How much afternoon shade(hours-wise) and does the fence get good morning sun to dry off the dew?
I've seen a lot of rose varieties offered by Lowes (and probably Home Depot). The always push the season.

The 'Peter Male' rose would be an excellent choice. Very fragrant, large cabage-type bloom, almost red color, disease free, strong grower. I purchased mine from Roses Unlimited about 5 years ago and have it growing in the shade. One of the few rose types that does well in either sun or shade. Can't go wrong with this one.

Dottie - There is a lot of info on the Rose forum. That being said, I have a few that I am trying in a similar situation. I'm just starting this season, but I've got a few that research has suggested might tolerate the shade. My choices were due to color and fragrance - light colored blooms (tending towards apricot) and good fragrance. I'm planting Buff Beauty, Climbing Lady Hillingdon, Climbing Devoniensis, and last year I planted Climbing Butterscotch. Time will tell how they do, but last year the Butterscotch did bloom and grow nicely, and I've heard very good things about Buff Beauty for partial shade.

This is great information. I guess I get about 4 hours of sun in the spot where I want to plant it. I checked out the Rose Forum but most of them are in California that I read. I wasn't sure if the same plants would adapt to our region. One of the things I did learn from one individual was that they didn't recommend buying from Wayside Gardens.

Deejay there are people from every part of the country who post on the Roses forum. If you post and state which part of the country you're from you'll get a lot of answers from folks in the Southeast.

If you want disease resistance forget about floribundas, hybrid teas, and David Austins. The best roses I've grown have come from mail order nurseries such as Chamblee's, Ashdown, Antique Roses Emporium, and Roses Unlimited. Teas, chinas, noisettes, species (R. carolina, palustris and rugosa), rugosa hybrids and the hybrid bracteata Mermaid have performed the best for me.

Tammy grows several roses and has quite a bit of part shade, as does Ais. Hopefully Denise will see this post and chime in.

My best for shade is 'mermaid'. I know 'new dawn' does ok in shade, too. They both rebloom sporadically- but are hardly in bloom all the time. My first thought was i don't know of anything that's gonna bloom all season, work in aft shade, and be disease free, which is why i didn't post. Most of my roses are the old type that blooms once and that's it, but i do have a few that bloom again. My shade tends to be morning shade- so mine get hot afternoon sun. Morning sun is supposed to be better for roses, so maybe that is less of a factor than i first thought. 'Red cascade' might do ok, but i have mine in sun, so i'm not sure. It's probably the best rebloomer i have- it almost always has some bloom on it, and at times is solid with color. I'll be bringing some starts to the swap. All the roses i got that i didn't get from Betty i ordered from roses unlimited.

'Iceberg' blooms the best of the climbers I have in part shade. It's prone to black spot though. I never spray it (though I probably should) and most years I can control it by plucking off infected leaves and branches. 'New Dawn' and 'Buff Beauty' give a burst of bloom then bloom sporadically . In part shade they don't bloom profusely, though they are growing robustly and fairly disease resistant. 'New Dawn' blooms better but it is VERY thorny and huge. I may move mine because it's thorny arms have reached far and wide :-) Mine get morning shade and afternoon sun, and little direct sun. How much they get will really affect blooms.
I got mine from Pickering. They were very healthy. They have a good site for searching roses. Good luck!

I had the same experience as Tammy, my Mermaid bloomed very well in part shade too. And the flowers were a lovely buttery yellow. I still have the Mermaid, but the pine tree that used to shade it is gone, because it was actually tipping over toward the driveway! Mermaid has one huge flush in spring, then blooms sporadically thereafter, but the single flowers are large so they have impact. A really lovely rose. Mermaid is very very healthy but also the thorniest rose I have ever met. She also gets very big -- mine is now 8 years old and 24' wide.

You all have given me some great information to start with. I love to garden and start new plants but have always stayed away from Roses because of the shade issue. I looked at one of the big box stores today but they had nothing to speak of. I'll try a couple of the sites you all suggested.

Tamelask, what swap were you referring too? Is it happening near Charlotte?

The raleigh area swap- go look at he exchanges page. We welcome all comers- some folks drive from the beach, some from the mtns, we've even had a few from SC and VA before. They are alotta fun!

Contact Paul or Trish at Ashdown Roses. They're close enough to Charlotte for you to visit and be home by noon; if you don't spend the entire day in the gardens at Ashdown.

Also, be careful. Some of the suggestions you've received are house-eating, thorny roses that more than a few people have been extremely sorry they planted.

Here's another suggestion, Renae. I've only had mine a couple of years and it hasn't really had a chance to strut its stuff because it's been moved once, for reasons that had nothing to do with the rose's performance, but I've been impressed. Renae has smallish pink flowers, very good fragrance, good repeat, beautiful disease-free foliage and no thorns. Mine gets morning-only sun. Here is a photo from last year. It's overexposed so most of the flowers look more pale than they really are:

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