saki wrote:

As mentioned, Reine des Violettes is pretty much thornless, as are climbers
like Zepherine Drouhin and the Banksia types (including Purezza).

I'd have to look closely but I think that Gruss an Aachen is also low-thorn
and makes a nice cut flower if that's the direction you'd like to go.

I would classify Zepherine Drouhin as "completely thornless" but Gruss
an Aachen is certainly not. It may have fewer thorns than some but the
thorns it has are still significant.

My ZD is a nice climber that's getting set for it's best show ever on a
new arbor I put up over the front walk. Last year the first flush was
in April. This year everything seems to be almost a month behind and
the buds are still very small.

There's a shot from April 20, 2002 he
http://www.dotrose.com/whatsinbloom/misc.php

And here's a page showing the state of our roses on April 24, 2003
http://www.dotrose.com/whatsinbloom/20030424_roses.php

Zepherine Drouhin is the second picture on each of those pages.

--
Henry