The first 3 criteria are equal; -Disease resistance. Two gardens ago, we grew 180+ rosebushes, and it was a sublime garden, with shady corners where Hybrid Musks bloomed, all edged with white Lady Banks, in the center where the hot sun flowed down, were the H.P.s, H.T.s and Bourbons. After a few years of spraying with organic sprays I decided that since so many roses were available that never needed to be sprayed in our area, to only grow those cultivars. -Old Roses for their beauty, fragrance and, history, some of it quite romantic. I came late to the Austin club, forgoing modern roses altogether (a strong prejudice against the ball on a stick H.T. form) but finally bought a yellow Austin after waiting 3 years for a yellow own-root Noisette to climb and it refusing to grow more than 2 feet tall. I wish Mr. Austin used more Tea-Noisettes in his rose breeding program,and/ or sold in the u.s. 'Marachal Niel' on Dr. Huey, because that would be a dream come true to me. 3. beauty of bush, bloom and fragrance. One of the 3 won't do it for me. When I was a young girl I decided that I loved best a rosebush that had pretty foliage (Mlle. Cecillel Brunner')and small flowers over a large flowered H.T. with a few leaflets to barely cover its thorny canes, because I reasoned I had to look at the bush for 12 months out of the year, during 8 of those the plant would have leaves, and I wanted to enjoy seeing the bushiest plants available. I love a lush rose garden, filled with roses, of course, but also leafy foliage in great and green abundance. For most of my rose growing years I have loved and sought out to grow Old Garden Tea roses for that reason; the bush is beautiful to look at even when it is taking a break from blooming. Many Noisette roses are fantastic foliage plants as well. -fragrance, fragrance and more fragrance. I'm lucky I can smell Tea roses because some folks can't. a few of my favorite roses this month are; Mrs. B.R. Cant' from afar, I love it as a huge background plant covered with roses. I never appreciated this rose until I noticed how well it appears when seen at a distance. R. moschata gorgeous foliage in 3 seasons+, a sexy musky scent that wafts on the air, very pretty stamens and pollen, white roses are my favorite. white ' Rose of York' has my favorite rose foliage of all, "luxurious" blue-green leaves, wide white petals, that golden boss, and a wonderful history being the first white garden rose documented as being grown in England; 1400's a.d..and associated with the York family. Pax' always blooming, very fragrant. cl. Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria' The large shapely creamy white roses have an excellent petal substance which makes them last a long time in a vase and moderately strong fragrance. I would place it among Mme. Jules Bouche and Mrs. Herbert Stevens for best classic white Hybrid Tea for beauty of bloom. Marie Van Houtte and Mrs. Dudley Cross, great combinations of yellow and pink. R. californica I pick the canes all during the green seasons for its leaves, to use in bouquets. This is one of the few wild roses that re-blooms well on new growth, so I cut it back by one third at the end of June so it re-blooms in late August. I've documented the re-bloom several years in a row, but not the percentage, at a glance it appears to be more than 60% of the June bloom cycle. The scattered bloom that has been noticed on R. californica that appears after its' spring flush is due, I believe, to naturally occurring new growth. Next year I'll try and remember to count all of its blooms during its first and second bloom cycle to see if R. californica is fully remontant when pruned back. -interesting things about roses aside from the bloom: hips, leaves, prickles, oddly colored foliage and leaf shape, 15 leaflets gets my pulse surging. Bloom: Must appear natural. No florist roses for me. as my neighbor said "They look like they're made of plastic' Luxrosa

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! I will look in to them at HMFR website. Baby Powder contains talcum which may have a link to ovarian cancer. One of the leading brand that produces BP have been sued because if this. The smell is really nice though. Scepter'd Isle from what I read has a strong myrrh scent. To me, myrrh smell like licorice. I used to grow Felicite Parmentier but found the scent too overwhelmingly strong and sharp and icy- not the subtle BP scent I was looking for. The blooms are beautiful and small and if you rub your fingers along the sepals (? the neck of the bud), it smell like ginger and spicy. Amazing! The only reason I won't grow it again is because of the thorns and the one I had was a very awkward grower with floppy canes armed with thorns if you dont prune it down. I wonder if Duchess de Montebello have a Baby Powder scent? I used to grow it but I cant remember what it smell like. I've been eyeing for a Belle Donna for a long time but we don't have this rose in Australia. Reminds me of RdC - love the pompom blooms with amazing petal formation. I might give Marie Pavie a try. Heard that her scent wafts around. Some of the roses mentioned above I havent heard of so I will look into them. Thanks!

Give Quietness a look at. It is: Extremely low maintenance....no spray for black spot Wonderfully fragrant Beautiful full, light pink blooms with OGR, quartered centers like English roses Repeat blooms very quickly Black spot resistance right up there with the Knock Out line of roses Winter hardy to its tips with no winter protection 4-5'X3-3.5' on its own roots, probably bigger and more floriferous if grafted Long, cutting stems for the vase Obviously I am the Pied Piper of the rose Quietness. One thing is, prune Quietness like hybrid teas are pruned, not like bush/shrub roses are, otherwise it grows like a jumbled, haystack of small blooms. Moses

I can comment. I have a small rose bed behind my downtown office. This is a photo of The Prince, today. It is coming up on its second bloom flush, but most of the blooms on the second flush are yet to come. It is a David Austin rose. I have this on the south side of my office. In this small rose bed it has been mostly disease resistant, but I did get some blackspot on it this summer. This bed is fairly protected, and I increased my spraying after the blackspot occurred with Immunox, and I know once you have blackspot it is not supposed to go away the rest of the season, now I don't seem to have blackspot on any of the roses in this bed, which I cannot explain. Most roses in this bed do not develop blackspot even with very limited spraying because they are more immune to it due to the superior growing conditions behind my office. My building is shorter than some of the surrounding buildings on the east and west side. These roses have reduced wind exposure. I have a microclimate here that is probably more on the order of Zone 6 or 7. The roses here generally have grown better than they do at my home. This year the roses in this bed have not done as well probably because we got down to 30 below twice this winter, and this spring and early summer we had a lot of cloud cover and a lot of rain, and this area is shaded in the early morning and early evening by the buildings. At this location this bush rises to about 4.5' to 5.0' in height. It has a 4.0' spread. It has a perfume scent that spreads because of the reduced wind exposure. I have one of these specimens at home that is a runt that has gotten to 2.0' tall with no spread. It was in a bed I paid little attention to, and the one at home I transplanted into a better location two weeks ago. Hopefully it will start to develop better. I used to take care of roses at a municipal park, and had a specimen of The Prince planted there, but I could never get the city to take down trees shading the rose bed. That specimen grew poorly due to shading. The colors on this photo are more true to life than in other photos I have taken.