Lovely, lovely, dear Shar, but I must quibble with you about ND being the thorniest rose. Gertrude Jekyll certainly ranks right up there at the top, too! She's brutal to try to prune or sniff. Many a sleeve or unsuspecting arm has been caught in her wicked thorns. I must add Dorothy Perkins to my list, too.

My thorniest rose is HT 'Marilyn Monroe'.

Beautiful rose, though, Paul!

I have quite a few roses thornier than New Dawn. The first one coming to mind is Harison's Yellow which can make an impenetrable hedge, but some of my rugosas are pretty vicious too. Snowfire is probably my thorniest HT.

How pretty, Paul!

I agree, Angie, about Dorothy Perkins, the difference is in the size of the canes. DP is more flimsy, lots of thorns but smaller than those of New Dawn. I don't have Gertrude Jekyll to compare. Either way, they sure can cause a bunch of pain. But worth it, don't you agree?

Paul, I keep going back to look at MM. How perfectly beautiful. Does it smell as good as it looks? I'll bet your yard is a sight to behold. I've been looking at your gorgeous irises on the iris forum, too.

Hi Tabby,

As I said, I'm not a rose person, and only have a few. New Dawn just happens to have the biggest thorns of those I have, so I guess I complain about the biggest hurt!

Aren't you glad that thorn bushes have roses?

Now that is an excellent way to put it, Mary!
Beautiful.