Best Roses
...the second of two pages.

What are the best roses, the ones that are top of the recommendation lists? We are often asked for suggestions as to what choose for a particular garden but this is a very difficult thing to do, given the variety of climate areas in the world.

All we can do is suggest rose bushes from those we have grown ourselves or look for top rated roses from suggestions given by the various international societies. Hopefully this will help those of you who are selecting new roses for your garden.

Besides looking at the score, please remember to include the space requirement, the growing requirements (some of the best roses, the top rated, are also very temperamental to grow!) and your own color tastes.

To simplify it, 10 is the best and 1 is the worst. A score of 9 and over is rare and outstanding while anything over 8 is a very good, solid rose bush. I usually have second thoughts about any rose bush with a score below 6. The score indicates an all round, all inclusive perspective. This would include hardiness, disease resistance, bloom quality, foliage quality and color and many other considerations.Look on these scores as all round, all inclusive ones.

We have only selected the best ten in all cases except those for "Best Fragrance" and "World Rose Hall of Fame" because in the case of the second, the selection is only made once every three years. The "Best Fragrance" classification is only of one rose selected each year. In these two categories we have selected the best five.

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