I am in zone 6b. I grow many different Teas and Chinas. Mutabilis has no problems surviving in my zone. It can grow into 7x7 feet shrub in 3-4 years. Noisettes are a little different story. The only Noisette hardy for me was Mme Alfred carrier. Several others I tried had a lot of winter dieback and died after several years in my garden. In my opinion many Teas are as hardy as HTs.
Olga

Olga is right. It seems that there are a good amount of chinas that do okay and are worth experimenting with. Same with teas. However their gentle cousin, as Olga stated seems too delicate. I have a feeling it might be their purer tea blood and less china influence. My Crepuscule is struggling to survive our winters here, though we haven't really gotten very cold. I am very much on a 6b-7a border along with Olga, so what kind of winters we get are essentially a coin toss- very capricious.

I ordered another Mutabilis for myself after mine mysteriously died this summer. I believe it might have caught something from my pruning shears, otherwise it could have been a vole. It's a very nice rose and people, while I had it, always asked what it was. My mother couldn't believe that it was a rose.

Max

Mutabilis, Duchesse de Brabant, & Hermosa do well for me in zone 5. Eugene de Beauharnais stays small. Of course none of them keep their canes over winter for me, but then neither do modern roses. Le Vesuve didn't make it. Pickering used to carry Maman Cochet, so that one would also be suitable for your climate.
Lydia

Old Blush seems to be (mostly) cane-hardy for several zone 6 friends. I've never tried it, but I grow Mr. Bluebird (Old Blush x Old Blush) and that survived one winter with limited cane damage, while most other roses needed cut to the ground after that winter.

How far north you can grow them has a lot to do with how much wintr protection you can give them. I've read of people keeping them in large containers which they roll into a garage during the frozen months of winter when they are dormant. I've seen Martha Stewart place bamboo poles around the tender roses, wrap around with burlap, and fill with fallen leaves. Either one is a lot of work, but if it's just a few roses in zone 6, they shouldn't require too much effort.

IMHO, the real test has litle to do with zone per se. Teas and noisettes will survive severe cold, so long as it is for very short periods. My roses have seen and survived with little damage temps down to -1. They will not tolerate prolonged periods of severe cold. They will also not tolerate extreme swings in temperature. Temps dropping to 15 over the winter when they are dormant is no problem at all. Temps dropping to 15 in mid-April in a severe late freeze when they are in full bloom is devastating. I most definitely advise against winter protection of any rose here as the wet winters that are not really cold enough to truly freeze for long create a perfect environment for cankers to get going. There are some teas I can't grow very well, particularly those with gigantea in their ancestry, but overall, in zone 7a TN, teas and noisettes are fine. Chinas are much hardier than teas or noisettes and should be fine for you.

Jean

So in order of hardiness, it would be Chinas, then Teas, then Noisettes?

It's not quite that simple, but an honest to goodness China is reasonably hardy. I have seen them growing in Topeka KS at the rose gardens at Gage Park after a heinously cold winter. They do not winter protect there. They will never attain the size I have here, but they come through with enough cane to be viable. China gallica hybrids are very hardy, but once blooming. The early teas are fairly hardy as are the early noisettes (Champney's Pink, Blush Noisette, etc). The tea noisettes are more tender. As time passed, the ancestry of these roses gets more muddled and it is not so easy to say that the class is fine as a whole in terms of hardiness. If you are looking for a general rule of thumb, chinas first, then the older teas and noisettes.

Jean

I moved to Knoxville, TN but I gardened in Lancaster, Pa for 8 years. I successfully grew Champneys Pink and Blush Noisette there. I still remember the fragrance. My Crepescule was only half the normal size (10 feet) in a protected spot but I was perfectly happy with it. Jaune Desprez was pretty big (and thorny). I have to rack my memory for more because I grew more teas and several red chinas, as far as I can recall.

When I gardened in zone 4/5 in Wisconsin I was one of those folks that grew teas and chinas in pots and overwintered them in the garage. I never tried noisettes (and it kills me that I don't have room for them now that I'm down here!). What is wild is Mutabilis - one of the hardier chinas - was the lone tender rose that DIDN'T survive the garage treatment! :-( But everything else I ever tried did. Go figure...

Eugene de Beauharnias
Francis Dubreuil
Lady Hillingdon
Mons. Tillier
Baronne Henriette de Snoy
Rainbow
Devoniensis (the bush, not the climber!)
Tipsy Imperial Concubine
SDLM

I'm trying Chinas and Teas this year with Hermosa and Lady Hillingdon, both rated to zone 6. We'll see!

Eric

I've had Hermosa in zone 5 (and it was zone 4 when I first planted it) and it has grown well for 30 years now. But then it was once rated a bourbon, which are hardier. I had Mutabilis outside and finally lost it - now it's in a pot. Same with a few other chinas.
OTOH, I saw a thriving bed of Old Blush in a park in Nova Scotia. It got cut to the ground each spring but then came up and flowered all summer. My own feeling is that China's are about as hardy as floribundas. Teas a lot less so. And some Noisettes will survive and some won't - Leonie Bell grew Blush Noisette in the Philadelphia area - zone 6. Mine is in a pot and comes inside in the winter. it is flowering now.

I remember now that I grew G. Nabonnand, Mme. Alfred Carriere )from a cutting that grew into a pretty good sized climber (10-15 feet), Francis Dubreuil (although it looked more like an HT)and Duchesse de Brabant. My Cramosi Superior (sp) didnt make it one mild winter. I think the problem was it was growing happily and got hit by sudden low temps.