Team Dahlia or Team Rose?

Both of the above are fantastic summer focal flowers but I prefer one for reasons I will go into below. 
Dahlias were my first flower love.  I used to see visions of their petals like fireworks when I would close my eyes.  Dahlias will absolutely stop me in my tracks. They are extraordinary flowers!  
and, I'm Team Rose.   
It took me several years to come to this place, let me explain myself. 
Dahlias in arid zones are not very happy.  They evolved in a climate with high light, mild temperatures, and lots of humidity.

• Where I grow, in Pasadena, they aren't very productive. I've recorded how many flowers I get from each plant.  Except for Thomas Edison (35!!!) most give less than five.  Sometimes these tubers are $20 or more.  That makes them outrageously expensive.  
• They need a lot of water when they are growing (but not when you first plant them as tubers or your costly investment will rot).  Even with daily misting I still didn't get enough flowers to justify the work and water. 
  
• Tubers can theoretically last for years but rarely do.  This rarely happens in real life.  I've tried leaving them in the ground (after the second year, they get weaker and weaker and eventually they stop coming back), or digging them up to store.  Digging is a huge amount of work and storage is a crap shoot unless you have a temperature and humidity controlled environment.  I don't.  
• Dahlias can carry viruses that can affect other dahlias and other plants. 
• They are magnets for pests.  In order to get a flower that isn't munched and full of caterpillar poop I have to bag each bud.  Sometimes the heat makes the area where the bag seals around the stem cook and that flower is a loss.  Without the bag the flowers end up crawling with little caterpillars.  Now, this isn't true for everyone who grows in my area.  Some people prioritize their dahlias over this ecosystem but those folks just don't understand the long range implications of overuse of pesticides (and how could they when pesticides are so readily available - it lulls you into a false sense of their safety). 

Here are some of the reasons why I favor roses. 

• Once established, roses are really tough and quite drought tolerant. 
• Roses are highly productive - Modern roses will bloom from April through November. 
• Roses are fragrant.  This varies by variety but dahlias have no scent at all so roses win in this category. 
• Roses are disease free compared to dahlias.  This varies by climate since many humid zones struggle with fungal diseases on their roses but in our arid climate it's not really an issue.  
  

I hope I never have to choose between these incredible flowers!  I love them both and they also look beautiful together but if it comes down to a decision, for my growing area, I'm going with roses.