Thank you for this list. I grow some of the same roses and have about the same experience. I am in Western Washington at the very bottom of South Puget Sound.
I saved the list to favorites and will refer to it when placing future orders. Quite hekpful indeed. Thanks again.
Jeannie

I think this list is very useful. I could see many roses that I grow that I would agree are blackspot resistant. Some of the roses on list 2 had a little more of a problem for me, like Roundelay and Distant Drums. Also some roses that resist black spot get rust.

If you wonder if Paul Bardens' area is a good location to test blackspot resistance, this is how he has described his location:
"Willamette Valley, OR, zone 8-ish, land of slugs and Diplocarpon rosae."

http://www.rosebreeders.org/forum/read.php?2,47899,47899#msg-47899

(Diplocarpon rosae is blackspot)

I was wondering the same thing, Henry. I think of blackspot as a more prominant issue on the East Coast. I would guess that any blackspot on the West Coast may be a different strain than what we have here. Please correct me if I am wrong, I'm still learning :)

Tammy

Somewhere recently Paul had a different very funny name for where he lived (a blackspot related dig). I will keep looking (as time permits).

Resistant, as opposed to free from, is the operative word here. I do live in a heavy blackspot belt and grow many of the roses on the list. Yes, they resist it better than others, but almost all have had BS. The only roses that are 99.9% BS free are rugosas. The gallicas are pretty close to that. Cl Cecile Brunner comes in at about 90%. The rest are below that. I don't know about the Canadian roses like Wm Baffin as I don't grow any of them. My noisettes are also pretty good. It depends on the year. This was a good year. Two years ago I tore my hair out and actually sprayed a few times--I am a no-spray nut.

I pretty much agree with his ranking, but would definitely keep in mind that resistance is not the same as immune.

I'm really new to roses, so please forgive me for being confused. Is Paul Barden just listing the roses that he breeds and sells? I guess the observations are based on what he's growing, but is he 10% comprehensive? 2% comprehensive? 90% comprehensive?. None of the other BS-resistant recommendations people have given me are on this list. I'm having trouble even figuring out what is the universe of varieties to investigate. Then folks talk about families of roses ("Rugosas...gallicas"; "hybrid musks")--do you just have to know which of those lovely, evocative names belongs to which family? I mean, is there overlap between the named cultivars on the list and the families people are generalizing about?

Emme-dc, you've posed a lot of questions, but let me see if I can briefly touch on them. First of all, Paul at one time (and may still) grew upwards of 2000 different roses. His knowledge of those roses in HIS climate is probably as comprehensive as it gets. That said, he does live in a place VERY conducive to blackspot pressure. He does list some of the roses he bred, but the list is overwhelmingly the work of other breeders, and most still in commerce. There is no true "comprehensive list" that could possibly cover all different growing conditions and climates that exist over the USA; it's a big place. It would take someone in every climate zone (hot humid summer/hot dry summer/long wet spring/cold winter/warm winter/no winter!), growing several thousand varieties of roses, under the same conditions (no spray/spray, irrigated/rainfall only, chemical fertilizer vs organics...) to ever be able to say which roses are truly black spot/mildew/rust resistant and to what degree. That's why so much about disease resistance is anecdotal, and VERY area specific. That's where HelpMeFind.com comes in. In case you don't know of it, I'll put the link below. You just type in the the varietal name of your rose, and the page for that rose (hopefully) has all the info you need, including hardiness, size, disease resistance, and the family it belongs to. As for finding other roses in that family, you can also search HMF by "class", and if you become a supporting (paying) member, you can search multiple options and criteria. If you want a dark red, disease resistant, short climbing China rose...well, there you go, all the possibilities are yours for the choosing. HelpMeFInd and this forum are two of your best friends.

John

Here is a link that might be useful: HelpMeFind Advanced Rose Search

Oh...and I forgot to tell you to be sure to read the member comments about each rose. THAT'S where you often find the area-specific info you'll need concerning disease resistance. Just click the "comment" tab at the top of the HMF page for that rose.

Emme-dc, probably the easiest way to start to figure things out is to start a new thread, and describe what you want the rose to do for you. How big, what color, fragrance? Anything you can think of. Then pay attention to what people near you recommend, and TOTALLY IGNORE!!!! people from more than a day's drive away. They will try to tempt you with impossible roses. Just pay no attention.

The results aren't going to be lengthy, if Mid-Atlantic blackspot resistance is part of the equation. But there should be one or two worth investigating.