I love the names that he gave his varieties, and the fact that most are very fragrant, but I didn't see any red ones.

Is it typical of hybrid musk roses that they have an "open" bloom (I don't know the technical name)? I'm fond of the somewhat closed, vase-shaped blooms.

Hunting around, I see names for bloom shapes like "flat" and "high-centered". I like high-centered (Rose (Rosa 'National Trust') but not flat.

However, i looked up 'Mr. Lincoln', which i know i like, and most bloom photos looked more open than my favorite "look". Maybe I'm thinking of not-yet-fully blooms!

I guess there will be a tradeoff between what I want to grow, and what I can grow!

Hi Rick....

I only used the hybrid musk class as an example. There are a lot of people growing HTs in the PNW. I just don't know which ones are best for your climate. If a rose has more petals, you want to the site the plant where it gets more sunlight during the day.

You are correct in that the photos that show that V-like form are partially open blooms. That is also what is called "exhibition" form. The are a lot of rose that will open high centered and when fully open have a more "flat" or "cupped" bloom form. Bloom forms come in and out of fashion just like men's ties. Right now, the high centered form is somewhat out of fashion, but that doesn't mean you can't grow those roses, if you can find them. More about that later.

Here's a short list of red HTs that I found listed as available on some Washington nursery sites and which seem to have a good reputation for disease resistance, but that is only true for where they were tested and where people have grown them and passed along the information:

Alec’s Red http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

This rose is supposed to thrive in cool weather conditions. I know it doesn't like my hot climate, but I am going to move my rose to a different site in the garden and see if I can give it some afternoon shade.

Firefighter
http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

This rose seems to have a good reputation for disease resistance in several climates. I know the blooms on my young plant fried in my triple digit temps, but it's young.

Ingrid Bergman
http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

This rose has a reputation for being a very solid plant, but I don't know about disease resistance in your area.

Barkarole
http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

It's an interesting rose and loved by some and hated by others. It was introduced to the US when Jackson & Perkins was located in Oregon. It may do fine in cooler weather.

Olympiad
http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

I can't comment on this rose because I don't know anyone personally growing it.

Opening Night
http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

Another rose with a reputation for liking cool weather. I don't know about the disease resistance.

Royal William
http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

I've been told this is a solid plant, but again I don't know about the disease resistance.

Here's a link to the Olympia Rose Societies list of best roses ... remember, the list is always skewed towards exhibition and not necessarily towards easy care garden roses.

http://www.olyrose.org/best_ro...

The thing is that the rose industry in the United States has entered the dark ages of roses. Since Jackson & Perkins went bankrupt and pulled Weeks Roses into bankruptcy, too, there are no rose companies in the US with an active breeding program and many of the roses being introduced are the roses that were in the pipeline but had not completed the testing program.

J & P was purchased by a venture capital company and I haven't heard any good news about them as a supplier. Weeks was purchased by Gardens Alive. I have looked at the roses from the few nurseries near me and have found that the quality of the plants vary a lot, probably due to the subcontractor which is supplying the roses.

A lot of the roses introduced in the last 50+ years were only tested as budded roses. What that means is that the seedling was selected because of its bloom form and then budded for further testing. The rootstock often provided more vigor for the rose to make it a viable plant. Without that additional vigor, the rose probably would have never made it to market.

Now, there are many nurseries selling these roses as own root. I haven't found any documentation that specifically says this rose, which was once only sold as a budded rose, will be a vigorous plant when grown own root. It may be a good plant own root. A lot of roses were budded when they did not need the additional vigor of a root stock simply because that was the rose industry's method of bringing a rose to market faster.

There are some very good nurseries which really do test for this kind of thing, so checking them out is really worth your time.

I hope this helps.

Smiles,
Lyn

Thanks very much Lyn, for searching for me! Of those, I like 'Firefighter' best, then 'Olympiad'. I saved the link to Olympia Rose Society.


>> If a rose has more petals, you want to site the plant where it gets more sunlight during the day.

Unnh-oh. It sounds like what-I-want may be what-I-can't-grow. But I'll do more research.

There is a spot for a bed that would get more sun than most of my yard, and be fairly open ... after I chop down and uproot some low juniper bushes ... and wall it off from Rhododendron, pear tree, and juniper roots. That is to say, a few years from now. So I have time to do some research.

I suspect that once i find a promising cultivar, it will cost at least $30, as opposed to Wal-Mart "Whatever Roses". But that's worth it for a rose that won't be just "black spot on a stick".