Cheema, welcome to this site. I will describe my experience with some of the roses on your list. I see you have a lot of rugosas. They are mostly good in terms of resistance to BS, especially original rugosas not their hybrids. The bad thing is they are always the first roses to attract JBs. I know that in some MD areas JBs are less of a problem, so I don't know how it will be for you, but here they are horrid and I don't see a single bloom on rugosas from mid June to mid/late August.And even the leaves are all skeletonized. Hansa - very vigorous rose. Not as resistant to BS as Rosarie de l'Hay, but still OK most of the years. Rosarie de l'Hay -good rose for our climate. My RdlH is in partial shade from mid summer on, so leaves don't look tired, but turn beautiful golden color in the fall. Overall these two roses, RdlH and Hansa are very similar, but i like RdlH much more. Magnificient Perfume- Fragrance, bloom shape and repeat are excellent, but by no means it can be a no spray rose. I have my MP for more then 5 years and it gets BS as soon as you stop spraying. I am planning to give it away, it is just so huge and it will harm other plants around, so I keep it until somebody really strong will help me to take it out. Westerland -resistance is better then many other roses, but still will get BS and loose approx 30-50 % leaves. Otherwise fragrant, strong and good repeat. Good choice. Fragrant Masterpiece - the same comments as for the MP. Great rose if you spray. NOT a no spray rose. Joyce Barden - not a no spray rose in my opinion. Felicite Parmentier - great fragrance. Of all the albas I grow this one is the least resistant to PM and BS. I actually spray it. Some people grow it no spray, so it is not so bad, but don't expect it to be completely healthy. Konigen Von Denmark - very healthy. Great fragrance. Good choice. Great Maiden's Blush - sometimes get BS badly in my experience. It all depends on a year. Some years it is clean and some years it is spotty. Soory, it doesn't look too bright, hopefully you get better experience. If you are interested, I can put together a list of roses that I would grow in MD if I had no roses and wanted repeat bloom really badly:) Olga

Zip code zone finder(s) I have used put me wrongly in USDA 7 also. USDA 7 is average lows between 0 and 10F. The all-time record low for the Montlake weather station is 10F, for the Sea-Tac airport 0F. This past winter there was a bunch of browning of long-established specimens belonging to certain alliances at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden - because it got down to 10F there, and it rarely does that. Failing access to correctly identified live material to compare the shrub in question with you'll just have to look at rose books and rose web sites to see if you can find clear markers for one variety or the other indicated.

I am new to this forum. I have several different varieties of roses. I love roses, and I try to buy "extremely disease resistant" because of our moist climate. I find that the plants invariably end up with black spot. I carefully remove all the leaves I can find, sometimes leaving the plant with hardly any leaves! I am going on three years now, this year I think a couple of them really look much better but I am about ready to give up on them I am so tired of going around taking off all the diseased leaves! And yes, I do wash my hands between plants and I clean my pruners (learned that the hard way!). I have a climbing variety (don't have the name handy at the moment) that started out looking pretty good early on this year (I've had it for 3 years). It is fairly shaded, but when I bought it I searched for a climber that could tolerate shade. It is putting out tons of blooms and looks good from a distance but up close it is a mess! I have put so much work into that plant, but it is beating me down! Any tips for the winter, other than building up the mulch at the base? Any tips on a good "fertilizer" or treatment that doesn't stink, preferably organic? Also, do roses that are supposed to be shade tolerant every really shade tolerant? Also, the aphids. I bought tons of lady bugs the last couple of years, let them go in my gardens and when I look for them a week or so later, they are nowhere to be found? Any suggestions on that one?

That is so funny Carol, my wife said the same thing (not the swoon worthy tho, that's a Carol original ;-) One of the gals was not going to attend because of some probs with her mother. That bouquet went home for her.