Snowdrift should be a good one to try. I will put a link to the HelpMeFind listing below, and you can click on the Buy From tab to see where you can order it.

The reason I suggest it is its disease resistance, as described by an expert we know, suitability for a cold winter zone such as yours, plus a size that should be good for a foundation planting.

I agree that White Out might be good too, for the same reasons.

White Simplicity would be taller than those, and although that series is promoted as being healthy, that one is pretty new and I haven't heard growers' reviews yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: Snowdrift

I don't know if Seafoam would be tall enough, but it is an excellent, healthy, hardy rose requiring little care. It repeats a lot, too. I don't care for it myself, but as a landscape rose it is excellent.

Here is a picture of a White Simplicity hedge I had at my old house. It was planted as a border between my yard and the next door neighbors. It dies back quite a bit each winter and requires severe pruning in zone 5 but it come back quickly and was always in bloom for me.
The rose has been around for about 20 years so is not that new. I still have a few bushes but they grow singley not as a hedge. They are always in bloom and only get oak leaves as winter protection. I don'tspray and it stays pretty disease free.
White Out is new and I have no information on it. I'm looking for a plant to put in my garden just so I can offer an opinion on it if asked.
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Beautiful photos, Karl. Don't know why I thought it was newer - guess I was thinking of the lavender version.

I like greenhaven's suggestion of Seafoam too, if you want something shorter that spreads wider.

My guess is that in Illinois, Seafoam is going to be larger than the other two put together. It's big and will probably take a fair amount of pruning to keep in line. Another largish white shrub that gets good press around here is Alba Meidiland.

A question - how large do you think this rose should be? I think of foundation shrubs as having some bulk to them, which a dieback floribunda isn't going to have.

Thanks for all the ideas and comments. I'm thinking something 3 to 4 feet high, with some mass to it. I've added a link to a picture of our (very small -- 750 sq. feet) house -- it's from where I posted a question asking for daylily recommendations. We've done substantial renovation to the house, and this is the side that faces the road, where I want to put the roses (it's on a lake, and the other side looks more like a "front" of a house -- door is under the carport).

Any further thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful:

Oops, in the above photo, I should have said that all that concrete is gone now. At the right, next to the burning bush, are two small-ish rose bushes. Don't know what variety, but one is pink (maybe a Knock Out?) and one is red -- both single blooms. My husband wants to incorporate them into the rose "hedge" even though they won't be same.

Again, thanks for the help!

Carolyn

Keep in mind you live in zone 5 with it's cold harsh winters. Most anything you get will suffer some winter dieback and require severe pruning unless you chose a very hardy variety. Even then chances are a little pruning will be required.

mad gallica, I tend a Seafoam rose on the golf course where I work, and it was planted five years ago and essentially neglected. It is hardy, clean and vigorous, and not at all big. Bigger than two feet, smaller than three. It does sprawl some, but not bad. All I do to it is prune out dead wood (negligible) and deadhead when there is an event. Like last weekend. I deadheaded spent or passing sprays, but there were already a gazillion buds forming for the next go-round!

Mine is about 15 years old, and I keep it hacked back to about 5 or 6 x about 5 or 6. Bad winters will kill the top few feet, but it's been tip hardy for a while. If I don't do the hack jobs, it could easily get 10 x 10. At this point, it is old enough that the older canes are dying off, so I have to crawl underneath to get to them.

Seafoam is one of those roses that doesn't get a lot of discussion here. A fair number of people don't like it, but admit their problems are almost entirely due to misplacing it. It's just too big, too thorny, and too a few other things to try and shoehorn into a space. However, if you have the room, it will bloom and bloom and bloom without a lot of trouble.

My guess it that it would do a lot better with some water. Around here, water comes from the sky, so lack of water is rarely a gating factor in how well a rose does. Disease pressure and hardiness are much bigger factors.

mad gallica, wow! I would never think of Seafoam getting that big. Is it a positive ID? No mistakes? Maybe yours just really likes where it lives! :o) Maybe the one on the golf course just gets enough neglect to stay manageable. I can almost guarantee that any of the roses there have not been fertilized since planting in 2004.