Our Favorites

These are some of our favorite rose varieties. If you need help in selecting roses for your region and designing your garden, please Contact Us.

Remember Me

“Remember Me” is one of the best-selling orange varieties on the market today and knocks the socks off of the old variety “Tropicana”. The simple reason is the fantastic shiny, disease resistant foliage that offsets the beautiful flowers. This rose will surely put many vases of orange shaded blooms on your table or enhance your garden for years to come.

Commonwealth Glory

Among the many friends I made in the rose business, Robert and Philip Harkness were gracious and generous in all the wonderful times we spent together, either walking their research blocks of roses in Hitchin, England or our blocks in Oregon or California. On one of the trips to England, I spotted this wonderful hybrid tea, “Commonwealth Glory” which had already been introduced in the UK. They sent me budwood to test it in the US and I found that it washed out in the heat of California or anywhere else that summer temps went above 80º or so. But, in the cool spring of Portland, this rose can be spectacular and my friend, Jim Linman has captured its beauty in this photograph. We introduced it here in the US without much financial success but to those rose lovers who wanted to grow it, they have enjoyed some stunning blooms and possibly a trophy or two. It’s tender in cold climates but has a wonderful scent. Edmunds’ Roses still lists it as one of their offerings.

Easy Going

When Kathy and I took over the nursery from my parents, we moved into a new manufactured home across the lawn from the nursery office. Our first obstacle was to landscape around the area. We couldn’t afford a garage so we just graveled an area to park our cars. We built a bed in the front and both sides of the parking area for roses and planted about 40 Easy Going to surround the parking area. What a show this rose provided! The plants are vigorous and dense with shiny, dark green foliage and massive, thorny canes. But the flowers they produced were large and abundant. One of the best floribundas on the market, this sport of Livin’ Easy is my first pick for an easy-to-grow yellow rose for any location. One summer, it went through the entire season without a drop of irrigation, just using what Mother Nature provided.

Pristine

For a long time, Pristine was my favorite rose. Pristine’s pure white with pink shading can change through the season depending on sunshine, but in the cool of the spring, it is exquisite. The plant will draw and quarter you with it’s huge thorns and thick, spreading canes. You will need a pair of loppers to prune it. But it’s all worth it when you see the perfect form and large, gorgeous flowers. It is tender where winter hits +15º. This photo was taken after a spring shower by my friend, Rich Baer, rose photographer extraordinaire.

New Zealand

A soft, warm pink hybrid tea with wonderful form and huge, sweet fragrance. This is the old rose fragrance our grandmothers talked about. The plant is healthy with shiny, deep green foliage that has good disease resistance. The rose will grow many side buds so if you want a long-stemmed single flower, disbudding will be required. I am not sure why the Gamble Awards committee overlooked this rose. By far, one of the most fragrant roses of our modern times. Hybridized by Sam McGredy IV.

Neptune

One of the most popular early hybrid teas in this color range was Sterling Silver. It had great fragrance and a unique color at the time and was widely marketed. The problem was, it was a puny, stingy plant producing 3 or 4 blooms in a flush. Neptune is the remedy for a stingy bloomer. This prolific rose has stunning color, wonderful fragrance, perfect form and is borne on a plant that is healthy and vigorous. A hybrid tea bred by Tom Carruth.

Firefighter

Of all the roses that Edmunds’ Roses introduced, I am most proud of this wonderful red hybrid tea bred by Pierre Orard of France. I had the honor of discovering it at Orard’s nursery in Lyon, bringing it to the U.S. and propagating it under quarantine, then marrying the rose with Remember Me Rose Gardens and introducing it in the U.S. to honor the Firefighters who lost their lives on 9/11. The rose is a tall, upright hybrid tea with reddish green, disease resistant foliage. The flower is a deep red with lots of petals and a wonderful, strong fragrance. It will always be the first red hybrid tea I recommend for any garden.