maybe people in the north can't tolerate bs like people in the south.LOL!
I have 2 teas if they survive the winter,well 3actually, and they don't have any bs. I planted this spring.

I'm sorry I forgot to say that zone 6 mid-Atlantic seems to be a bs haven.
At

I have been asking for no spray roses for months, and have not seen too much of a difference when it comes to disease. Those in California have other issues than Black spot, so they don't have our problems. But Duchesse d Brabant is on the Earth Kind List and I thought it was universally pretty good.

I don't know how far north you can grow teas.

Sammy

Sammy,

Try these roses for a no spray situation:

The Bishop
Polareis
Alberic Barbier
Paul Transon
Shailer's Provence
Chestnut Rose
Olivier Roellinger
Renee Danielle
Charles de Mills
Hippolyte
Fru Dagmar Hartopp
Konigen von Danemark
Ispahan
Cl. Cramoisi Superieur
Russeliana
Banshee
Orpheline de Juliet (Pickering's version)
Darlow's Enigma
Baltimore Belle
R. spinossissima
Petite Pink Scotch
Alexandre Girault
Leontine Gervais
Gardenia
R. banksia lutea
Etoile de Lyon

I hope this is a little bit of a start for you. I don't know how I missed your previous post.

Robert

I believe it could be a combination of the particular strain of blackspot in your area along with your temperatures and humidity that could cause you to see increased disease. Supposedly, blackspot is suppressed at higher temperatures, but you couldn't prove that by my garden this year :-). Have you actually seen an increase in blackspot in your new garden? All zone 6's aren't created equal. Some seem to have little blackspot and some of us unfortunate souls on the east coast and in the mid atlantic area's have a seriously nasty strain.

Carol

Carol, I didn't know there were different strains and hadn't made the connection regarding temperature. Yeesh, that's really disappointing news but thank you for explaining it. I've only just moved to this neighborhood six weeks ago so won't know anything regarding BS in my yard until next year.

thanks Robert. I will research those.

Sammy

Teas definitely get BS here and it is not the question of tolerance, they just get completely naked. The main problem is that BS weakens them and they get more winter dieback.
I think midatlantic east coast has very "right" temp conditions for BS spores germination. Night temps when the leaves are wet in 70-75 deg range is the best for spore germination and humidity overall is very high.
Olga

I think Carol's right.
There certainly ARE different strains of blackspot -- some even show
up here in my part of SoCal, occasionally.
So that's part of it.

But just like we can't do justice to Gallicas, Albas, and the like, probably
others just can't do justice to Tea Roses.

It isn't that Teas (as much as I may love them) are the salvation of
the gardens of the nation,
it's that no roses (or at least very few) are equally good everywhere.

The secret to success is finding out what works where you are.
And you MAY have to find out yourself, through trial and error.

As for the Earthkind program, it seems to be a great start.
But results of the tests conducted in TX are meaningless for me here,
at the SoCal coast.
Interesting to read about, but not relevant.
There are probably others for whom that is true.

In the end, we all may have to discover our OWN Earthkind roses.
Jeri

Jeri, I heard Dr. Stephen George speak 2 or 3 years ago. I was part of a small group here in Tulsa, and he was asking about disease resistance in our gardens. His objective at that time was to create an Earthkind list throughout the country. He was looking for roses that may do well everywhere, and also various lists for various parts of the country.

However, as part of a University, I think his funds may have been limited, and he may not have traveled as far as he originally intended.

He spent a day with us, and I think he was traveling through different areas looking for earth kind answers.

Unfortunately, until the earth kind philosophy allows us to water and fertilize, I don't think it will get too far. I know that my friends were annoyed with me, but I could not get past not watering in this part of the country. Even if Texas is hotter and dryer, in Tulsa, if you do not water, nobody will want to look at your roses, and they will be sickly. Once you can water, damage will have been done, and the rose will only thrive a fraction of what it could if it were watered. Also, I don't know about failure to fertilize. I don't see how nutrients will go into the ground after a couple of years if you do not put them there. After awhile all food will have gone through, and without adding soil, I think you will end up with sterile soil (meaning it has not food to nourish the roots.)

People who live in other parts of the country are likely to have periodic rains and not have this issue.

Sammy

Sammy
The Earthkind objective, I believe, is used as a starting off point to show which roses will continue to bloom with the least amount of care, without poisoning the earth.
Any private gardner can grow Earthkind roses however they wish, and fertilize them, and give supplemental water.

In the Earthkind test programs, nutrients are released through wood mulch, as it breaks down. It is applied in a thick layer, circa 4 inches deep.

Luxrosa

Down here, you could lay on a FOOT of mulch.
If you don't water, roses are going to die.

I really do believe in growing roses (and other plants as well, of course)
without the use of chemicals.
But water's a must.
Without it, here, we could grow nothing but rocks and prickly-pear.

Jeri

I'm definitely on my own here. A few weeks ago I asked a local garden center employee (not a chain but a local one) if they had "antique" roses, and she looked kind of perplexed then said "Oh yes! We have the Austins. Didn't you see them??"

Rolling my eyes......

Austins are beautiful and I intend on trying some but they are not what I asked for at the time.

I think it's a bad thing that a lot of my neighbors are using prickly pear cacti as landscaping plants and they're finding success.

Back to tea roses. In Missouri, your problems may be more tied into just how nasty the spring freezes are that come at you from Canada.
I do have papers from Glen Viehmeyer who gardened and tried to breed cold hardy roses in North Platte Nebraska. He wrote (with some surprise) that he found tea roses to be hardier than Hybrid Teas. His growing acres were up on top of a mesa south of the city and fully exposed to the winds. It may have been that his loess soils imparted some cold hardiness, or that he treated roses like a crop rather than like pampered pets, but he was pleased with teas. Which may bode well for Missouri, if you just let them build up slowly and steadily. Once Teas mature (three or four years) in my gardens, they are far less damaged by canker in the spring than are HTs in the same beds.
Relatively dry summers may be your friend.

Luxrosa, I perhaps did not connect my thoughts well when I wrote. Of course I can purchase whatever I want.

I had wanted to create a test garden in my garden or else turn all my garden into a test garden. I knew at the time that I grew many roses that could possibly become earth kind roses, and wanted to test them. I would have stopped all chemicals immediately to have belonged to such a group. However, I know enough about gardening to know that weeks of 100 plus temps will burn the roses and leave us with bermuda grass and sticks.

I understood from our meeting that the Earth Kind association (initiative) was looking for volunteers to grow roses throughout the country. We needed to agree to the earth kind requirements, and that meant no additional water and no fertilizer besides no chemicals. I don't even think that Mills Magic in the spring was allowed.

I hope they change that policy.

Sammy

Ann, thanks for that info about your teas and the ones in Nebraska. I may try some since it's going to be trial and error anyway. I think if they do okay in Nebraska and your climate I may stand a chance. We do have those sudden spring freezes and summer arrives with a bang too.

I'm not bound and determined to grow teas really, I was just surprised at the info I was seeing. However, given a chance of success, I do love them. I saw Rogue Valley Roses suggests Mrs. B.R. Cant is hardy to zone 6, and I'll certainly be giving her a try.

volunteers to grow roses throughout the country. We needed to agree to the earth kind requirements, ... no additional water and no fertilizer besides no chemicals. I don't even think that Mills Magic in the spring was allowed.

*** Sammy, I had not heard that.

Surely they must realize that there are places where there is no rain for much of the year?

I know now that roses can do quite well here on greywater. I could imagine limiting yourself to a few roses, grown only on greywater.

But NO irrigation? Where there is no rain, that won't fly.

Jeri

I have not kept up with the Earth kind trials. A few weeks ago someone posted and seemed to be asking for names to help with the EArth kind roses. I researched him, and I think he was president of the rose society in Dallas. I had wondered if various rose societies were taking over, and not just the TExas A&M. I also was surprised to find out that Dr. George worked out of Dallas. I had thought that everything was together, but his offices were in Dallas -- a couple of years ago.

I don't know of anyone who grows a flower to keep it alive. We want pretty yards. Sometimes we will tolerate a rose all year because of its one time show, but to do without water just won't work.

Sammy