally agree with you about every Cl Tea and Tea-Noisette ever bred, Lux!

Lux, your needs are so simple! ;) You know that the Roseraie du Desert is for sale, right? Think of how much time it would save since the planting is already done!

"I Don't Have Room For" (in no particular order, and certainly not all-inclusive)

Colette

Mr. Lincoln

Reine Victoria

Sombreuil

Bobbie James

Rambling Rector

Dortmund

Félicité et Perpétue

Rosa banksiae alba

Augusta Louise

Ascot

Etienne

Jude the Obscure

Cole's Settlement

Barfield White

The Ancient Mariner

Sweet Frances

Albéric Barbier

Charles de Mills

Foxi Pavement

Celsiana

Paul's Himalayan Musk

Russell's Cottage Rose

Rosa glauca

Geranium (moyesii)

Nahema

Madame Isaac Pereire

Princess Alexandra of Kent

Darlow's Enigma

Aloha

...and some of them, I really want.

...and some of them I've purchased anyway, and have to figure out what to do with them, or what to remove to put them in.

So many wonderful roses on people’s lists! For me it is the climbers Marie Nabonnand and Marechal Neil.

Right off, if I had unlimited room, I would have a lot of climbers and suckering shrubs, and climbing wild ones, such as Rosa soulieana, said to fill the whole garden with fragrance.

Or if I lived in a warmer climate, banksia and Secret Garden Musk and Mermaid and Desprez au fleurs jaunes would be on my list, with climbing La France and Climbing Souvenir de la Malmaison, along with many Bourbons.

Buff Beauty, for sure, and also Pax.

And a lot of heirloom lilacs -- though they are not roses.

It was easier before this season. If something was a dud it was obvious and there were a dozen or more similar things to replace it with to see if they were better. This season is hard because there are quite a few seedlings that out perform many bought roses or are seedlings from difficult crosses so Im looking at more than just a few to remove/give away to make remove while still expanding with new bought plants that probably offer something towards my goals :/

Congratulations, Protoavis z. That is a neat position in which to be, isn't it?

It's a different mind set to be in, I'm still acquiring new plants too with reportedly unusual characteristics (eg Devonenis and its slight darkening yellow in UV) which makes the task of deciding what to remove a little more tricky (simply due to numbers)...but it's exciting to have made progress and to have plants you know will be used to make a next generation.

The other tricky mental barrier is many of the plants I feel like I can remove are ones that are praised breeders online but I just get runts or very average plants from (ie Carefree Beauty seedlings just dont want to live regardless of other parent, Rise N Shine never anything exciting just a lot of pale pale yellows, Gemini poor root systems leading to death as soon as hot temperatures come in Gemini itself often dies back to the crown in extreme temps, etc)....just leaves you thinking youre doing something wrong when others routinely praise them

TBH, any roses at all - but that's just because I can't grow anything at the moment. Realistically, I'm probably only going to have a very small garden (if any) in future, so roses and other plantings will have to be very selective...

The roses I love that might be most likely to miss out therefore, would be a big collection of species roses - or wildlings, as Campanula used to charmingly call them... including especially all the Spinosissimas and anything else with interesting shaped and coloured and textured hips, and interesting coloured/textured canes and prickles and sepals and foliage and other non-bloom features - all those great unsung but wonderful attributes of older and species roses. :-)

in no particular order Niles cochet, Maracheil Neil, devonesis, Marie van houte, lady Hillingdon, zauld House shingle raspberry, mlle sombrieul, Jesse hildreth, regulus, Madame Joseph Schwartz, Bloomfield abundance, Etoile de Lyon, tamalpas homestead tea. My list is mostly teas since I don’t have near enough space to grow most of them.

Interesting to see Marechal Niel on so many lists. I bought it last fall and it has survived the very mild winter. I will report on its progress.

On my "years in the future" list is Hippolyte, la negresse, lady Hillingdon, Alberic Barbier, Alba Maxima and many once blooming climbers/shrubs. Some species roses (chestnut rose and rosa canina) will actually be planted in the very back of mymy garden next fall.