Hi, Lushgardener!
I guess maybe it would help if you gave us color(s) preferences....
I perused the J&P site to see if I could be of any help from my northern climate....let's see:

The ones my husband and I have, and LOVE, are:

Tuscan Sun
Disneyland GLOWS w/ oranges and hot pinks (more than J&P photo shows)
Heaven on Earth

They might all grow a little taller for you than they do for us (since your zone is a little warmer than ours/we have to prune our roses down to about 6-9 inches each April to remove winter damage).

I have heard nothing but GREAT reviews about Our Lady of Guadalupe....light pink floribunda we have always wanted, but never gotten.

You also might consider some of David Austin roses on their site...we have Abraham Darby, Golden Celebration and Falstaff - kind of tall shrubs)...but I've always wanted Crown Princess Margareta and Jubilee Celebration myself.

If you go to helpmefind.com and click on search for roses, you will find links to many photos of potential roses and info.

I know others will chime in soon! Have fun!
:0) Phyl

Oh my gosh (Rob)! I have been perusing your gardening website on and off for information/photos for several years now! I hope everyone goes to your page and clicks on the link-thank you so much (Rob) for providing such a great source of info on your gardens/plants. They are gorgeous and inspirational!! :0) Phyl

I actually think that all floribundas from J&P will require spraying in PA, as well as 99% Austins. Do you insist on repeat bloom or 4-6 weeks of spectacular flush will work. If you are open to once bloomers there are thousands of choices of healthy fragrant roses for PA with great rose presence. All youhave to do in this case is to post on antique rose forum and ask your question. If you require repeat, you choices will be limited in my opinion.
The following can qualify for no spray in your garden:
Westerland
Autumn Sunset
The Mayflower
Aloha
Darlow's Enigma
Earth Song
Crefree Sunshine
Knock Outs

Olga

Olga

Olga's suggestion of Autumn Sunset and Westerland-- oh yes! The blooms are striking & very fragrant too. The Buck rose Quietness has very full, old-fashioned pink blooms and blooms like crazy; her pale pink would echo your New Dawn. Check out Lyda Rose, whcih produces large sprays of bloom-- And Dublin Bay would be beautiful--deep red. Oh dear me, I don't know if any of these is in the J&P catalog (they don't exactly specialize in shrub/landscape/easy roses) but all of these are easy to grow & showy.

Eglantyne and Sharifa Asma are two Austin roses with heavenly fragrance. They repeat well, and have good winter hardiness.

The new Austin rose Bishop's Castle, sold by J & P, is relatively new to my garden, planted last spring. It grew and bloomed well, the fragrance is wonderful.

The following pics are of Eglantyne and Sharifa Asma.

Eglantyne

{{gwi:217749}}

Sharifa Asma

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My understanding is that both Sharifa Asma and Eglantune will require spraying in PA. At least here they can't be grown no spray if you want to see leaves too :(
Olga

What comes to mind for me is Robusta. It has brilliant single red flowers with deep yellow stamens. It makes all those sickly pink, forever pink roses are, look pale by comparison. And it blooms all the time.

However, it needs pruning to keep it from becoming lanky and it is really thorny.

Jim, come on. You know Robusta is not for Mid Atlantic. It is notoriously BS prone. By the way I love Kordes roses :), but the older ones are really not reistant, sorry.
Olga

Thanks for all the suggestions! Yes, I was disappointed as well that J&P is so strongly tilted towards the hybrid teas; you guys are inspiring me to go look for a second source (but I'll still need to order at least one from J&P!). So even the ones from J&P that are listed as having "excellent disease resistance" (and other similar claims) such as Tuscan Sun, Black Cherry, Moondance, Heaven on Earth, and Enchanted Evening are questionable in my climate? How important is the "own-root rose" status?
I'll be looking up those recommendations when I have a spare hour or so!
Cheers,
Rob

J&P "excellent disease resistance" means resistance to Powder Mildew and rust, which are major problems in CA. PA as well as most of East Coast mostly suffer from Black Spot. So J&P claim on resistance means zero here.
Olga

If J&P still carries a rugosa called Wild Spice, that one is worth getting. It's a single, but a very large, very nice single. It's probably the only rose that's showed up in the J&P catalog for 20 years that has tempted me.

Own-root vs grafted is only a big deal for the roses that need the extra vigor a rootstock provides to grow at all acceptably. If you are having trouble getting HTs to grow, well imagine if they were about half as vigorous as they are. So when in doubt, get them grafted.

In general, the good sources are Canadian. For years , the standard was Pickering. Recently Palatine has started exporting to the U.S., and many people have good things to say about them. Both of them are warmer than you might expect, being close to Lake Ontario. Palatine is probably warmer than you are, but close. Pickering may be about the same. They are both noticably warmer than where I am.

Most of the own-root nurseries are in the south. They do not necessarily sell roses that are any good in a cold climate, and they ship small plants because they require a certain amount of heavy dirt to go along for the ride. Getting those plants up to size can be an adventure, to say the least, and the shipping can be vicious.

Rob, if you need a white, try Bolero. It blooms a lot. I'm not sure for your zone but I've been enabled into Borderer for spring from two folks here. Color preferences would be great. I also enjoyed your homepage and look forward to seeing what you grow there. Harry and Zeffy need to stop by here.

Carla

Get what you like and try it. The only way to know what will really be healthy in your garden is to try it and see. It will depend on what you want and what you're willing to live with. In my organic, sprayed only sporadically, garden, I have roses that I adore so I keep them even though they don't always look perfect. That's my choice because I love some of the HTsand others but don't want to use chemical warfare to keep them pristine.

That said, I love Disneyland Rose. It did get a smattering of BS but not much and didn't defoliate. It blooms nearly continuously and it will definitely make a statement. Tuscan Sun, although beautiful, tends to be lanky for me. It never bushes out much. If you like Austin's try one and see. I have Golden Celebration and Graham Thomas and both do fairly well here. The fragrance on both is wonderful. GC does BS more than GT does. Some of the other suggestions of Buck or Kordes roses are good too. Look at Brownell roses also. A lot of his roses have more of that HT look to them. But be careful, not all of any of these groups of roses are winter hardy or disease resistant in your zone. While your at it check out some Polyantha class roses. Most have lots of repeat bloom power on fairly compact bushes. But there are some house eaters too.

As far as own roots go, they may take a little longer to mature but are more likely to be winter hardy for you. And speaking of maturing, don't judge any rose on it's first years performance. Give them a least three years to get established before you decide to shovel prune them.

There are so many gorgeous roses out there to choose from. I think the suggestion to go spend some time at Help Me Find Roses is your best bet. They also give sources to buy from too. You could also contact a Consulting Rosarian for your area through the American Rose Society web site for local advice. Have fun, it's not rocket science!

If you are absolutely adverse to spraying any fungicides at all then many many roses (even the much touted OGR's)will suffer some damage. It's just how much damage you are willing to tolerate. However, the Earth Kind roses are above average in disease resistance and may look good even in a "no spray" garden. You might want to look at that list first. Belinda's Dream is one that I like in particular. As for Tuscan Sun. It is very striking, even as the blooms fade they go to a lovely pearly pink color that blends well with the color of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our Lady has been the more disease resistant of the two (B.S. anyway) for me but I do spray on a fairly regular basis.

Olga

Checked out your page and didn't see where in 6b you lived. Also in a quick scan of the roses you grow I didn't see many Kordes roses. So where does that statement about older Kordes roses being bad for BS resistance come from? Really now my experience is they are as good as any of the others I grow and in some cases like Eutin completely free of BS. Others as well.

Jim, Olga gives away blackspot prone roses every year. Her page is not up-to-date either  she gave away a few of those listed because they were not black spot resistant. She tried so many roses that they just could not be mentioned in a short summary. She turned to once-bloomers partly because of their disease resistance partly because she has absolutely horrible Japanese beetle infestation that destroyed the blooms and foliage of her repeat blooming roses every year. If you follow her posts you will be able to judge that for yourself. In addition she likes fragrant roses...

Blackspot strains and bs resistance are very local. I keep being surprised when someone suggests Disneyland as disease resistant. Even Pete41 was complaining about Disneyland being highly susceptible to bs in Florida.

Lushgardener, check out Palatine roses  they offer a lot of roses that earned an ADR certificate that is awarded to roses that are very disease resistant in Europe. I do hope that it will translate to disease resistance in the US as well. I was pleased with Floral Fairy tale and Laguna in their first year but one needs more time to evaluate a rose as truly disease resistant.

I would recommend you a Harkness rose to try that also have ADR certificate and also proven to be quite healthy even in my horrid coastal climate. This rose is called Compassion and it is a climber but I grow it as a tall shrub. The flowers are very fragrant and HT types so your wife will be happy with this rose, too.

As to own root or grafted, go with Mad GallicaÂs advice  get roses that are grafted preferably on multiflora rootstock.

Jim, I am in MD. My list wasn't updated for long time, I have to check what I still have there. This list is just a snapshot. I do try new roses (new for me) each year trying to find the best roses for my climate. A have approx 150 roses and every year I take away approx 15-20 and add the same amount of new ones. This gave me an opportunity to try a lot of different roses over my long rose addiction life. I grow rose for more then 30 years. I do have experience with the following Kordes roses: Lavender lassie, Sunsprite, Robusta, Raubritter, Westerland, Autumn Sunset, Alchymist, Antike 89, Liebeszauber, Iceberg,Fruhlings seria roses, Illusion, Dortmund and Laverkusen. Probably some others too, but can't remember now. This year I am adding Laguna, Floral Fairy Tale and Aloha (new one). Sad to say, but with the exception of Illusion, which is quite healthy and Lavender Lassie which is not healthy but has wonderful fragrance, all others left my garden after 4-5 years. I also keep Alchymist, which is not healthy but the blooms are unique and Liebeszauber which also needs spraying but has still good vigor and better healty then majority of HT.
The main reason why most of these roses left my garden was BS. I know about the new introductions and new Kordes nursery aims for resistance. I am all for it and I am trying his new introductions, but older Kordes roses are not resitant here. Our climates are very different, so I don't doubt they do well for you, but this is not the case here. Original poster is from PA, so I think we have similar climate. I didn't want to upset you by any means, I admire your dedication to Kordes roses.
I know several people who tried Robusta in our climate and believe me it is a disaster here.
Olga

Jim, I am in MD. My list wasn't updated for long time, I have to check what I still have there. This list is just a snapshot. I do try new roses (new for me) each year trying to find the best roses for my climate. A have approx 150 roses and every year I take away approx 15-20 and add the same amount of new ones. This gave me an opportunity to try a lot of different roses over my long rose addiction life. I grow rose for more then 30 years. I do have experience with the following Kordes roses: Lavender lassie, Sunsprite, Robusta, Raubritter, Westerland, Autumn Sunset, Alchymist, Antike 89, Liebeszauber, Iceberg,Fruhlings seria roses, Illusion, Dortmund and Laverkusen. Probably some others too, but can't remember now. This year I am adding Laguna, Floral Fairy Tale and Aloha (new one). Sad to say, but with the exception of Illusion, which is quite healthy and Lavender Lassie which is not healthy but has wonderful fragrance, all others left my garden after 4-5 years. I also keep Alchymist, which is not healthy but the blooms are unique and Liebeszauber which also needs spraying but has still good vigor and better healty then majority of HT.
The main reason why most of these roses left my garden was BS. I know about the new introductions and new Kordes nursery aims for resistance. I am all for it and I am trying his new introductions, but older Kordes roses are not resitant here. Our climates are very different, so I don't doubt they do well for you, but this is not the case here. Original poster is from PA, so I think we have similar climate. I didn't want to upset you by any means, I admire your dedication to Kordes roses.
I know several people who tried Robusta in our climate and believe me it is a disaster here.
I will update my list soon.
Olga

Olga

I'm not upset well a little having my favorite roses tarred with the BS brush.Obviously MD is not BS heaven and apparently neither is Sparrieshoop, where K is now located?, anyway somehwhere nearby in Holstein.

I admit to having BS on Robusta but it is so brilliant in flower I sort of forgot about that. Another rose that is free of BS here maybe there too is Rosarium Uetersen not as brilliant as R but still quite colorful and a wonderful shape.

Hi Rob,
Nice to see you on this forum.
In my garden the absolutely disease-free roses without spraying are Knock Out (your wife may like Double Knock Out better which J&P carries), Carefree Beauty (shrub), Carefree Wonder (shrub), Laguna (climber), Sunset Celebration (Hybrid Tea), Hot Cocoa, and Golden Zest (shrub, from J&P btw).
Palantine is a good place to buy roses, they are also very helpful if you need advice with choosing disease-resistant roses.

I got went a little nuts last season and made a rather large (for me - 8 bushes, 2 tree-forms) order from J&P and 2 particularly stood out as disease-resistant and striking - Black Cherry (BC) and Citrus Splash (CS). The foliage on both is very shiny, practically polished, on both and I find that type of rose to be most resistant to BS in my garden.

The flowers on BC were perfectly shaped and the color was very rich. It reminded me of a dwarf Black Magic - maybe it will be taller this year!

My husband was convinced he would hate CS - doesn't like stripy flowers (yes, I married him anyway!). It was his favorite of the new roses! The foliage is very dark and keeps the reddish hue even when it's full grown - the contrast with those sunny, colorful flowers was amazing! For a first-year plant, I was very impressed - it was constantly in flower and got almost 5 feet tall!

Just my $.02!
KCC

Thanks again for all your suggestions. Based on the helpful feedback here, I've selected three roses (Black Cherry, Citrus Splash, and Pink Knockout) from J&P - and I'll probably check out some of the other recommended suppliers as well.
Cheers,
Rob

I guess Im too late but I agree that all David Austins, HTs, and floribundas will require spraying. I grew about 300 roses when I lived in PA. The ones that didnt require spraying THAT repeated would include a few Kordes roses like Illusion (grows bigger than Westerland and Rosarium Uetersen), Westerland, Rosarium Uetersen. There isnt anything in the J & P catalog that wouldnt require spraying unless its Knockout and its progeny.

Westerland did look very tempting - but it was sold out at the few online suppliers I consulted. I'll look again later :-)