What has been your most disease resistant HT during your lifetime?
Grey Pearl. I’ve never seen it mildew, except under plastic at Sequoia, though identical plants grown outside that greenhouse at the same time were spotless. It never had any foliage issues in the Newhall garden. The only foliage issue it’s had here in Encino was light black spot earlier this season and that was on foliage from last year which hadn’t been removed or knocked off by rain (as there wasn’t any), nor by the wind.
It’s also one of the top five worst rose plants of my rose growing experience to keep alive. It’s a pig to propagate and it will thumb its nose at you, turn yellow and croak to the root for the fun of it. But, its leaves have been the most consistenly healthy everywhere I’ve grown or encountered it.
I have never had a spot, mildew, or rust on Elle. However, I used her both last yr and this yr for both pollen and seed, and many of her offspring are really mildew magnets. Will try her pollen again with a shrub that is great at producing disease free seedlings, because she does pass on her fragrance pretty well and produces some interesting colors, as well as a lot of pinks. Ingrid Bergman has also been very disease free, and is a bit better in passing along good health.
I only have a few HTs, but ‘Pink Princess’ stands out as the healthiest and hardiest. It’s also fragrant. ‘Carefree Beauty’ isn’t classified as an HT, but has a Hybrid Tea look (especially in bud) and is also wonderfully healthy.
Out of the 120 HT varieties I now have, these would be my top 15 (no particular order).
Lafter
Orange Ruffels
Curly Pink
Dountry Doctor
Pink Princess
Golden Fairy Tale
Lasting Love
Aperitif
Stephen’s Big Purple
Annapurna
Lemon Spice
Queen o’ the Lakes
Twice in a Blue Moon
Verschuren
The 777 Rose
My main concern here is Blackspot. I would say they range from 0-10% defoliation by the end of the year. Some years are better than others. I never sprayed consistently enough to make a difference and last year I stopped all together. Note the Brownell varieties with Pink Princess in them.
None of these really qualifies as HT but they have basically that form. The Brownells Queen O Lakes, Rhode Island Red and Golden Arctic plus Carefree Beauty of Buck have been reliably disease free. My own Arctic Sunrise (C.B. x G.A.) comes closest to HT form, (after Q o L), a good bush habit and has never shown B.S., mildew (rare here in general) or rust (common only on native roses) even when surrounded by B.S. prone and diseased plants. Spot anthracnose is a problem on C.B. back in PA, but only on New Dawn here.
Remember Me, Elina, Solitaire, Pride of England, and Royal Philharmonic all come to mind. However, the majority of these were bred in similar climates to mine.
How well do the Brownells (Pink Princess, Orange Ruffles, Lafter) typically fare in the hot south?
Eliza is disease free here. Its seedlings havent been impressive.
Phillip I grow Brownells Curly Pink here in Oz which has some pretty fierce heat ( over 100 for most of the summer) and does pretty well
If anyone can actually find a Selfridges, it has worked for me in passing on its health. I forgot to mention that. The plant itself was rarely grown because it is so tall. It also resents pruning, which it doesnt pass on. Those who figured the rose out, knew to prune it lightly to get it to put out 30+ blooms per year. Those that did not, which was most, got about 5 huge blooms per year on 7’ canes. The thing is, its a good rose for passing on both vigor and health in a color not known for either quality. Just dont cross it to another behemoth, lol. If I still had it, I’d do Selfridges x Winter Sunset.
In that thread of mine (Sowing seed in Oz) the grandiflora I referr to crossed with La vesuve, I reckon it is Selfridges, but not 100% at this stage.You are right Michael it is a strong grower, almost climber like.
I’ve seen very clean ‘Queen Elizabeth’ around.
I’ve hear good things about the Buck rose ‘Earth Song’ too.
Max I have seen Queen Elizabeth growing in heavy shade half of the day and still do extremely well, flowering was reduced slightly, but its health was very good.
Yeah, I have no doubt Selfridges is related to Buccaneer. I am assuming that the unknown portion contains Golden Giant. They say that Sunny Delight is possibly Buccaneer, but SD doesnt get that big here. It gets to be about the same size as Sun Goddess in all aspects. Which reminds me, if anyone is planning on using a yellow HT, avoid Sunbright 
Queen Elizabeth is pretty amazing in my garden. I have never used her in breeding, but perhaps I should. Not only is she mildew-free (we have no blackspot, so I can’t comment on that) but she has been growing bonsai’d in a 12" wide x 12" deep pot for 13 years and is happy as a clam. I like that trait.
Queen Elizabeth is pretty amazing in my garden. I have never used her in breeding, but perhaps I should. Not only is she mildew-free (we have no blackspot, so I can’t comment on that) but she has been growing bonsai’d in a 12" wide x 12" deep pot for 13 years and is happy as a clam. I like that trait.
“Not only is she mildew-free”
Having said that, she does have a little leave curling this season, but then many of my ‘mildew-free’ roses do this season!
Judith the hips take ages to ripen, I have harvested all my crosses for this year except for the Queen Elizabeth, still green as grass. Another thing to , they take a while to germnate so you have to be a little patient. Use this cultivar wisely and you can end up with a real doozey.