Decogrl, I am in MD just few miles from NVA border. There are not that many repeat blooming roses that will stay healthy in our climate w/o spray. I grow roses for many years and am constantly looking for roses that can be grown here w/o chemical support. In addition to Knock Outs:

Darlow's Enigma -completely healthy
Some rugosas (Rugosa rubra, rugosa alba, Belle Pointvine, Roseraie de l'Ha�, Frau Dagmar Hastrup, Polareis, Pavement Series Rugosas)
Quadra -healthy
Some Bucks (will get significant BS, but will still look decent and bloom)- Earth Song, Prairie Harvest, Country Dancer
Some Chinas (will get significant BS and defolitate, but will still look decent most of the time and bloom) - Arethusa, Mutabilis, Le Vesuve, Ducher
New Dawn and Awakening - will defoliate but grow new set of leaves, and so on, many cycles
Laguna (some BS and cercospra, but not too bad)
Floral Fairy Tale ((some BS and cercospra, but not too bad)
Easy Does It (some BS, but not too bad)

I tried many differnt Noisettes and Chinas because many of them are reported healthy in the South. Here most of Teas and majority of chinas get BS badly. Noisettes I tried -Chromatella, Jaune Desprez, Mme Alfred Carrier, Crepuscule, Celine Forrestier, only Crepuscule was relatively healthy. All others defoliated and eventually were killed by winter. MAC was more hardy and even though was leafless in summer grew happily for many years in my garden. I lost it to Rose Rosette Disease and still feel bad about this loss.

There are many healthy once flowering OGRs and ramblers.
Unfortunately in our climate Knock Out is the easy solution.
Olga

I'm doing a presentation on just this subject for the Arlington Rose Foundation in February!

Sunday, February 13, 2:00 p.m.
Merrifield Garden Center
12101 Lee Highway, Fairfax VA

I hope you can come!
Connie

Even if you can't attend Connie's presentation, you should call and go visit her. She is the best source for antique and alternative roses in the mid-Atlantic. She is also very knowledgeable, easy to talk with and has a spectacular garden where you can see what the roses really look like.

I'd probably go with the buck roses and china roses that Olga lists.

Plus apricot is so underused in plantings imo, it's very eye catching. Prairie Harvest and Arethusa will fill that niche rather well, it's something "different". Robert might be able to help you out as well.

Maybe some of the Souvenir de la Malmaison sports or Duchesse de Brabant might do okay...hopefully a few others from VA can chime in and either say they'd work or not, I'm a bit unsure on those.

the musk-china climber 'Plaisanterie' is pretty clean for me here in Maryland as well.

SDlM and Duchesse de Brabant will defoliate here. Robert is considerably to the South from me and I assume from the poster. Even Connie's garden is significantly South of my place. Comparing our observations, looks like Robert has it a little better in terms of BS. MD and Northern VA have it particularly bad.
Olga

It's so sad.

Now, I forgot to mention, but I did plant a few sunny knockouts for my cousin and they are actually rather pretty and to my nose had a fair fruit-rose frangrance that I could catch a whiff of as I worked in the garden. Maybe if you had to resort to knockout, try the sunny one for a change.

Yes, I did notice that Sunny seems to be the only one with scent. I guess I am just sentimental ...just like I am with lilacs....grew up in the mountains in central Pennsylvania and my mother's roses and lilacs do so much better there. I am dreaming about having my own old fashioned rose in my garden. Lilacs just seem to do terrible here too:(

Connie I am booked with seminars this winter (wished I had seen this sooner) Are there any good resources you could recommend? I do try hard to keep sprinkler systems etc away from my roses however the foliage on them has always done terribly. Fortunately beetles have never seem to find mine yet:)

I am getting ready to move from Gulf Coast Mississippi to the DC area and have been hearing many from the DC/VA/MD area talking about how bad the blackspot and other rose diseases are there. The Gulf Coast is certainly hot and humid, but do you think it's worse there or should my no-spray/hardly-ever-spray roses here be OK there? I have many different kinds--Noisettes, Chinas, Teas, Shrubs etc.... Leaving this spring, probably. Sad to leave my garden here, but looking forward to building a new one up there. :) Thank you. :)

Clanross, this is actually a good climate for roses, except BS.
The good thing is you can grow almost any roses here(with the exception of reaaly southern roses like gigantea. You can grow hardy roses like gallicas,albas, etc, but you also can grow teas and chinas. The soil is clay and roses love it. Austins love our climate too. Almost all roses are very happy here IF you manage to keep the BS away. So for people who spray fungicides this is not a problem. If you don't spray, it will all depends on your BS tolerance. If you want roses AND leaves you will need adjustments to what you can grow here. But this will be in every climate. Whenever you move from place to place, you need to learn again what will work for you.
I would consider it a great opportunity to learn about roses you never could grow in MS. There are hundreds of roses that will be very easy and beautiful here. Unfortunately majority in this category here will be oncebloomers. Some new Kordes roses are certainly worth trying here too. Several chinas are fine here. Just keep trying. This could be more interesting because of the new challenge :)
Olga

After I put the finishing touches on my presentation, I am sure that parts of it will end up on my blog later this spring. The best resource for anything regarding local gardening, I have found, it visiting other gardens, and talking to local gardeners, and comparing notes on what is successful and what isn't.

The Arlington meeting isn't the only time I will give this presentation. I am speaking to the local MasterGardeners in April, and I think they will get this presentation, with a bit of beginner-appropriate rose care information.

catsrose, I'm blushing. Thank you.

clanross, when you complete your move PLEASE come visit and meet the roses. I agree with Olga ... we live in the BEST rose-growing area, because there are so few that won't thrive here. Blackspot is a small price to pay, and fungicide keeps it mostly at bay.

Thank you Olga and Connie. Your notes are very encouraging. :) I am looking forward to trying more Albas and Rugosas since they many of them are not worth growing here. I am fine with once bloomers--some of my favorites only bloom once. (Chestnut rose, Swamp rose, Fantin LaTour, Veilchenblau, Lady Banks) It is so hot and humid here, it's hard to imagine that the blackspot could be any worse. ??? Connie, April might be a bit optimistic for me to attend the Arlington presentation, (though I would love to), but I will absolutely be stopping at Hartwood as I cannot possibly take all my roses with me. :) I actually found your site a year or 2 ago while searching for Gothic Revival Houses (My husband and I love that style)on the Internet. You can imagine how wonderful it was when I saw that you grew and sold old-fashioned roses too! :) I am really looking forward to starting a new garden though leaving this one will be hard. Olga, I have so enjoyed your posts on Gardenweb. I am interested in the Kordes roses too--I read where Peter Beales called them "rudely healthy". ;) I was really excited when I realized that you lived in the MD/VA area! Hope we can meet some time when I am moved. Thank you both again. :)

You might also try a couple Portland roses in addition to ones Olga listed. Marchessa Boccella is particularly healthy in my garden. Rose de Recht gets spots on the leaves but doesn't defoliate. Both are very fragrant and bloom very frequently once mature. I've also had good luck with some Austins which will get some blackspot but keep on blooming. I particularly love Sharifa Asma, Heritage, Munstead Woods, William Shakespeare 2000, and Teasing Georgia. These are so fragrant and beautiful compared to Knock-out, I can tolerate less than perfect leaves as a trade-off. The Generous Gardener is bullet-proof but gets huge.

If you're willing to consider once-bloomers there's lots of healthy and fragrant alternatives.

Let me reinforce Lori's description of The Generous Gardener--bulletproof (here) but gets huge. Needs deadheading after the spring flush. Flower is quite lovely.

I love the look of The Generous Gardener. When someone says, "It gets huge", it just sounds like more praise to me. ;) I've not tried an Austin here that was truly healthy without spraying. I had Graham Thomas for a while and it was beautiful, but only if I sprayed. Heritage was the worst for defoliating/fungus diseases, though it's location was not the best. I only sprayed with Neem, but if I did it regularly, Graham Thomas was OK. I will try the Generous Gardener when I get resettled--so pretty. How about it's fragrance. William Shakespeare 2000 looks wonderful too and would make good contrast with my mostly pale flowers. :) Has anyone up there grown Grandmother's Hat?

I LOVE 'Roseraie de l'Hay' rugosa, that's a great one that should be grown more imo I forgot to praise it. It's petals and form are gorgeous magenta that ages to more grey-purple tones and the FRAGRANCE is up there as one of the best, it has a good clove note to it but with less pepper than most rugosas to my nose. Sent my cousin's into a tizzy, and I noticed one break a flower off to take home with her as she left.

I made a rose syrup from it's petals last summer. It was really good to make a pink lemonade. Sometimes sets really pretty hips too, but not like most rugosas.

Really really good rose. Downside = thorns, and plenty of them. Japanese beetles also ruin a flush as well, but then blooms again in fall.

I have checked online and see all sources from Canada and UK...Any good sources in US?

This one looks nice...thinking of getting one for my mother in PA..who seems to have ideal growing conditions for this one.

Pickeringnurseries.com is a very good canadian nursery that ships to US. My RdlH came from them as well as half of my other roses. One of the best places to buy roses. You just place ordr online and they will ship.
Olga

I have had a really good experience with hybrid musk roses in my nova garden. I have Buff Beauty, Felicia, Robin Hood, Cornelia and Penelope and all of them stay fairly healthy throughout the year even in partial shade. Occasionally Buff Beauty and Cornelia would get some BS but if I take off the diseased leaves early BS doesn't seem to spread very much. I used to grow hybrid tea roses and had lost entire canes and even bushes to BS. Never with these hybrid musk roses.

When, where is Ms Hartwood’s Master gardener presentation please? ( in April - and her blog too?)