I don't grow this particular red but it gets rave reviews. Firefighter.

Thanks, Kristine. I don’t grow Firefighter either, but it seems pretty perfect in terms of the size of the bush, flower form and heat tolerance. Excellent suggestion!

I've heard good things about Firefighter, too. I grow Love's Promise -- which is a gorgeous red and smells delicious. Super healthy, never any trouble for me. And it's right next our dryer vent, so that could spell trouble, but it just keeps going strong. I'm also loving Rouge Royale, but that's less hybrid tea form. If he is open to a slightly different kind of red, I think Hot Cocoa will bloom more all over than either Firefighter or Love's Promise. For whites, I love the floribunda Moon Dance. For pinks, I have way too many favorites to pick just one...but if you wanted another floribunda, I've seen Our Lady of Guadalupe in flower at Otto and Sons and have become determined to grow her, just haven't found her yet. Good luck!

Thanks, Deborah! These are great ideas for reds, and I think Moondance could be the ideal choice for his white rose. Our Lady of Guadalupe is also on my own wish list, and would be a perfect pink rose for my brother too if she were just a little taller. I’ve never seen her exceed 3’ tall, and he does want his roses to be closer to 5’ because that would work better for the specific spot he has in mind. But I’m sure I’ll be buying OLOG for myself sooner or later. She’s heat tolerant, super bloomy, and equal parts elegant and adorable. (This is supposed to be about my brother’s garden, and yet here I am, getting enabled to buy more roses for my own. Ahhh!) Here she is, being lovely at the Huntington Gardens.

Last year I ordered Our Lady of Guadalupe and it didn't break dormancy and I got a replacement still didn't break dormancy so I gave up and ordered Brigadoon and it came and it was Radiant Perfume so I got that replaced with Sweet Spirit because they ( Jackson and Perkins) were our of Brigadoon lol. So, I guess that Our Lady is my unicorn rose

My sister has had Moondance for years and it is a perfect .

I have no idea for a pink. All of my pinks are short and more hot pink. Oh wait, I do have Quietness. Not sure if that would be tall enough though.

Good luck

That’s quite a saga, Kristine! A couple of years ago, I ordered Honey Perfume as a bareroot from Jackson & Perkins, and it leafed out with some sick looking leaves, and then quickly declined and died. I never figured out why, and that’s the only rose I’ve ever had die on me! Luckily, OLOG is available locally at my nurseries here.

That’s great to hear about Moondance. I’m also wondering how it might compare to Sugar Moon, Bolero and PJPII in our climate.

For me Bolero is short but perhaps in your Zone it might be taller. My Pope John Paul was so beautiful but it was a standard and didn't make it through the winter .

A couple of great pinks, Elle and Tiffany and Lafrance

I adore Elle, but I think she’s usually shorter than what my brother wants for this particular spot. Tiffany could work! I don’t think he’ll go for La France, since he’s planning to buy his roses at one of our neighborhood nurseries or at Otto’s, and they don’t carry it. Veteran’s Honor is a great suggestjon, since heat tolerance will be crucial. PJPII and Moondance both sound like good options for the white. Does anyone have experience with Sugar Moon? Our local nursery has a lot of Sugar Moon this year!

Also Ben: What is that big, beautiful pinkish white rose behind Veteran’s Honor? Is that Olivia Rose Austin? I absolutely love your photos!

I absolutely love Sugar Moon, it’s my favorite white HT along with PJPII. I think Sugar Moon has one of strongest and most pleasant fragrances of any rose, like an expensive perfume.

Advantages of PJPII

- It blooms super heavy , and repeats super fast. Among large flowered HTs very few roses can match PJPII, and if we are considering strongly fragrant HTs maybe only Fragrant Cloud is an equal in bloom quantity with quality.

- It can produce the biggest, highest quality blooms in the dead of hottest summer.

Advantages of Sugar Moon

- It is a supremely fragrant rose. My local nursery manager stocked hordes of Sugar Moon and Neil Diamond, know that when they bloomed they’d sell out in a few days. PJP has excellent fragrance, but Sugar Moon is supreme. So many people smelled Sugar Moon in my garden and went on a frenzied search for one of their own.

-It opens well in any kind of weather, and is blemish resistant for a white rose. In damp springs, sometimes PJP would set a huge flush of beautiful buds, only to have them all damaged . That never seemed to happen to Sugar Moon.

Sugar Moon bloom one to a long stem , repeats decent, isn’t stingy, but can’t compare in quantity to PJP.

Sugar Moon

The rose behind Veteran’s Honor is Eden!

Thanks, Ben! This is a great comparison of PJPII and Sugar Moon. It’s going to be a tough choice for my brother. He has a plan of alternating three varieties of roses (red, white and pink) in a bed that runs along his back patio to create a uniform pattern. However, if he can’t decide among all these wonderful options, he’ll end up doing what I would do, and forgo uniformity in favor of variety. Then he can enjoy all of the above!

Ah yes! Beautiful Eden, Ben.

I feel I should point out that some of these requirements are at odds with each other: its going to be difficult to find plants that are only 4-5 feet tall (In a Zone 10a especially!) which bloom "all over" and still make good cut flowers. Most HT types that are ideal as cut flowers are the kind that are very tall and tend to flower only at the top of the plant.

I would agree with you that Tiffany would be a better match with the other HTs in terms of growth habit. Elle is quite rounded and compact for a HT, though I think in SoCal she’d get to decent size. I did have Elle and Tiffany planted right next to each other, and to my surprise Elle was the decidedly better rose by almost every measure. More blooms, better repeat, better disease resistance, more hardy. Nothing ever got in the way of Elle giving a great performance. Elle is just about the easiest and most dependable HT, so I usually think of her first when somebody asks about pink.

Personally I just want to grow a bunch of different varieties, and I’m fine with a big boisterous bunch of colors. I could never restrict myself to beds of a single variety, but to each his own!

Ben: Elle does stay small at the Huntington Gardens. I think she’s usually about 3 feet tall. So I think even in SoCal, she tends to be rather compact.

Paul Barden: You’re right, of course. We rarely get everything on our wish lists, so it becomes a question of what to prioritize. To me, it seems like my brother is leaning more towards the hybrid tea side of things, and I don’t think he’d mind if the rose is on the taller side of 4-5’.

Meaning 5 feet plus!

@Desert Rose (10a Sunset 19) Here in my Zone 8a garden, Tiffany frequently exceeds 8 feet tall, no matter how hard I prune it. That said, 'Tiffany' is still an outstanding choice and should be included in any cut flower garden.

Wow, that is tall! It sounds like Tiffany is a very happy rose in your garden. :)

My brother ended up going with 2 different varieties for each color: Sugar Moon and Pope John Paul II for white; Firefighter and Veteran’s Honor for red; and Tiffany and All Dressed Up for pink. Thank you again for all of your great suggestions and input!

Desert Rose - thanks for the update! Please post a pic in a few months.

Paul - do you think Tiffany could take a wee bit of shade?

Those sound like wonderful choices. I hope that we will get to see pictures