Rugosa Roses need mostly sunshine in the day. They require little else except good drainage. They don't need to be sprayed (in fact don't like to be) and you can prune them back anytime. Our Rose Society does not recommend pruning this type of rose back to the ground, but you can if you need to it won't kill the bush. They mostly grown between 4-10 ft high. Some can be used as climbers. They can have invasive offshoots if they are not taken out. They are not like the multiflora that are very invasive and sprout up everywhere. Rugosa can be a very good rose for people who want shrubs that bloom all the time with no extra work.Keep them in the sun and they should be fine. There are several varieties that stay about 4-5 ft tall. I have about 15 Rugosa bushes and they make a great hedge for me. They smell is wonderful as I walk down my driveway.

woolywoof, your availability of hardy roses probably has more to do with being in Canada than being in zone 4. If I head to nurseries in zone 4 New York, the situation is likely to be even more dire than it is here. Lack of availability of roses that do what I want roses to do is probably part of the reason I became so interested in rooting cuttings. Several wonderful roses are probably better known as pass along plants than in the nursery trade. This unfortunately doesn't make me a very good source of information as to where you should get your roses. I've bought more roses from Mike Lowe than any other source. He's in Nashua. Is Mike still in the nursery business? I don't know. Pickering, as mentioned, is a good source. I know Paul has gotten a bunch of his roses from Spring Valley in Wisconsin. I've heard nothing but good things about Spring Valley. I've often wanted to order from Corn Hill in New Brunswick, but never come up with a big enough order to make it work out. Corn Hill is Robert Osborne's nursery. If you don't have his book "Hardy Roses" you should. You should also have Suzanne Verrier's books. You want to avoid the nurseries that ship little twigs. For the money nurseries charge, you want them to send you a real plant. I'd like to be able to recommend Ashdown, but I've never ordered from him. Oddly enough, most of my recent purchases have come from Sequoia. Certainly Ralph Moore has no reason to specialize in hardy for the northeast roses, but he does have some neat oddments that I can't get anywhere else. He ships little twigs, but at least the price reflects this.

I am 99% sure they are the FJ grootendorst, but if those are supposed to have an odor, then that isn't it I suppose. Ugly?! You're crazy! I love the little carnation hot pink blooms and the wrinkled green leaves. They are so great. I have 12 of these or so along the driveway and more in back...they have been here for years and I doubt I could get them out without a huge struggle. They stay!

Many thanks Lalala! That is exactly what it is! I have many hickory trees and other trees mentioned in this article on my property, so it makes sense. I'm going to free it from the pickle jar (where it is currently feeding on some apple leaves that I placed in with it). No matter how much rose foliage it eats, it can't hold a candle to the damage that the Japanese beetles are doing to the same rose bush. I'm glad for this verdict because I've gotten somewhat attached to the furry critter in the jar. Thanks for the warning too, but I managed to handle the little caterpillar without getting a rash. (It escaped from the bucket and I had to pick it up to put it in a more secure location. There was also some contact during our photography session, but I came away unscathed... so far.)