Juno - hybrid china, centifolia, or whatever. I've always considered it a really, really old exhibition rose, since it's a bit finicky.

Of course this photo is from last year. The early yellows, Hugonis and Primula should be blooming in about a month, which is more than a month before main rose season.

We were in Houston after first bloom and went to the garden in Hermann Park. One bed of roses was breathtaking. The biggest blooms I'd ever seen in Houston (where I had gardened for ten years) and all opening in spite of hellish heat and humidity.

The rose was Medallion. A light yellow that was not turning paler in the heat and concentrated sunlight.

One problem I've always had with multipetaled roses is that a certain amount of humidity makes them ball and not open. Where I live and garden now, the humidity coming off the Holston river to our east and south is cloying enough that our metal outdoor furniture has lichens growing on it. No wonder rose petals have a problem opening cleanly.

Wish I'd had more responses to this....it must be too early. mad_gallica, I have a scrawny plant of 'Juno', too, and love the blooms, but don't remember them as outstandingly fluffy: possibly it's the starveling condition of the plant.

I used to have 'Medallion' back in Washington, Ann, and liked it very well. About humidity, we have lichen-covered outdoor fixtures, too, and had some balling the last weeks, which have been wet, but not as much as you might expect. 'Mrs. B.R. Cant' in particular has been opening splendidly. I wonder if it isn't the eastern and southern U.S.s combination of heat and humidity? That's less common in our climate.

Augusta Louise is pretty big and fluffy.

Love Mrs. B.R. Cant too!

It is a week or two early here for those sumptuous blooms of first flushes, though there's lot of buds to be seen. There is a single bloom of 'Mrs. B.R. Cant' that is glorious, but hiding way back under and hard to see. Though not a variety with the fattest flowers, or even much fragrance (to my nose), here is one I was very glad to see today, as it was not doing well at all last year after our overabundance of rain, which especially soaked, long-term, the part of the garden this rose was in (lost some natives and other drought-adapted species in that general area, too -- just too much water!). It had hardly a bloom or two all last year and looked so sickly. Well, this year it seems to be bouncing back and has three lovely flowers on it today. It's "Oneto Home Saffron", a dwarf tea:

Probably a tie between David Austin's Chaucer and Madame Cornelissen.

Keep 'em coming, folks!

I particularly like your 'La Reine', Sheila.

Catspa, congratulations on your "Oneto Home Saffron" (I'm guessing this is a study name). I currently have at least two big phlomis that are suffering severe dieback and may die completely. I've had several kinds of phlomis in the garden since around 2010, and this is the first time that anything has happened to them: they have always been absolutely bombproof. I'm wondering if our foot of rain over a period of two-two and a half weeks didn't overwhelm them, since they're growing in heavy ground. I've never gotten over losing 'Anna Jung' years ago to wet.

Thanks, Melissa, and, yes, "Oneto Home Saffron" is a study name -- was found by Fred Boutin in the Sierra Nevada town of Sonora, CA several decades ago -- Sonora has been the source of quite a few great "found" roses. I wouldn't be surprised if wet, heavy ground has had an adverse effect on your Phlomis as they seem to want good drainage here -- they haven't done that well growing in my level, irrigated beds -- get rangy and mangy-looking after a year or two. On the other hand, they are among the most drought tolerant species in the garden on drier hillsides, staying nice-looking all summer even in those conditions. I have one species, Phlomis lanata, that can go most of the summer with only a single irrigation or two on a hot, dry south-facing hillside -- tough!

Great thread! Nothing to contribute yet but I’m enjoying all your lovely blooms!

While waiting for this year's blooms (rain is pouring down on them at the moment and there is snow in nearby hills...), and thinking of sumptuous blooms of the past, one of my first thoughts was 'Mme. Antoine Mari', which, unforunately, I no longer have, having lost it to some sudden strange dieback a few years ago, though it was a huge plant. I do need to get this rose again -- the huge, full blooms of its first flush were some of the most breathtaking of all, especially the blooms opening in less light, which had an almost pearl-like color and texture -- like this one:

Can't comment -my roses are starting to show buds, but only a few of Clbg Old Blush's have actually opened...

Bart, I have moments when I'm really curious about your garden! Why are your roses so much later than mine? Than my warm climate roses, I mean.

I took a moment this morning to snap a picture of a Chaucer bloom. The fragrance is myrrh and to my nose smells soapy.

I don't have a lot of roses like this. One is the polyantha Clothilde Soupert and the other was Souvenir de la Malmaison, which I lost and need to replace. I love these two but fragrance and having many petals aren't the primary qualities I use to choose a rose. The several that made the cut are because they do well here.

Melissa, I'm not sure; I thought to say maybe it's higher up,but the roses down here in town are just barely starting to open, too.

Bart: is it the varieties? It's only my Teas and Chinas that are flowering, with the Noisettes just getting started. I have few if any modern roses, just because they are so hard to grow in my conditions and style of gardening; the rest of my roses are mainly once-flowering old roses of European origin, which appear to be staying faithful to their traditional schedule and likely will begin blooming in May. What kinds of roses do you grow, if you can sum them up? We're at 450 meters, with a south-facing exposition, which I believe is similar to yours.

Elie Beauvillain has opened it's first flowers; ditto two of the Clbg Old Blushes. There are two Teas at the bottom of the garden, supposedly one is Archiduc Joseph and the other Souvenir d'un Ami, but they look alike to me; I think they've started, too. Also Excellenz Von Schubert and James Galway,but none are actually in full bloom; all have just the first flowers opening. O, also one Gertrude Jeckyll.

I think my garden is closer to 600 meters.

Probably I grow too many modern climbers; at least in the past, these could establish and then get by only with rain fall. I've shied away from the old once-bloomers, because I'm afraid they'd only start to open once the weather becomes too unpleasent for me to be able to enjoy them (I'm thinking Gallicas). Remember, I have no house or shelter out there,so it's not like I could enjoy looking at them from a window! I've got several ramblers, though. A few Austins...Now I'm trying floribundas, but have no idea whether or not that will prove sustainable.

If this seems all very vague, it is. I've been so busy setting up my drip systems and trying to build on the decent rain we had this winter by applying liquid fert to the new implants and their neighbours that live in the two actually-kind-of- cultivated areas of my garden (where the drip systems are going) that I've had very little time to look around the whole garden or even continue with the garden clean-up (looks like yet another year when certain areas are going to be neglected). As beautiful as spring is, it makes me very anxious; this year I've also got to face the lack of the fountain. I'm feeling even rather depressed and over-whelmed about the future. I'll hopefully feel better once I get the second drip system completed.

I'm struggling with chronic fatigue, too, BTW.

Bart, thanks for all this information. Perhaps the higher elevation makes a difference; perhaps the geography of the area immediately surrounding your garden affects temperatures.

About the once-flowering roses, you would need a protected area to retreat to, that's true. Mine are actually in one of the more distant parts of the garden, but I have to drive to reach them. Mine tend to bloom starting around mid-May and going on for a month. The ramblers mostly come afterwards. This traditional schedule may change, however: I noticed down in the shade garden just now that 'Belle Amour' had a bloom or two open; don't know about the rest.

You're certainly not the only one with a neglected garden, that's for sure. And good luck dealing with the chronic fatigue: it's not fun.

Yeah, tell me about it, lol. Not sure what is exactly the cause, but I do know that building this roofy-thing to catch rainfall is an enormously physically demanding job. I'm not even done with it,and here I am, having to start worrying about watering! It seems like I'm always stuck leaving projects unfinished because other things become more urgent,which is very frustrating. Then, of course, once the heat really sets in,everything has to go onto "survival mode".

Erratum: I meant, I DON'T have to drive to reach even the most distant parts of my garden. Sorry for the misleading mistake.

I never finish anything in the garden, or at least rarely. Right now I'm repotting and moving at a glacial speed. Good luck with your projects, large and small.

Here, the OGR Europeans like gallicas do extremely well, Bart. You would really enjoy more of them I think, like Melissa says.

Some of my Teas can have the Spring frost damage and need a trim up to look their best. They have a great Fall though and I love them.

If you think gallicas bloom too late, try spinossisimas.

Projects get finished? Really?

Over a half-inch of rain yesterday, so the blooms that are open are a bit "dewy" and nodding, but finally blooms are progressing -- a somewhat late year here, it seems. But here is the first bloom of one of my most beloved varieties ('Rose du Roi' of commerce, ex Vintage -- if it is that -- some question) with its zillion petals, fine architecture and scent, and a large bloom for this variety, at at least 4" diameter.

I love spinosissimas. They do well here too. They are near impossible to find over here.

Another group, the Rosa foetida clan are pretty good, with the possible exception of 'Austrian Copper' which I've never been able to get launched. They're not disease prone in my conditions, and they're very enjoyable in the spring. I developed a negative idea concerning the ability of Spinosissimas to grow here which may need revising. I do love my hybrids 'Fruehlingsgold' and (I think it is) 'Fruehlingsduft', both big, handsome, fragrant shrubs.