Kate -- How about a graceful, mildew/rust-resistant Tea, such as 'Mons. Tillier', 'Mlle. de Sombreuil', or 'Niles Cochet'?

OR a Polyantha, such as 'White Pet', or 'Lady Ann Kidwell', or 'Perle d'Or'?

OR a cluster-flowering Noisette, such as 'Blush Noisette'???
OR a modern Climber, such as 'Fourth Of July'?
OR a modern Floribunda such as 'Scentimental'?

Jeri

Jerijen,
Have you found Fourth of July to be disease resistant? Mine blackspots relatively easily. It also has a malignant soul and attacks me with sharp thorns and inflexible canes whenever I come within ten feet of it. I would get rid of it but it is a lot bigger than me and I am a little afraid of making it angry.

It sounds like the new grower might be looking for something more like a hybrid tea rose.

I'm open to that. Would that be easier for her? To keep it pretty and healthy I mean?

Thank you.

Kate

Kate, I'm not sure if you are answering my post or Jeri's. My thought was if she doesn't want Knock Out, maybe she wants a rose that looks more like a florist rose. Some of the Buck roses have good resistance to blackspot, but I don't know about rose rust and other West Coast problems. These include Earth Song, Prairie Harvest, Quietness, and Griff's Red. I've heard that Tournament of Roses and Savoy Hotel can be no-spray roses in the PNW, but they are not as resistant as the best Buck roses here. They would be locally available in your area. The Buck roses are harder to find. The ones I mentioned can be ordered from Roses Unlimited for delivery in April.

Jerijen,
Have you found Fourth of July to be disease resistant? *** I am a little afraid of making it angry.

*** OH TOO FUNNY!
Yes, it is very disease resistant here. Completely disease-free. Of course, it was bred in the West, and you understand, blackspot's not an issue here.

I would GUESS that powdery mildew would be a bigger disease threat in the PNW than blackspot. I know I don't hear a lot about blackspot from friends in that area.

We are back to that old bugaboo -- What is good in one area is poor in another.
The only person we can logically give dependable advice to is the guy next door.

Jeri

Michael and Jeri:

Thank you both for your thoughts. I will check out your suggestions. My main challenge as far as geography goes is that she is up there in Portland and I'm down here in Quincy, CA. We have dry heat here, virtually no rain in the summer whereas when I was up at her place last weekend I could not believe the humidity. Maybe I'll be bold and just show up with a pink and red knockout for her. Plant them and if after a season she doesn't love them she can shovel prune to her hearts content! Maybe someone from that area will give us some thoughts also.

Thanks again.

Kate

I second the suggestion for you to check into the Buck roses.

Buck roses have been specifically bred to be disease (that's blackspot) resistant.

Carefree Beauty is probably the most well-known of these, but there are dozens of Buck roses to choose from.

Here's a photo of the Carefree Beauty in my garden.

{{gwi:306027}}

I think that I'm going to get Quietness for next year.

{{gwi:306028}}

See the link below for where you can buy these roses.

Also check out the Earthkind roses which have been determined to be quite disease-resistant, as well.

I ordered and received some very nice roses from Chamblee last year ... these are also disease-resistant ...

Carefree Wonder

{{gwi:306029}}

Grus an Aachen

{{gwi:306030}}

Pink Grus an Aachen

{{gwi:306031}}

Eglantyne

{{gwi:279710}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Buck Roses source - Chamblee Roses

Aegis:

Well thank you kindly! Those are truly lovely. What a wealth of information, thank you. I will indeed follow your link and do some reading about Earthkind roses. I thought of your several excellent photos that the last one 'Eglantyne' was the most stunning. My SIL would really like those also. She is very girly and would like roses with such delicate colors.

Checking out your link now. Thank you everyone for giving me much to think about.

Kate

I seem to remember reading from several GW forumers that Austins do very well in PNW.

Well last night I started following links and checking the roses you all suggested and I found some new roses for myself! Of course. I'm thinking now that I might get her gift certificates for Chamblee Roses and David Austin and print out this thread to accompany it. I wondered also if someone writes rose books that are geographically specific as a reference.

I fell in love with the rose 'Peace' last night as well as Aegis's suggestion 'Egalantyne'. On that note I need to start prepping a new rose bed for next year.

Kate

I am a new, easy care rose grower in a BS heaven. The Buck roses are fantastic. Frederic mistral is doing really well too, but with not as many blooms and more HT than the Buck roses. FM is has excellent form and frangrance and no BS. But, for a show, the Buck roses just don't stop blooming. It's best to choose by color and form, since they should all do well.

Have you considered Double Knock Out? I've never grown any of the single Knock Outs but I have several Double Knock Outs that are in their 3rd season. This variety is as carefree as an evergreen bush. That is no exaggeration. I have almost no winter die back at all on any of them in zone 5. I would call their grow habit almost delicate. The bushes are only 3 ft tall and not dense. They get absolutely NO black spot. I have a very bad bs problem if I don't spray so that tells me the DKO's are truly bs resistant. (I never spray the DKO's.) The blooms are very pretty - about 2 inches or so but very nice. The color is eye popping cherry red. The Pink Double Knockout is a vibrant "bubble gum" pink which I like very much. They are good bloomers. I feed them Once by J&P in the spring. (I really like that rose food. My roses have been doing very well since I started using it). It doesn't get any easier than that and your sister-in-law will have lots of great color.

Celtic_rose:

Yes, Knockouts are great. As I mention in my initial post she probably would not be fond of them. I'm still willing to try and push one off on her by just showing up and planting a KO but that's a last resort. I know they are great though, we have three growing in our yard and plans for more.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Kate

aegis500 - Buck roses were NOT bred to be blackspot resistant. They were bred to survive the humid summers and windy winters of Iowa. As a result of their hardiness, SOME of them have the happy side effect of also being disease-resistant, but many of the blackspot as happily as any other rose. In Michigan and in NYC, the roses that seem to be more resistant to BS are Carefree Beauty, Prairie Harvest and Prairie Sunrise. However, something like Distant Drums or Aunt Honey will blackspot freely. And Serendipity will also blackspot but it blooms so often that it is worth keeping anyway.

Kate - in Portland OR you will have different conditions, so I would look for roses that do well there. Heirloom Roses is located in Oregon, but beware of their claims of disease-resistance. So far the only one that is really disease resistant is Morning has Broken.

The Chamblees Earthkind roses are pretty reliable. Many are also fragrant. Mons Tillier is almost completely disease free for me in NY, but it gets really big - 8 feet tall and wide.

Many of the other older tea roses are also fairly resistant, but select carefully. If it grows in your area, try Safrano or its sport, the pale yellow Isabella Sprunt. The hybrid teas are a totally different story in that most of them are not particularly resistant.

You might want to try Double Knockout. And how can anyone not like Blush Knockout? And so far Ramblin Red has been disease resistant - but it's a climber.

Also almost entirely disease free is Phyllis Bide, but it only blooms once for all practical purposes. Marie Pavie is much much smaller and has no disease for me.

Again, those are only recommendations from the East Coast. Good luck!

Kate,

Most of the new roses (introduced on the market in the last 15 years) grow well in Portland, Oregon. This year I do not have any BS problems (have over 30 different roses), except two roses that were stressed during the short dry periods.

As long as the roses get enogh water, especially new roses untill they develop their root system, they grow well here.

The problem I have is that the roses grow too high. Many of the roses grow 5-6-7 feet high.

I prefer smaler roses, like Disneyland which in my favorite this year. Other roses that do exceptionally well in my garden are Nicole, Chihuly, Julia Child, Rainbow Sorbet and Crimson Bouquet (as you see I favor red-yellow roses).

I would ask her what color she likes, or even ask her to chose a rose from a catalog, and then I would make sure they are planted in proper soil and get enough water.

Marek

As a rosarian with a preference for hybrid teas, I will suggest a few that I have found to be newbie friendly in my book.
Royal William--nice dark red with good disease resistance.
Bride's Dream--good light pink.
Dublin--Good medium red--thorny though.
Gold Medal--Nice yellow blend that stays healthy for me.
Octoberfest--good orange/yellow blend.
Pope John Paul II--new white that has really impressed so far.
Paradise--has been a really good mauve for me.
Marilyn Monroe--has been very good for me but I hear reports it is prone to rust on the coast, so check that out.
Pop Warner--Very vigorous white/pink center w/good health.
Lisa Maree--Good pink from Wisconsin Roses. Blooms a ton!!
Honey Dijon--Novel color and for me a very good rose where fungal resistance is an issue.
DayBreaker, Shiela's Perfume, and Hot Cocoa-Couple of floribundas that I don't think that anyone would go astray trying in their garden.
Just my opinions and experiences...
John

Fir an easy and mannerly climber but can be grown as a big shrub with very good blackspot resistance I would recommend Compassion It is very fragrant blooms changing from pink to apricot and shows other hues, too.

Looks like that the new Kordes roses live up to their claim, they are very disease resistant even in this humid inferno; Portland has far better growing conditions than we have in the southeastern coastal region. My favorite so far is Floral Fairytale. Blooms a lot, blooms are large, resemble to old roses with their packed petals. Floral Fairy Tale has far better foliage than Knockout; the flowers are apricot to cream and have pink hue in cold weather. It is a stunning rose.
Caramella has the same attributes, healthy, blooms well; maybe the flowers shatter to soon.
Laguna and Cinderella Fairy tale are also free of blackspot. I missed their first flush and now I find in this terrible drought that the blooms of these two are small; I am hoping that they will be bigger next year or by fall - provided we get some rain.
None of these roses were sprayed once.

Thank you everyone, extremely helpful!

Marek it was nice of you to weigh in since you live so near to her. You have all given me some great roses to go through. You know until Marek suggested it I never thought to ask her what colors she liked. That would really narrow down the decision making process.

Much appreciated. Now I must go read about roses once more:-)

Kate

If you all will humor me on this I have a little more I am getting ready to buy either the rose or gift certificate for my sister in law for Christmas. After soliciting my brother to do a little gentle investigating for me I found out that my SIL's name unknown red rose currently in the yard is overdue for shovel pruning. It has terrible blackspot, total defoliation and it died back a lot over last winter.

Anyway so she wants a new red. Maybe two. I really would like to avoid KO's for her still. She loves a traditional looking rose.

Just need now to work out what nice healthy red will enjoy the warm, humid summers of Portland. Any additional thoughts are appreciated. Just to reiterate she does spray but the rose I get for her needs to be a tough customer to begin with. My SIL's health is a bit better than when I initially started this post but she can't work very long or hard in the garden. Need to keep it simple.

Thank you.

Kate

Marek:

I just reviewed your suggestions (and all the other great ones above) and Crimson Bouquet might fit the bill very nicely. Furthermore she lives close enough to St. Paul, Oregon where Heirloom is that they could go on a fun outing this spring to the nursery to get it.

Thanks.

Kate

I put a link below to a replacement/upgrade for her red hybrid tea -- pretty, healthy, fragrant ... click on the photos tab for more pictures:

Here is a link that might be useful: Firefighter

Although I've never lived in California, therefore having no experience with your area, I'm still under the impression that hybrid teas will still need to be sprayed for disease on a regular basis.

Knockouts are fairly disease resistant, but I haven't found them immune to insect or disease issues all of the time. There are times here when they can look pretty ugly if not sprayed. You may also want to keep in mind that the thorns on them are extremely nasty, so they are not very much fun to groom.

I think Jeri has some great suggestions, and has experience in your state. You can't go wrong with many of the heritage (antique) roses. The Buck roses would also be another good place to start, and Roses Unlimited carries a nice selection of modern shrub roses that are both beautiful and disease resistant.

Sandy

Jeri, the west coast is not all the same all over. You may not have blackspot problems in your area but a lot of gardeners from Oregon and Washington state did and do report serious blackspot problems.

Kate, I do support your wish (or your SIL Âs wish) to stay away from Knockouts for various reasons.

Did you check out Lynette's website and check on her experience with hybrid teas? She is in British Columbia so her climate might be (but not necessarily) similar to Oregon. In any case she does add comments to her photos about blackspot and which roses are 'good beginners roses' in her opinion.

Maybe a gift certificate to Pickering or Palatine is a better idea in case her soil is acidic and would give you (that is, to her) more for the same amount of money. Grafted roses will grow much faster and will give her pleasure already in the first year. Pickering has old roses, Chinas, Bourbons and a lot of moderns, some of them marked as disease resistant.

As to for reds, I could recommend Papa Meilland, Royal William (aka Duftzauber aka Fragrant Charm) and Barkarole (if you can find it). Many people on the forum praise Firefighter but I do not grow that one.

Prospero and The Prince are pretty good among the Austins and WS2000 also, if she is willing to spray a little bit.

I have an own root Sophie's rose from Chamblee's after one year now it starts dong well but own root Austins are slow to establish in my experience.
(I ordered, among others, Tradescant from Pickering- I do hope I will not regret it.)

It is great to shop roses as a present but also a big headache, so I wish good luck to you. On the other hand, Portland is the rose capital of the US, so this must say something.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lynette's website

Kate, I'm in New Orleans but grew up in Olympia, WA, just a stone's throw north of Portland, and started growing roses there. We definitely had blackspot AND powdery mildew in abundance. Rust was an occasional problem but a distant third. What I don't know specifically is how some varieties fare there that came out after I moved away.

I agree with the earlier suggestion that SOME of the Buck roses would do very well. But you should ask about specific ones. Buck didn't make many red roses, but there are a few. Perhaps Grif's Red would do well? Or Queen Bee? Chamblee's nursery, although in Texas, ships all over, has good selection of Bucks (and others), great prices, and are helpful with advice on the phone. I'd give them a call.
An intensely rich red hybrid tea I got from Chamblee's a year ago is Dame de Coeur, which took a few months to grow some, but since then has been a reliable bloomer and absolutely trouble free. grows about 3 feet and bushy. It's one of the favorites at Chamblees, though you'll want to ask them about whether Portland's climate is warm enough for it; I don't know. It loves it here in the humid Gulf Coast.

Another red that is definitely happy in cool climates is Deep Secret. Deep red and intensely fragrant, and beautiful; also short, about 3 feet tall. Very disease resistant for me. You can view it (and buy it for a premium price) at Heirloom Roses' website. I got mine from a little nursery in California, Just Joey's Roses. I think Sequoia also has it (am not sure).

I hope something in my ramble is helpful. Good luck!

Thanks all! I'm glad I asked as now I'm going to have to do some serious thinking and make a decision soon. Looks like you've given me some really fun options.

Petaloid.

Firefighter is a beauty. If she does not get that one I might put it on my list!

Sandy:

Thank you. I actually have some plants ordered for myself from Roses Unlimited for next year. And might go that way for her. If I do it will probably just create a nice excuse to have her roses shipped to me and go plant them for her.

Ceterum:

Thank you for all of that. I have not had a chance to check Lynette's page or all of your suggested roses but I will. Much appreciated.

Mike.

Thanks for taking the time for your 'ramble' which I found very valuable:) I had not heard of Dame de Coeur before. Checked it out on HMF. What a beauty! Wow. Once again my efforts to find a rose for someone else deteriorates into shopping for myself.., So you were happy Mike with Just Joey's roses? That is always a good piece of information. Located up in the mountains as we are finding the roses I like anytime after spring is very challenging. Once the time for mail order has past I'm generlly stuck until the following year unless I can find a nursery within CA that has it. I'll check them out.

Thanks guys. Also wanted to mention that last night my husband suggested Lavaglut. Have read some pretty positive posts on that nice red also.

Kate

Kate, yes I was quite satisfied with Just Joey's, though the plant I received was not nearly as big as Roses Unlimited plants. Still healthy. It is a very small nursery; not a large selection, but they had that one I was looking for. I just checked, and Sequoia Nursery does have both Dame de Coeur and Deep Secret listed. You go to their site and click on the "supplemental" list. Good luck, whichever route you choose!

Thanks Mike.

Kate