Question
Katy is not that far from me.....you may have the exact answer that I need.  I want to put in roses this spring that are hearty, disease resistant and grow well in our South Texas summer(like your Katy climate) and wonder if you would suggest a variety for me. I had thought of filling a bed with the polyantha but need a good variety, or would a floribunda be a better choice? prefer pinks.  Thanks for your help.  Mary in Port Lavaca

Answer
Hi Mary-

My favorite pink florabunda is: Gene Boerner - cake frosting pink, beautiful high centered, like hybrid tea roses but smaller, exhibition quality.  It is the only florabunda I have that blooms 12 months out of the year - I had blooms even in Dec., Jan, Feb etc.  These make excellent long lasting flowers on the bush or cut flowers. Other good pink roses:  Bonica (light pink), Gruss an Aachen (shade tolerant - light peachy pink), Hermosa (this is a china rose but blooms a lot like a florabunda), angel face (lilac-pink), Betty Prior, China Doll (polyantha), Simplicity (pink), The Fairy (polyantha), Baby Blanket (Jackson and Perkins), Nearly Wild and the shrub rose Belinda's Dream (hybrid tea quality, but voted by Texas A&M as an Earthkind rose - most disease resistant) and it smells divine.  I also like Queen Elizabeth, which is a Grandiflora, but it seems almost immune to disease (mine never gets blackspot and never has insect problems).  

You could plan the rose bed this way:  Belinda's Dream (5ft tall) or Queen Elizabeth (5 ft - 7 ft) in the back, in the middle put Gene Boerner (4 ft), China Doll, and in the front put the shortest roses: The Fairy, Baby Blanket, Bonica, Hermosa, Nearly Wild etc.

Or, if you did a circular bed - you could put the tallest rose in the middle (Belinda's Dream or Queen Elizabeth) and around it put: Gene Boerner, Bonica, Hermosa, The Fairy, Nearly Wild etc.

A good site to buy the above roses online are: Chamblees Rose Nursery (www.chambleeroses.com) or the Antique Rose Emporium (www.antiqueroseemporium.com).  Right now you can get good roses also at Walmart ($7.98) and Lowes for a reasonable price.  The only problem with Walmart is sometimes they mis-label roses.  Last weekend - I recognized a Gene Boerner rose (several buds on one cane) which they labeled as "Pink Peace" but I know Pink Peace is one bud per cane, and the flowers are larger, hot pink not medium pink.
I prefer to buy potted roses, as the bareroot roses get dried out roots and don't get established well before the hot weather kicks in.

I hope you have fun smelling the roses.

Carlene
aka the Flowerlady