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.

Another bit about rugosas in hot climates: Back in the 1980s, I was under the impression that they would not grow in hot climates, and certainly, they were not thriving for me. Then I visited Robert Basye in Texas, and he had huge, tree-like rugosas in his climate that regularly tops 100F. He said the secret was to graft them to 'Fortuniana' rootstock. I was already doing that with other roses, but had not tried putting R. rugosa or its hybrids on Fort. So I went home and tried it. Since then, they are easy roses to grow. Granted, Lakeland Florida is not "hot" by some standards -- we only reach 100F every 4-5 years. But we do have consistent heat -- often not a day with a high of less than 90 from June 1 through Sept. 30, and lots of days in the mid- to upper 90s, with high humidity (I suspect the humidity helps in this case). Yes, they do get stressed somewhat in mid-summer, but no worse than other classes of roses. And they flower pretty much continuously through the period. Ours are in all-day full sun. I've not tried afternoon shade. Now that we have chili thrips, they have become more challenging, since rugosas are so sensitive to sprays of any kind. But we've used soil drenches of imidacloprid, and at least for now, that works. We dread the day when the thrips become resistant, and while I like to rotate materials for that reason, with a rugosa, there's not much else one can use.

Update from April 2013: the plant just got its first bud (from the look of the fringe petals the color is likely to be red/pink). Here are a couple of pictures: 1. First bud 2. Full plant with a pack of fertilizer for scale About 3 years from seed to first bloom in close to ideal conditions (grown in a planter till this spring, good exposure to sun). Its siblings, still growing in hardpan clay under poor lighting conditions are not doing quite as well (no buds to be seen on any of them).

wait until bloom is finished, then harvest semi ripe cuttings, and root them in peat based fertilizer free potting medium with some sand mixed in. I find it easiest to root indoors under fluorescent light, 16 hours on, 8 hours off. Google search for George Mander and Cheryl Netter for tips, also object16 on this site had some nice threads a year ago.