Stay away from hybrid teas. They hardly ever do well here and take a lot of work.

Your best bet would be to go with the old garden roses; specifically teas, chinas and noisettes. If your ground is very rich (compost, rotted leaves or chips and manure) these will do well own root.

Also, start with Louis Phillipe ( lu wee' fil leep' ) the Cracker rose. Highly scented cherry red abundant blossoms.

A good source... http://www.angelgardens.com/ecommerce/

Here is a link that might be useful: Cracker Rose

Many roses do well in 6 or more hours per day of full sun. But we do have our summer doldrums here and they usually look pretty ratty in July and August.

From ehow.com

Double Delight

A bicolor strawberry with white colored rose, "Double Delight" hybrid tea rose is recommended by Central Florida Rose Society as one of the best performers for Florida. "Double Delight" grows 3 to 4 feet in height. It has a fruity fragrance and is a hardy rose that blooms easily and continuously in Florida.

Knock Out - these are FOOL-PROOF!

Recommended as the most popular shrub rose for Florida by the Bradenton-Sarasota Rose Society, "Knock Out" is an easy- to-care-for variety of rose that is spectacular in full bloom. Bearing blossoms of red or pink, "Knock Out" grows up to 4 feet in height. It was the All-American Rose Society winner for outstanding garden performance in 2000. It is an exceptionally hardy rose with good disease resistance that provides a high number of blooms throughout the year in Florida.

Don Juan

A climbing variety of rose recommended as one of the best for Florida by Central Florida Rose Society, "Don Juan" is easy to grow in heat and humidity, making it a good performer for Florida. It has an outstanding strong damask fragrance and large, double blooms of velvety red. "Don Juan" does well on pillars, fences and trellises, and blooms abundantly throughout the season.

Gold Medal

"Gold Medal" is a yellow grandiflora rose with a spicy-fruity fragrance. It grows to a height of 4 to 6 feet. Recommended by the Central Florida Rose Society as a favorite rose variety for the state, it is considered fairly easy to grow. "Gold Medal" thrives in the well-drained, high temperature soil that is characteristic of coastal areas, making it ideal for Florida. It a good rose for cuttings.

I'm not sure what kind I have as I really am not a roses type person. The one rose bush I have I got as a house-warming gift two years ago (while visiting family in South Carolina no less). I believe it is indeed a tea-hybrid type, though, as it is one of the smaller ever-blooming types. However, while pleasant to smell, it is not very fragrant. You have to get really close to smell this one. I have it planted at the base of my house on the east side where it gets direct sun from sun-up to about 1:30 or 2pm during the summer months. I really do not give it any attention other than going out and dead-heading it every couple weeks or so and pruning back the canes in winter. I definitely don't get special foods and fertilizers for it. But it seems to do fairly well where it is and with the neglect.

Right now it is pruned back and not much to look at, but here is a picture I took of it last spring after it had flushed out and put out its first blooms.

{{gwi:784813}}

And while I am not a roses person, simply for S's and G's, I have four cuttings from when I pruned it back that I am seeing if I can get rooted. If they do manage to root... I don't know what I will do with them, probably wait til their big enough so that I might have 'something' to offer if I ever go to a plant swap.

That's a red Knock Out Rose, Leekle2.

I'm not doubting you, as you seem to know more than I would, but I just want to make sure: In this picture the blooms look more red than they actually are. They are actually closer to pink than red. So do Red Knock-Outs bloom pink or is there a Pink Knock-Out version?

Edit: Answered my own question. Yes, there is a Pink Knock-Out version.

This post was edited by Leekle2ManE on Fri, Jan 11, 13 at 13:23

Leek, yours appears to be a Double Knock Out Red. (There are also singles.) It is beautiful!

I have lots of the Double Pinks. I have them planted tightly in the front beds with pink pentas, blue plumbago, caladium and aztec grass for border. I also planted tons of rain lily seeds inbetween the aztec grass, which I was delighted to find that most all of them sprouted. All of these plants are no-care, no-brainer plants - at least, so far. :)

This photo is shortly after I planted everything. The aztec grass border has really filled in.

Carol in Jacksonville

Here is a link that might be useful: The Knock Out Family of Roses

Anyone actually grow Double Delight or Gold Medal roses? Just wondering how much work they are.

All roses are going to require some extra watering and fertilizing in sandy soil. They will look better if you deadhead and prune them at least once a year. Nearly all roses will get varying degrees of blackspot at certain times of the year. Some get more blackspot than others. You can spray fungicides to combat this, or try to limit yourself to the more resistant varieties and tolerate some blackspot. The only common serious pest I've had is chilli thrips. You can spray insecticides (chemical or organic) to fight the chilli thrips in the summer. This is the basic work involved in growing all roses. I do not spray fungicides and I spray an organic product called Spinosad a couple of times in the summer to fight the chilli thrips. All this is to say that work is involved, but it's not really a ton of work and you can decide how far you want to take it with the spraying.

I have grown both Gold Metal and Double Delight. Double Delight is a very pretty and strongly scented rose, but in my garden it attracted a lot of blackspot. It had more blackspot than most modern roses and had trouble recovering from it, so I removed it. I still have Gold Metal. I've had it for a number of years. Considering I planted it in one of the worst spots in my yard I am surprised it does so well. It gets blackspot, but less than Double Delight. The yellow on the blooms fade, so you have a two tone effect which I like but others may not. It is not my best performer, but it's still alive in a bad spot.

I would recommend the rose Belinda's Dream. It is a strong rose, especially on Fortuniana rootstock, and gets less blackspot than maybe 85% of the modern roses I've tried. It has the flower form of a hybrid tea and a very nice scent. Also, I agree with the previous posters that Chinas, Teas, and Noisettes do well here.

Have fun growing!

I grew double delight for years in Miami with no particular problems, but I kept it in a container.

Hi Carol
I love your little garden and the way the pink roses blend with the pale green caladium leaves and blue plumbago.

Will the rose and the plumbago stay small, or will you prune to keep them that size? Down here, the Knock-outs and plumbagos get big . . . . and I've seen them hogging all the garden space.

I'm so loving your bed design, I'd love to copy it in my new yard!

Susie

Hi Susie,

I have repeated those plant groupings all across the front and front side beds. Yes, everything had doubled and tripled in size. I only established the beds last May, so this will be my first year of cutting back. I expect to give the roses and plumbago a good whack the last weekend in February. I don't mind them getting tall and full but they may need some taming throughout the year if they creep out of the beds. So far, the caladium has found it's way to the sun but both the caladium and aztec grass appreciate a little bit of filtering shade where some plumbago reaches across them. I hope your beds turn out well!

Carol in Jacksonville

No one has mentioned Blush. It is very productive and fragrant. It is also trouble free here. The big problem is the size, something like ten feet by ten. If you have the space, it is a very good rose, not a climber, but a large shrub. Sometimes I have to use a chain saw to prune mine. I started five cuttings about a month ago and they are already putting out leaves! If we have a Tampa Bay swap this spring, I plan to take these five.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blush rose

Hi everyone! I was reading some of the comments here and it looked like a good place for me. First I would like to say that I LOVE ROSES but have have not one clue how to purchase, plant, or care for them. We just got a house in central Florida (Floral City) The house had this big beautiful rose bush but it was killing itself so I had to get rid of most of it. Trimming way back. (looked up how to do it) Not sure I did very good. The branches were about the size of a quarter and all crisscrossed and all tangled up. My question, How do I go about buying roses, seeds, or which ever to start growing more around the outside of the house. I am so sorry for any ignorant questions....I am just learning. Thank you guys in advance.

Thank you so much! That is great. It is a little bit of a way but will be worth it. Thank you so much for your help!!!!

I freaking hate Knock out! that rose is a chili thrips magnet. It is hard to control chili thrips and can be hard to diagnose because the buggers are so tiny you can't see them.

You can grow beautiful hybrid teas in full sun but you must have a stray program for blackspot. If you are not going to do that you should pass on HTs.

FYI I take care of about 25 rose gardens and have grown roses for 30 years.

Cracker 🌹

Pretty