Personally, I think that the Fall flush in my gardens are the best times for my roses. I don't know why exactly, but I think that the roses bloom more and the form and fragrance is stronger starting in about September or maybe as early as the last week or two of August. It just depends on when the "dog days" of summer are over. Then the roses all look their best in my humble opinion.
So, don't give up on them??
I see you are in Missouri as am I. I live in St.Joseph in Northwest Missouri.
Where are you at?

Hybrid teas and floribundas suffer so much winter damage in zone 5 that the first flush is the weakest. If you want a big spring flush, you have to plant roses that are cane-hardy in your climate. There are lots of these, but you may not find them at the garden center. A hardy rose may give you, say, a 4 x 4 shrub with more flowers in spring than a HT will give you all year. Just because a rose is listed as hardy for a zone doesn't mean that it is cane-hardy.

If you have cane sections that are not supporting strong growth and flower buds, they are winter-damaged and should be pruned down. Often HTs need to be pruned to the ground in spring.

Jon,

I'm in Lee's Summit, a suburb of Kansas City on the southeast side.

Deanna

Michaelg said it correctly. When giving a rose program I tell people to grow the correct roses for our growing zone to get the best results.
While my few hybrid teas are budding, the bush size is small with few buds. In the fall when the bush is larger, I get larger blooms and more of them likw michaelg says.
My hardy shrubs are filled with buds and will produce the best flush of the season.
The rugosas will bloom sporatically all season but are in their best bloom now.

I do think this has been a bad year in our zone. My spring flush is usually much more robust than it is this year.

Are you feeding? Roses are heavy feeders and will pay back good care (ahem, a most of the time). I am not big on chemicals but I give a big feed of organic fertilizer (Rosetone/Plantone) and alfalfa in early spring, when stuff just starts to bud leaves, and another when the new leaves are going like mad. Mine are due for another feed, but my spring flush was outstanding. Too bad everything is drowning from the monsoon in Maryland "wahhhhh"

I should add that this year most of my roses have matured having been in the ground for three years or more. You say, other than the knockouts, your roses were planted last year.
The says goes; The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap. Your's being only in their second year are gaining strength and should produce a good spring flush next year. They're still babies, they take time to get to the point where they really produce blooms. As I said in my previous post, Buy hardy shrub varieties that will survive winter well in your zone and you'll be rewarded with lots of flowers.

I'm not sure what hardy shrub varieties you're referring to. Do you mean like Knockouts? How would I find out what hardy shrubs are good in my zone?

Some of these roses are planted behind other perennials because HMF said they would get 3-4-5 feet high and wide. I'm starting to wonder.......but before I go moving them, you think I should wait a few years and see how big they end up getting? I'm a single mom, and I'm not inclined to go to the trouble of winter protection. Just don't have time to mess around with that.

Deanna

They won't grow too much from year to year. They grow from April to October and then have to be cut back for winter damage. As Karl says, next year should be better than this year, because (if they do well this summer) they will have gained underground mass and will have more energy to grow out with next spring. Taller varieties can reach 5' by late in the season. You can count on 3'.

To maximize growth, keep them free of blackspot disease and just pop off the spent blooms (don't waste any leaves). Don't cut any long-stemmed roses during the spring flush, or until they get as big as you want them to be.

To learn about hardy roses, start a thread on "cane-hardy shrubs for Midwest z. 5." If there is a size requirement or a type of flower you strongly prefer, say that. Also whether or not you are willing to spray fungicide. You can then check out the pictures and list of vendors at HelpMeFind.com. You will probably end up using mail order, as the garden centers stock mostly roses best suited to California.

Aha!

Others closer to you can give a MUCH broader range of roses, but first without boring you... hybrid teas were bred from crosses of hybrid perpetuals (much hardier roses) with the tea class (not very hardy roses), this was combine a # of traits , smaller shrubs with repeat ablity (somewhat a generalization, but Im not going into anything further here. The result was a wide range of colors and attributes the breeders wanted, but with alot less hardiness than desired for zone 5 america. The problem with alot of these roses, is nuseries that push them... Some of them will exist for years, but my experience is most of them will peter out within 5 years or so. I know a few garderners that just replace them, every 3-4 years. But that again would be a personal choice.

Your best bet, is not to purchase roses from either local nurseries (most local nuseries are pushing the wrong roses)or big box stores.

There are a # of great online vendors, my favorite is pickering nuseries.. but chamblees carries a # of the bucks and you can still order from them i think, pickering is done untill fall now.

You should look for some buck roses (hybridized by the late griffith buck , he tried to make hardier shrubs for mid west zone 5, they probable will work great for you there, alot of them do not work for me but Im in a totally different area of the country,

There are also a # of David Austin roses that you can grown, try starting with mary rose or mayflower its a nice starter rose for alot of poeple, not all austins will be hardy, depending on thier background genitics , but alot are.

There are a # of shrub type roses hybridized by kordes and others... much hardier than a typical hybrid tea. Im sure someone in your area can weigh in on this.

There is also explorer and parkland canadian hybrid roses. Alot would be hardy to the tips.

Eventually you might branch out into some old garden roses, alot of them are lovely , even if once blooming, but trust me when you see a eight to ten foot shrub loaded with 100s of roses, its a sight.

Rogosas are as a class hardy as well, but not really used for cutting, but more of a landscape shrub, most are fragrant to boot.

There are 100s and 100s of roses besides the hybrid tea or floribundas or minis (btw alot of minis you can get cheap, grow as a annual and replace if you want them, I wouldnt count on them to last year to year)

Welcome to the world of roses, education , patience , endurance, and reward are its many steps =).

Rose de Rescht is a good place to start. Hardy, repeat flowering, fragrant. Gets some blackspot but shrugs it off (I don't spray).
Honeysweet is a nice Buck rose. Quietness is very good.
Martine Guillot is a vigorous Generosa rose. Generosa roses are recommended by Martha Stewart.
Austins are a mixed bag. Evelyn is very impressive.
Most Romanticas are not hardy in zone 5. Bolero springs back nicely.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rose de Rescht

No, I don't mean knockouts.
I have over 400 diferent hardy shrub roses and hybrid rugosas. Look under Canadian Explorer roses or Canadian Parkland roses for a start. Besides those there are hundreds of others including some climbers. I have over 30 hardy climbers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Canadian roses website

Karl, I love that quote: The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap.

A great descriptor of our beloved startup hybrids...

GardenFanatic, I live way down south of you 126th and Antioch, but 3x a week I travel all the way to Lee's Summit at 291 Independence exit (26 miles away) to train my Border Collie for dog agility competitions... I always pass up Heartland Nursery along the way but have never visited it yet... do you "shop" there? how is the selection of roses?

Thanks everyone for your help. I'll give them a few years, and any I'm unhappy with, I'll replace with hardy shrub roses. I looked up shrub roses in my Heirloom catalog, and there are lots of pretty ones!

Serenasyh, I highly recommend Heartland for just about everything gardening! They have a huge selection of annuals, perennials, shrubs, tropicals, and roses, and their plants are very healthy. The staff is very nice and helpful as well. They do have a huge selection of roses, but I recommend buying early. They're placed pretty close together on the shelves, and tend to get blackspotted later on in the season. I'm posting a link to their rose list.

Here is a link that might be useful: Heartland Nursery Roses