I planted my first roses in my garden in the summer of 2018. Since then, I’ve had several years with most of these plants, and we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well. Each rose has its own personality, its strengths, and its weaknesses.
So I thought it might be nice to do a little bit of a review of each rose.
There are a few things to keep in mind as you make your way through this post. First, I grow my roses in USDA Zone 10a, which means I have very mild winters. That affects a lot of things about how my roses perform, and you may have different results if you live elsewhere.
Second, my roses are all planted in the ground. None are in pots. To the extent your roses are potted, instead, you might also find that your results vary.
Third, while I have a good variety of roses, I generally only have one of each plant. That means I might have an outlier here or there and just not know it.
Lady of Shalott
I bought Lady of Shalott kind of on accident. I was at the rose nursery and looking at the space for Lady Emma Hamilton, and there was only one plant left in that space. It looked a little different from the pictures, but I figured maybe it was a young one. I grabbed it and put it on my cart.
Then I got to the checkout and realized it was actually labeled as Lady of Shalott. Somebody must’ve put it in the wrong spot, but by that point, I felt committed to her. I had to give her a chance.
If I’m honest, this rose is just a little too vibrant for me. It often blooms very orange with some intense pink tones in it.
On the other hand, I have to give it credit where credit is due. This is a very hardy rose that throws off abundant blooms and bounces back from a pruning very quickly. It doesn’t have a particularly strong or distinctive scent, which is also a bit of a disappointment for me, but that might be a plus for other rose growers.
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl is a bit of an underwhelming rose in my garden, but that’s not entirely the plant’s fault. I have it in a corner that’s probably a little too shady, and it frequently gets overshadowed by Wollerton Old Hall being an absolute menace of a grower and stealing all the sunlight.
The blooms are pretty little things, though, and they grow in nice little clusters. I like their soft peachy color, even if they are not very fragrant. I suspect that if I planted it somewhere where it got more sun, this might be a happy little rose plant.
Wollerton Old Hall
This is one of my absolute favorites and has been from the moment at first bloomed in my garden. Wollerton Old Hall is a vigorous grower that throws off long canes with lots and lots of blooms on them.
The heavy myrrh sent is unusual and distinctive, and although there are some people who find it a little overpowering, I adore it. I also love the delicate, globe shape of its blooms.
On the website, these blooms are the palest of peach, almost a cream color, but they tend to be more vibrant in my garden. They can be a full pink to a full peach depending on the weather and other growing conditions.
Queen of Sweden
Queen of Sweden is one of the only roses I have more than one of, and there’s a reason for it. This plant has such pretty blooms that grow in a wonderfully upright posture. While it’s not common to get full clusters of blooms on this one, you will usually get mini clumps of two or three roses.
I also love the soft, fruity scent of these blooms. The website says it has a myrrh scent, and maybe a more sophisticated nose than mine could detect that, but I just smell raspberry.
Queen of Sweden starts out with a relatively vibrant pink color, but fades to a softer pink as it opens up more. Its many petals radiate out from the center in a really pleasing pattern.
Claire Austin
Clare Austin is one of the roses I probably would not plant again in my garden. It’s very pretty, but it has almost no scent, and the blooms shatter way too easily.
Mine also continues to bloom a very strong lemon yellow rather than the soft cream color on the website. For a while there, I thought I might have gotten the wrong rosebush, but I reached out to David Austin folks and they confirmed that it is Clare. Mine just happens to bloom more yellow.
Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine is one of the only roses in my garden that isn’t a David Austin rose. This one is bred by Heirloom Roses, and boy howdy, is it a heck of a rosebush.
While doesn’t have much of a scent, it is one of the most consistent and abundant bloomers in my garden, with lots of big clusters (we’re talking 5-7, sometimes even 9 roses in a bunch). It also has an interesting multi-lobe-shaped bloom that I don’t have in other plants in my garden.
One of my favorite things about this plant is that while the roses are a creamy white with a bit of apricot at the center most of the year, if we get a good cold snap in December, the petals turn a really pretty pale pink.
Geoff Hamilton
I love Geoff Hamilton so much, but he has been one of my most challenging roses. Mine is particularly prone to pest infestations, which means halfway through each growing season, I can pretty much guarantee all the leaves have been gobbled up, and then the plant will struggle along until winter time.
And yet the blooms themselves are so utterly stunning that I would plant this rose again in a heartbeat. When it does bloom, it gives the most beautifully abundant pink flowers.
They don’t have much sent, but they have so many petals that it feels like you stare into infinity when you look in the middle of one of the blooms. That alone is worth the effort.
Teasing Georgia
Teasing George is another under performer in my garden. It might not get enough sun where I have it planted, but it doesn’t bloom very often and it is full of thorns.
This one is one of the varieties that has thorns on not just the stems but on the undersides of the leaves, too. That means trimming it is a pain and a half.
When it does bloom, the flowers are really pretty buttery yellow, but I sure do struggle to get blooms out of it.
Tamora
Tamora is another one of my all-time favorites. This rose has a really strong, heavy scent and big, globe shaped blooms in a very pale peachy-pink color.
Although it is a very thorny rosebush compared to some of my others, I don’t mind, because the flowers smell that heavenly and are that pretty. Sometimes I go out in the morning and talk to the plant and tell it what a pretty plant it is, because I’m just so pleased with its blooms.
Mine is planted on the north-west side of the house, which means it gets less sunlight than it would probably want in early spring and late fall, but during the summertime, it gets plenty.
Golden Celebration
Poor Golden Celebration tends to be forgotten in the middle of all of the hubbub because it’s planted away from any other roses, but it really is a great plant. It has massive, globular, deep yellow blooms with a strong citrus sent.
They fill out floral arrangements so nicely, and look really cheerful on the plant. If I had more room, I might actually plant another.
This is a great rose with a really sturdy constitution. Even when I forget to water mine, it just keeps growing.
Iceberg
To round things out, I have a couple of iceberg roses that I bought from the hardware store. They’re not fancy, but they bloom abundantly, and you’d be surprised by how much scent they have.
I love iceberg roses for filling in otherwise sparse arrangements and for keeping the garden looking fluffy and happy even when the other plants are in a dormant period.
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