I have had great luck w/own roots, getting the bands and potting them up, lots of water and attention, then first winter in a 3' deep ditch covered with leaves and snow, second year into the garden. Last year I tried compressing that, put some 09 bands into the new garden in July - all had arrived in April, been repotted, and had grown from 50% to double by July. We'll see. Re suckers from grafted rootstocks - I don't know what I had - but a grafted Roseraie de l'Haye was swamped by long arching canes of something nearly thornless, with lovely apple blossom type single blooms that were really fragrant. It was a border bed that I had decided to ignore in favor of putting energy and money elsewhere, and so last year it was a Brer Rabbit jungle. But whatever it was,it was really ungainly, clumsy long canes and the young man helping me with landscaping pulled out thewhole mess. You could barely see the Roseraie, in the center of the thicket. I don't find the suckering from own roots a problem - if I want a new plant, I do what Veilchen described. If I don't, i just cut it out. Come on guys, it only has value if we want it to - otherwise, hello compost pile.

Accept advice from those of us living here in California with great caution. We don't have the summer humidity you face. While we do have diseases, our blackspot pressure is much less than yours. Many years I only spray once or twice at pruning time, and my garden is usually pretty healthy. In part this is because I remove any roses that need much more than this kind of treatment. Having said all this, I'll throw out my random bits and pieces. You can take them for what they are worth. When you say 'dramatic red', I'm not sure what you mean. Scarlet reds can be dramatic, and so can crimsons, and so can dark purply reds, and so can brilliant cherry reds,but putting them in a bed together without other colors to tone them down can be a disaster. Ask me how I know. Dame de Coeur and Alec's Red are both unusually healthy roses in my experience, but are a light, bright red, not a deep dramatic color. The healthiest fragrant dark red HT I have any experience with is Oklahoma. Also fitting that description is the HT Barcelona, but it is usually sold as the tea rose Francis Dubreuil. You can get that dramatic deep color from some of the HPs, but I can't imagine growing HPs unsprayed in North Carolina. I've had good luck with Austins Prospero, The Prince, and am now planting Tradescant, but these would probably need spray for you to grow them. The most dramatic healthy red climber I've ever seen was a mature Cl Etoile de Hollande. The most dramatic healthy red rambler I've ever seen was Chevy Chase. Both are stunning. Dortmund is healthy too, no scent and a brilliant cherry red. It is indeed dramatic, but would clash with most of these other reds. Now here's a trick. If you really, really, really want intense drama do this. Try out several different roses to see which you like best, and which is healthiest in your neck of the woods. Then do a mass planting of only one kind of rose. This is incredibly hard to do, and hardly anyone can force himself to do it, but nothing gives more impact than this. Rosefolly

Yep that's the map. The USDA still says I'm in zone 5 (and probably you too.) One big difference between zone 5 and 6, and even zone 7, isn't always the minimal temperature in an average winter. It is how long low temperatures are sustained, and whether or not there's snow cover (here we are either barren of snow or get it piled on 3'+ in the winter.) Except for that one winter ('03-'04), my outdoor thermometer rarely goes below 0. I would say the past few years, the average minimum low is more around 5. But, if it goes down to 10 degrees every night for more than a week, and during the daytime it doesn't warm up much past 15-20, there's no snow to insulate the ground, and there's major windchill going on due to wind, that will be a plant-killing winter, even though the minimum low stayed above 0 (technically "zone 7" winter). In zone 6 or 7 the average low is a higher temp, but isn't sustained for as long as a frigid period in zone 5 or 4. e.g. a rose rated to zone 7 probably won't suffer any damage if the low for the season dips down to, say, 20 below, as long as it's for a short period (i.e. one particularly cold night) and the air/ground temperatures warm up the following day, and it doesn't happen on a regular basis. But in our zones the cold can sometimes be sustained with no relief or warmup for weeks. So keep in mind that zones are rated only according to the average minimum low temp, which may indeed be rising of late, but that doesn't mean we won't have days on end with sustained cold, even though the "lows" are higher than what's stated for zone 5. Here is a link that might be useful: arborday zone map

I can’t say enough good stuff about my Bolero and show profusely it bloomed in shade... yet it also performs just as well in full sun. This rose blows my mind in every way. I don’t have one bad thing to say about it. It’s Romantica Meilland Bolero. It grows in a perfectly round bushy shape... stays a very nice manageable size (3x3 is considered full grown for most plants)... and spends almost all of it’s energy making gorgeous blooms. And as if that’s not enough... it as an awesome cut rose to bring into the house or give as gifts... and smells like sweet tropical fruit... to me it smells like lychee fruit. It’s also very disease resistant... I never spray... and makes for a great landscaping rose... and rose to grow in a planter as it doesn’t tend to get too big. I don’t live in your zone, but I’ve heard from others across the country in different zones that grow it... and it seems to be one of those roses for people all across the country. There’s a good thread on here about it if your just google Bolero Rose and Houzz. I posted a bunch of pics and info on the thread about my love for this rose. It gives me so much, with such little fuss. I honestly don’t really do anything other than water it. I don’t even really prune it... ever. I might if I have time, dead head it... but honestly you don’t even have to do that to it. It seems to self deadhead, if you don’t have time or forget.