Jim,
Way back when, back in your grandfathers' times, people bought from local plantsmen who did the learning curve for them. The plantsmen sold what they could grow well. So when those plants were bought locally, they thrived.
I'm lucky to have seen the rugosa species growing both in my garden in totally-un-copacetic clay and three miles away in a sandy bar deposit along Flat Creek (which runs mostly across limestone and which carries a bed load of reworked sand from a massive sandstone. There's not much humus in that bar deposit. But the rugosas growing in it are about ten feet tall, and they are unpampered. Same species, in my clay are three feet tall.
A passalong rugosa was doing really well up in Ewing Virginia because it was planted next to a next-to-road depression (not well enough maintained to call it a gulley) but a neighbor's plant, farther from the drainage was struggling, as is mine in sandy soil but with little continuous drainage to nurture it.
What makes those roses tough in one soil, makes them weak in other soils.

And, because, so many modern roses are not grown in soil, but in modified greenhouse soils, understanding why one fails and another putters along is a lot harder. Maybe putting all roses on the same rootstock, and modifying the soils for that rootstock is the best way to dum-- , er, simplify rose growing. But our choice of rootstocks is the limiting factor. And there is NO one rootstock fits all solutions for North America.
So we just muddle along.

Ann, muddling.

I made the momentous decision to now plant what grows well for me. Plant three of them together so they will make a statement. No bed like a museum where all the exhibits are displayed. Actually arrange it so there is some design and effort to match colors, season of bloom, etc. No big one shadowing a dwarf next.

I've always just plopped them where there was a space. Weird. I'm going to do better. Onward and upward!

I forgot to comment on Ann's reply.

How true. When we first moved here from S. CA there was a small local nursery that offered a few roses. I planted them and they grew well. Another bigger nursery the same. Then they suddenlly started offering HT's and other popular roses. It seems the person who actually grew roses moved on. That nursery is where I most likely got some of my early Austins. All are now dead although I dearly loved them.

So I will forget about trying to figure out why some are tough and some are not!

It is interesting that you have picked Rogusa alba to illustrate your quandary. You see, it was my first rose, the rose given to me as a freebie by a fruit tree supplier. I planted it to the top of the hill in my front yard knowing that I would not even be bothered if it lived or died. Of course it survived and thrived, it is a Rogusa. Somehow, that got me into our wonderful world of rose growing, thinking I can do this, this is easy.

I have since become adventurous. With some background in biological sciences, I started reading up on rose growing. I started with some Teas, Chinas, HMÂS and Noisettes. Boy, I was pretty happy with the results. I was feeling a bit invincible. Then I expanded into the modern roses  HTs, Austins, Grandifloras and Floribundas. I was shell shocked. I found myself spending a lot of time and resources. I even made the ultimate sacrifice  traded in my golf time with my buddies. Meanwhile, the Rogusa continues to beckon at me as if saying "you can have a much more simple life".

So I often ask myself, why should I continue to do this. Why should I put myself to caring a Sengodea that could not handle heat or that darn Bagatelle rose that is always sickly? I may have an answer. If the conditions are just right, and these fragrant roses are in bloom, it will transport you to a place that is both magical and enchanting.

I am sticking to this response.

I almost used Eutin as an example of a tough rose. But it is too little known

Eutin is in no way spectacular, no fragrance, a simple flower although brightly colored.

What is exceptional about it is its' toughness. It sits among my lousy looking roses pert and so healthy and so blooming. Among its' attributes are its' total resistance to BS. There is never a beetle on it although the roses next are covered. And it blooms all the time. And it has a compact bushy shape. Never needs pruning.

So what more could you ask for in a rose?

I do not have a Eutin, so short of offending any Eutin lovers out there, I will say nothing and everything. Nothing, for all the attributes that you have given to that rose. Everything, because you had to ask the question.

Let me ask this question back. Does it make your heart sing or stir up some primal emotions or sustain your passion or view the world in HD or simply say Wow?

I am afraid that it is all the argument I can muster and it sounds terribly whimsical. Perhaps there is a lot of gray in between. Perhaps other Forum members can help us navigate, or as Ann puts it, muddle along.

If I had thin poor soil I'd haul in horse manure by the truck load, place copius amounts around each bush and repeat the process quite often. Over time you can improve and increase the soil with the manure as it breaks down.
Manure happens and most horse owners and stables will be happy to let you haul it away. My source has a bucket on the front of his tractor and loads it for me free. I take it hot or aged. The fresh stuff I place out and away from the bushes.

Bobby,
Some of us have have rose emergencies that have left us gasping. Spring of '07 killed roses and seriously damaged many others in my garden; then came the drought that reached the highest droughtmoniter catagory and stayed there for months. RRD continues in my part of the world.
I no longer expect euphoria; I appreciate what I have in the context of my garden.

Jim,
some of our chatter would inspire choosing rootstock to fit our own growing conditions. Forget what the books say. Go back to the eighteen hundreds when a man of means would start his rose garden by planting several hundred, maybe a thousand whips of his local fence line roses. Then the next year the budwood would arrive, budding or grafting would happen, and then there would be roses, and those roses would be on roots that were proven by time to work in his soils.
Makes me feel spoiled by comparison.

Jim, it sounds like you have made peace with your roses. Roses are (er, rather, can be) beautiful things, but if seeking after that elusive beauty makes you feel like a crazy failure, what's the point? There's a lot to be said for growing the rose(s) that likes your garden. That is peace indeed. And watching a rose thrive in poor conditions is inspiring in itself. Go for the tough ones, Jim. I'm looking for the same thing - only different. You know what they say - location, location, location. I wish you well in your search for the tough - and no less beautiful - roses.

Sherry