You might want to go over to the Antique Roses forum and have a look at the thread "Which roses will do best in humid Northern VA?". You may find it helpful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Which roses will do best in humid Northern VA?

I don't know why the roses by Ping Lim aren't more widely discussed here when the subject of disease resistance is brought up, but he was the hybridizer for Bailey Roses who, from what I understand, offered field grown (as opposed to greenhouse grown) introductions that have had little maintenance done to them. If you want to trial something that's not in the usual group of roses recommended as disease resistant, you may want to give him a call. He's very nice to speak with...Maryl

Here is a link that might be useful: Ping Lim Roses

Yellow Submarine, Home Run, Sunrise Sunset & Pink Home Run. All are worthy competition to KO.

I agree with maryl about Ping Lim's roses. I have several of his Easy Elegence roses & all have been great, healthy performers for me---Kashmir, Funny Face, Centennial & Tahitian Moon are 4 of my favs., also Como Park (new last year for me looks very promising). I think the problem with Lim's roses getting any promotion is the fact they are sold thru Bailey's Nurseries & they don't do a good job of promoting their roses. Below is a link to Bailey's"find a retailer" site so you can find out if someone handles their products in your area. Also Lim has hybridized some nice HT's, here's 'Love & Peace',this is a fall bloom so the colors are really intense & it was at least 6" across.

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Here is a link that might be useful: Bailey's link

Not all Ping Lim's roses are sold through Bailey nurseries anymore. The link below is to his own website in Oregon where he is currently offering roses for sale via mail order....Maryl

Here is a link that might be useful: Pings roses

I emailed Ping tonight and he sells 10 roses for $125 including shipping. Not bad at all! But, he won't sell less than 10 at a time. Very nice man.

Scott

Ping's Easy Elegance are far superior to Knock Outs (my opinion). Macy's Pride, Superhero, All the Rage, are some of my favorites. In fact, Superhero, All the Rage, & Sweet Fragrance just placed in the Top 10 on the new ARS Roses in Review report.

Has anybody grown Ping's roses no-spray in the East? That's pretty much the acid test of a disease resistant rose.

I grow them in Massachusetts.

No spray? How are they?

I'm not sure I've ever seen one in person.

I apologize for taking so long to get back to this thread. I kinda forgot and life has been eventful the past 2 days.

Anyway, I will look at the roses you mention.

The Ping roses are something I would want to try- one at least if possible- but it is so humid here, Scott in NC is closest if he is not in the mountains- and that makes a huge difference.
I have looked at Home Run for the past few years but maybe I need to buy one this year. Lowes always has it.

Bumblebee, I'm going to try some too. I'm in Charlotte, so not in the mountains, and plenty hot and humid here. The blackspot here is just about as bad as back home in FL.

Scott

I became aware of Ping's roses because of a beautiful ARS magazine cover which showed his creation "Survivor" on the cover Sept/Oct 2010 issue. The blurb about the cover rose inside the magazine reads "Pink flower power is the reason this rose stops you in your tracks. Wonderful, full blooms of 3.5" on an upright bush is complimented with glossy deep green DISEASE FREE foliage. Tested for more then 8 years in Bailey's trials. Hardiness zone: 5-9. I personally can't tell you how it will do in any specific area, but it certainly sounded promising to me with an 8 year trial behind it.

Great comments about Easy Elegance Roses! I have several varieties in my yard in Minnesota and they are rock stars, just like Ping! You can learn more about them and see pictures of all the varieties at EasyEleganceRoses.com.

Here is a link that might be useful: Easy Elegance Roses

Polyanthas, Chinas, Hybrid Musks, Noisettes, Teas, some Bourbons, most Buck roses and some older hybrid tea varieties all do well in the South. These are much cheaper and time tested favorites that will often give much better results than some of the new shrub roses. That said I like most of my Knockouts and they bloom for nine months here in Baton Rouge.

While some Buck roses are black spot resistant many are not. Mr. Buck's primary goal in his breeding program was for cold hardy roses, with disease resistance a secondary consideration. No doubt he has some lovely roses, but if you fall in love with one it might be wise to check this forum for experience with resistance to B.S. since that seems to be of primary importance to you.

Bumblebeez, check out the EarthKind program out of Texas A&M...many disease resistant roses that should do well in your garden. I agree with what's been said about the EasyElegance and Buck roses here. So far, the 4 or 5 EasyElegance roses I have are living up to expectations

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Musings blog on Carefree Beauty, an EarthKind rose

Professor, I have Carefree Beauty and while the rose form and fragrance is lovely, it only has one major spring flush and has bs all season. It does rebloom some but nothing like the knockouts.

Cinco de Mayo was absolutely perfectly clean here for me until it got Rose Rosette Disease. And I loved its fragrance. Not strong, but noticeable. I never had any problems putting it into a vase with other colors or looking at its color in the landscape with other roses either. A really easy rose to grow. Only negative I know of: thorns. Probably average or above average in thorniness, not below average for sure.

Ours started out as the tiniest rose imaginable, and I wondered if something must be wrong with it to be so small in a gallon sized pot (think maybe 3" high!). The first several weeks it grew nicely, but it was so compact starting out that it was still a tiny, tiny plant. Then after a month or so, it began growing in a noticeable way. Within maybe 3-4 months it was at least 3 feet tall and nice and bushy. The colors of the new leaves were different--very attractively colored and edged to accent the flowers, and very nice in the landscape overall, even without any blooms. Cinco De Mayo is a party rose. But even if you're not going to a party, it puts you into a party mood. Great rose!

Another rose that stayed really very clean, surprisingly clean, here in considerably less than ideal circumstances was the soft pink rose Mortimer Sackler, with its beautiful delicate-looking flower that looked in our yard exactly like its pictures on the David Austin website. I wouldn't figure on counting heavily on it for huge amounts of shade tolerance, but planted here in far too much shade it bloomed some and still didn't get any noticeable amount of blackspot. I never saw any thorns at all on Mortimer Sackler, and it also did have some nice fragrance. I liked the foliage on that one too.

Best wishes,
Mary

Here is a link that might be useful: Cinco De Mayo

Another group of roses that you might want to check out are the ADR roses. ADR is a testing & certification program run by the German rose hybridizers to identify roses with good disease resistance. I have a few of them & so far they seem to perform well. Palatines has a number of Kordes ADR roses for sale--link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Palatine

Does anyone have information about Kordes Vigorosa or Fairy Tale roses? Also, Martha Stewart likes Generosa roses.

I love my knockout roses, but I believe they have Rose Rosette! Everything that I've read says that the disease does not affect other plants, but it will contaminate any kind of rose bush. Any kind, so I need a non-rose substitute. Any suggestions?

Caroline, a new thread would help. What makes you think your Knock Outs have RRV?

I'm sorry! I thought this thread was alternatives to knockout roses. In any case, the new blooms die before they fully open. And the plants are forming witches brooms with red leaves. They stick out from the rest of the bush. I also noticed some misshaped leaves earlier this spring. Also, new buds are scarce.

Carefree Wonder is a pretty rose and repeats well here in my northern garden, so is the Carefree Beauty. Carpet Roses repeat well for landscaping too, I have them sitting in front of KOs, they bloom on different times, take turns on filling garden with colors. I also Mary Roses in the KO garden (in the back), to display some lovely pink in a pretty good speed. Also Polar Joy rose trees repeat fast to give garden some tiers with a better view. Fairy rose repeats fast too. If you are looking for fast repeat colors to fill your garden, these are the speedy colors I know. This year I ordered 8 Julia Child for their bright yellow, I don't know how fast they can repeat though.

I have had about six Easy Elegance roses and haven't had a lot of luck with them. They were beautiful for a year and then slowly died off. I have one that is great, but that's it. Perhaps it is the area-I'm just Northwest of Chicago and our winters have been absolutely awful lately. Don't get me started!!! But these roses are guaranteed for two years and I did get the full refund on two of them.

Carefree Beauty has been wonderful for me. I've had a row of them for many, many years, never had any kind of disease, and I don't even bother fertilizing them most of the time. I get a ton of compliments on them It's a job keeping them low enough and I do get tired of cutting off so many faded roses. But they are just so easy and bloom constantly.

I have all China, Tea, and Noisette roses along with one KO. All of them are just as healthy as the KO. I also have a few HTs for cut flowers for the house, and every single one of them has to be sprayed.

Rose of Sharon bushes and also Hydrangea bushes are an Oklahoma tolerant spring to frost all season bloomers for color.