In what general part of the country do you live? For example, Buck roses do better in the midwest than in the northeast. Here is what midwestgardetips says about Easy Elegance roses: "The Easy Elegance Series of roses are as easy to care for as flowering shrubs. Follow standard planting practices for shrub roses and feed once a year in very early spring with a slow release fertilizer. There is no need for a chemical regimen to control pests and disease. The collection was bred by Bailey Nurseries and is a perfect northern rose with blooms that rival grafted tea roses." http://www.midwestgardentips.com/hardy_roses_for_midwest_garden.html My rugosas get blackspot, especially Hansa. You can't spray them because they drop their leaves. Cane borers can wipe out most of the canes, and pulling out suckers is work. Rose de Rescht is another possibility. It is probably the best repeating of the Old Garden Roses and is very hardy. Country Dancer is another Buck rose to consider.

If you are really in zone 3 (-40 F), it will be hard to grow any roses except as annuals. But in case you want to try again, here are a couple of suggestions. 1. Plant grafted roses deep, with the graft buried several inches. 2. Winter protection is not to protect against snow and frost. It is to protect against serious cold that would damage the hardened canes and roots. In this case you are trying to save the graft or the underground crown from fatal levels of hard freezing. So do not protect because snow and frost are forecast. Wait until the plants are dormant, this will help them harden up. Protect when temperatures of 10 F and below are forecast. 3. Burlap is probably useless in this situation. None of the canes of regular modern roses are going to survive winter. Pile soil deeply over the crown of the plant and top with a mulch that will have some insulating quality. The soil will conduct ground heat from further down and provide a "thermal mass" that reduces temperature swings. 4. In spring, remove the cover and prune the canes down to healthy white pith. This will probably entail taking all the canes down to the graft, or if ungrafted, the natural crown between canes and roots. If you are lucky, some of the grafts/crowns will survive. For what it's worth, we had a poster, Riku in zone 3 Alberta, who tried hard to grow roses for a few years. He brought in a truckload of peat every fall and covered the entire bed a foot deep. He got some roses to survive. I suggest that you try the Canadian Explorer roses, the bush types not the climbers, for example 'Champlain'. These will be hardier, and some cane may survive. See the link. Here is a link that might be useful: HMF

Both of these roses are very short, 2 ft tall at most. They are meant to be used as ground cover roses not really as hedges. The flower carpet rose has more petals than the drift rose does but they are both repeat bloomers so should bloom all season long in flushes.

Beautiful picture, Sarah Ann! Your photo reminded me of another rose with big beautiful blooms, (maybe it’s already been mentioned). What about “Chartreuse de Parme”? Mine is still young, and I can’t locate any pictures of her first blooms, but they were impressive already. She reportedly has very large blooms, is very fragrant, and her color is somewhat similar to Yves Piaget(mauve/pink). Hopefully, mine will really take off soon, since I planted it into the ground over the winter. I left for my mom’s house right after I posted my comment/question asking if there was a time release granular fertilizer that is soluble, and I couldn’t get the thought out of my head, that perhaps that’s an oxymoron. I know so little about container fertilizer(or fertilizers in general) that it may have been a foolish question:) I just know myself. I can’t see spraying fertilizer on the leaves regularly, and even mixing and watering it in every week or two isn’t going to happen on a regular basis. When I’m unwell, just watering my pots is enough of a struggle. I tend to have more problems with my MS during the summer heat, so I just know I won’t keep up with weekly fertilizing. I think your suggestion of asking on the container gardening forum is a good one, Carol. I should ask there, and explain what exactly I’m looking for. Thank you:) Peter, we know exactly what you mean by “guano”. In this case we would call it “manure”. :) Check out “Chartreuse de Parme”, by Delbard. I think you’ll like it, and it’s very highly rated in all categories. Lisa