I meant 5b, not 5a

Karolina, are you in Carolina? I'm in the exact same zone situation as you & willing to offer up some suggestions, but I'm in Illinois. We promise not to stalk you if you tell us your approximate whereabouts.

Haha no I am in central Pennsylvania

By "the traditional rose look," do you mean like florist roses, or like old-fashioned roses?

Okay--another question for ya--have you considered miniatures, since you'd prefer something more mannerly? Many of them have fabulous bloom form that never collapses, especially if you're looking for that perfect, tight spiral. Most minis aren't that fragrant, but there are a few that are fabulous.

I'm sitting outside right now, so I'll give you a rundown of some of mine that fit the bill:

Voodoo - Tall & narrow grower. Lovely orange-juice colored blooms with yummy fragrance that are phototropic and change in sunlight to a screaming scarlet-orange. Pretty darn good disease resistance.

Jean Kennealley, an apricot miniature. She has the bonus of fragrance, and gets pretty big for a mini. Spent blooms will flatten out & fade to nearly white, but I think she's spectacular. She's held a very high rating for a long time.

Folklore is a hybrid tea with perfect spirals & yellow reverses to coral petals. Lovely scent, big shrub, good disease resistance. Grows taller than it does wide, at least for me.

Gemini is a drop-dead gorgeous hybrid tea. New blooms open ivory with just a hit of a deep coral picotee, then it changes with sunlight to almost a completely coral flush. Mine like to pitch candelabras and I think that's due to the Grandiflora breeding line. Great scent.

Flawless is a true, medium pink miniflora with a nice scent. It is very disease resistant for me & blooms like crazy, but it tends to have more decorative or frilly blooms than the classic high spirals. I love it nonetheless.

I really want to recommend Secret, but I have to spray her to keep her happy. The scent and the blooms are worth it, though. It does not mind the heat and rain does not spot her blooms as badly as most of my other light-colored roses.

How white is your white requirement? I grow Irresistible, another miniature. It has no scent, but oh MY!! The blooms retain their form for at least a week and a half, it grows spectacularly, it's very mannerly, and disease resistant. It is a bit cream-colored upon close inspection but looks white from a distance.

Also in my white-ish category is World War II Memorial. It's technically a mauve, but from a few yards back it appears to be white. It has glorious scent, very good disease resistance, and I just cannot describe the way the blooms contrast with an almost forest-green set of foliage. The aroma is incredible. It does spot with rain, unfortunately, but it's one of the few whose spots aren't that unattractive. If we get rain while there are blooms present, it looks like a white rose with pink freckles.

One of the hardiest I have is Garden Party, but I'd describe it as an ivory rose that likes to have pink petticoats every now and then. Very good disease resistance and AWESOME fragrance, but mine grows like Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors. I think I witnessed her eating a rabbit this morning. [Or maybe it was that Swamp Tea.]

All of these are repeat blooming, and I'd say that Flawless, Folklore, and Irresistible are the quickest to repeat. Gemini is sluggish, but when she blooms, she chucks out about 30 at a time.

I live where blackspot pressure is very high due to silly nighttime cooling and condensation. I spray for blackspot, but these are the best of my 60 roses that fit your bill.

And since I am too lazy to edit my post [Swamp Tea again...dangit], I totally forgot Tahitian Sunset. I am in love with this rose and put her in a bad spot where I can't admire her while on the deck. It is a skyscraper of a hybrid tea with apricot to pink blooms that have a perfect spiral, and the scent is unusual. It has been described as anise, licorice, myrhh....but everyone at work loves to stick their nose in her when I bring her in. Very, very good disease resistance.

These are some of my faves, and if you haven't been over to HMF to check out people's rose pics I would encourage you to do so. There is no better enabler for rose buying than this website and that one, combined.

Michaelg - my bad, I meant the typical florist rose look (what is the proper way to describe that?)

flaurabunda - all of those are gorgeous!! I did have a question however, I noticed that a few of those are listed on hmf as being hardy to zone 7b. What do you do for winter protection to make sure they survive?

Nothing; 7b is the default category on HMF. Everything I listed has done great in my borderline 5b/6a yard with no protection. I am too lazy to do anything drastic, and I hate working outside when it's less than 70 degrees outside.

I always intend to do something for winter protection, but so far so good. And since this minimal approach has worked, I intend to continue doing as little as possible.

(Don't talk to me about watering requirements right now. I'm trying to have 1 day of sanity.)

Alright, so I was at Walmart and they had a John F Kennedy on clearance that looked great so I ended up picking that up. Reviews on HMF were good so we shall see how that goes.

As for the other colors, I've spent a large portion of the day on here, HMF, and at heirloomroses.com and have it narrowed down to the following. Positives/negatives on any of these? I need to narrow it down further (or dig up my lawn...hm...)

Folklore
Flawless
Blue Moon
Cynthia
Cupcake
Deja Blu
Dove
Elegant Beauty
English Miss
Fragrant Plum
Giggles
Jean Kennealley
Lady Jane Grey
Lasting Love (or is Mr. Lincoln better?)
Midas Touch (or a better yellow?)
Perfume Delight
Rosemary Harkness
Touch of Class
Irresistable
Vista

Longwood Garden has a list with the roses they grew and recommend for Penn (or right near your zone) that are hardy and disease resistant. See if you can find it.

Also, I saw a newsletter from Philly rose association, which also has a list of roses that are recommended for this area. I cannot see to find it by Googling now...

Also, see the rose list at NY Botanical Garden's website. They have a no-spray rose garden.

Just found the Longwood Garden list and will look for the other two. Thank you so much for the recommendation!

HI Karolina

I thought I'd chime in with my experiences about the roses you list, since I'm in a similar zone in Nebraska. One thing to remember in your zone, whatever roses you plant, is to remember to bury the graft at least 2-3 inches below the soil. The graft is where the rose you want is connected to a "rootstock" to make it more vigorous (at least in theory), and only applies to bareroot rose purchases or most container roses. If you're buying bands, such as those sold by Heirloom, those are own-root and the burying the graft doesn't apply.

Here are my reactions to your list of roses based on my experience:

Easy, reliable roses
Folklore (little blackspot in my region)
Lasting Love (little blackspot)
Perfume Delight (moderate blackspot)
Touch of Class(moderate blackspot)
Cupcake (if it's the mini I'm thinking of - little blackspot)

Fussy and/or weak growers, marginally hardy in zone 6a:
Blue Moon
Deja Blu (and sadly, most of the mauve/lavender roses)
Fragrant Plum (also an infrequent bloomer)
Lady Jane Grey
Rosemary Harkness

Other:
Midas Touch is on its first year in my yard and looks to be well settled in - it looks promising in zone 5
I'm on my second try with Cynthia, for obvious reasons, but I have to say she's a reluctant rebloomer and made it past one winter only to die on the following less severe winter. Decidedly meh on that one, regretfully, given the WONDERFUL name. Ahem...

Cynthia