Best season performers so far

My best performers so far in terms of lack of BS / mildew and generous flowers:

Ashram
St Brigid's Rose
French Lace
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Gremlin
Adelaide d'Orleans
Mutabilis

Next best:
Papa Meilland
Scarlet Queen Elizabeth
Duet
Hebe's Lip
Mme Lombard
Pegasus
Mme Alfred Carriere

Thats a impressive list Autumn Damask !!

Nice varied collection there Autumn. Colour, form , style, all sorts. Looking at your list got me to check out ones I didn't know. Minutes turn to hours, just like that.
Not surprised to see Duet there. Many don't like it but it's a very reliable and tough rose and has always worked hard in my garden, with very little attention. It fits in with many others too.

Thats what happens here too Silky , researching roses , minutes , hours , days , you just lose track of time ......

LOL yes... looking up roses tends to take time.

I tend to get a lot of BS in my garden. I've decided not to let it worry me. They'd probably benefit from weekly Seasol etc etc but watering tends to be my limit. And they often go unweeded for a while... *cough*
One reason I'm so impressed with Ashram this year is that in September its garden bed looked like this:
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(That was just before I weeded it!)
Everything else in there (HTs & Flori) are inclined to be "leggy" still. But not Ashram.

I can relate to that Wendy

Wow, now that's what I call weeds Autumn! Lol.
Good to hear that Ashram is one of your best performers. Can you tell me if it's (strident, garish) orange or more of a (mellow, subtle) apricot? It's one of the ones I'm considering to replace a horrible Smooth Touch rose near some Just Joeys, and orange can be tricky. "Not leggy" sounds promising. Would you have a photo of the whole bush?

Lemme see... Which shall I do, vacuum the floors, or look up roses? Make the beds, or look up roses? Wash the car, or look up roses? Oh yeah definitely, do the floors, do the beds, do the cars. Sure. Right.

Sounds like my place Betsy. Always some excuse to be outside or look up roses, always putting off housework for another day. Trouble is, I take to a rose, create that vision in my head, work out possible neighbours, then start imagining new contours wending their way through my garden, extend this, change that. How can floors, washing, ironing, windows compete with that? Roses win every time! Lol

Get over it girls, life is to short There is no considering what should be a girls order of things, Roses/Men or vise versa

Depends on which rose and which man Roseman

You guys have all described my place as well , i'd rather be outside or researching plants any day , i'm cooped up four days a week in a building that is like a rabbit warren as is it , on the weekends its let me out of here lol ... Roseman i've always said , roses are like boyfriends , like them , nah don't like them , try a different one lol !!!

Course, if we're talking about George Clooney, It would have to be a bloody good rose!

silkyfizz wrote: I take to a rose, create that vision in my head, work out possible neighbours, then start imagining new contours wending their way through my garden, extend this, change that. How can floors, washing, ironing, windows compete with that? Roses win every time! Lol

Absolutely so. Stay with the creative stuff. As far as I can help it, I only work for applause and/or money . When was the last time anyone said to you: " What an exquisitely made bed!", or "What divinely folded washing!" or "You mop floors so beautifully! Here's $2000!"

Haha, if that were so, there would be fewer roses in the world, and more women sent bonkers by the mundane and neurotic-inducing boredom of work confined in small spaces. So in a sense we're doing the world a favour aren't we?

Well said Galls !!! and Guys !!!!

Mother and Daughter rose has been fantastic for me always with blooms and in big flushes the sames goes for Peter Brock to.

You dont get much from Julies Rose in flowers.I have 3 plants all made flowers ,but takes a while to repeat it's flowers lovely colour tho.

Firefighter, Daybreaker and Baronne Edmond de Rothschild are the big stand-outs this year for me, both in health and production. FF and Baronne Ed also look great together in the vase. For pure health, it's hard to go past Perfume Passion, but she's still getting her sea legs when it comes to bloom repeat. I think she'll be abubblegum bloom star next year.

Best performers for me , Firefighter 8/10 Pope John 8/10 Oklahoma 9/10 Henri Matisse 7/10 Heaven Scent 7/10 and i have to say for a first year plant Blackberry Nip has been good , fragrance is starting to come , can't say that i really love floribundas though , but at the front of the garden as a street front specimen its good 7/10, Aoteroa , only blooms in flushes , not repeat 6/10 , Chartreusse gorgeous flowers , awfull bush ,6/10, the others not worth mentioning . Violina a disappointing year this year , old bush though ....

I should add that I don't rate thse roses anymore, because to me they are my darling proven varieties: Valencia, Fragrant Cloud, Mme Al Carriere. Nobody's perfect, and that's true of roses, but these three I'd never be without, if I could help it.

BTW maree, Valencia isn't much of a high summer performer, although she'll pop a few blooms here and there, and sometimes I forget about her . Then Autumn comes and then OH BOY Spring comes, and I remember all over again - reminded by oohs and ahhs fromn guests - why this majestic fragrant beauty is a treasure.

My new Elina has been a standout for me. Strong lush growth, beautiful blooms, excellent repeat, not much fragrance at this stage but I'm hoping that will improve somewhat. I love it. Also Munstead Wood is my little darling, churns out lots of flowers for such a small bush. Well shaped though.Those blooms just glow. Perfume lovely but I have to get down on hands and knees to sniff. Red Intuition still in its original pot but I love the flowers more and more, especially as they last so long on the bush.
Kardinal I would never be without for so many gorgeous blooms, health and repeat. Must have about 20 blooms and buds at the moment that glow. Not affected by weather and stay pristine on the bush for weeks.

Betsyw how do you find Frangrant Cloud ??.

silkyfizz wrote:My new Elina has been a standout for me. Strong lush growth, beautiful blooms, excellent repeat, not much fragrance at this stage but I'm hoping that will improve somewhat. I love it. Also Munstead Wood is my little darling, churns out lots of flowers for such a small bush. Well shaped though.Those blooms just glow. Perfume lovely but I have to get down on hands and knees to sniff. Red Intuition still in its original pot but I love the flowers more and more, especially as they last so long on the bush.
Kardinal I would never be without for so many gorgeous blooms, health and repeat. Must have about 20 blooms and buds at the moment that glow. Not affected by weather and stay pristine on the bush for weeks.

I got Elina this season to and must say started slow,but she is so good now.Nce lemon white flowers very nice.I dont thing frangrance will come silkyfizz.Bluemoon has been good for me as has Peace and Perfume Delight.

Danny, I find Fragrant Cloud the most pleasingly perfumed of any rose I've had. I'm addicted to her scent - like no other, to me. Like a bottled French parfum, many layers and hard to nail down. The kind of perfume that makes your eyes dreamily take the middle distance when you have her close. It's powerful , though and it wafts, too. The only more powerfully perfumed rose I have is Firefighter, and still I rate FC as the more intoxicating one.

She isn't a huge bush, but her flowers are a strong sturdy size. She cuts well, too. BS? Not appalling, and oen year mine were virtually free of it (lots of Seasol, food and water coddling, no spray, protection from afternoon summer sun) I'd say the only problem with FC is getting a good plant - this one has been so popular for so long that I suspect the cuttings aren't always the best. I pay a bit more for mine to better my odds of a better specimen.