I live in zone 5 a little west of Madison WI and have a "Blaze Improved" that has been in for over 8 years. I live in a valley so I get lots of wind and a little cooler climate than in town, my lilacs bloom 2 weeks after the ones there. I didn't do a very good job of taking care of Blaze (didn't prune, water regularly, or fertilize up till 2 years ago). The pictures below are from today, October 3rd, and it's still cranking out the 2.25" blooms on the 5-6 foot canes. It does get BS here but I don't care, this has got to be the bloomingist rose I have. The color is a true, rich, beautiful red that does not fade (picture color is pretty accurate). Little or no fragrance to me. I don't do anything special in the winter except dump a half bag of chip bark mulch on the base for winter and sometimes if I have extra oak leaves I use those instead. There is very little die back or pruning to do come spring. From what I've read, 'Blaze' is zone 6-10, blooms on old wood, and 'Blaze Improved' is zone 5-9 blooms on new and old wood, if that helps for pruning. Very consistent and dependable.

Hi - Roses do very well here in Fla., sounds like you got some Black Spot also they were too dry, being in pots they dry much quicker..... The Bradenton-Sarasota Rose Society has a great web-site with lots of information how to grow roses, plus pics of recommended varieties for south Fla., there is also a fantastic rose garden at the Ringling estate in Sarasota, was planted by Mabel Ringling, so you can see what does well here..... HD roses are not suited for here they ship them in from greenhouses who knows where... it is rare to find any that do well here from the big-box stores..... I get my roses mail-order from K & M roses in Miss., they are grafted on Fortuniana which is recommended because of the nematodes in the soil here...... when you plant them here you need to prepare your rose-bed with lots of organics such as Black Cow, Black Hen, Alfalfa pellets, cottonseed meal, Milorganite.... and work in lots of leaves and mulch, and then mulch heavily..... pots are OK but work against you and are more difficult to maintain, they get too hot and too dry...... and need to be huge to give the roses room to spread the roots.... and roses need planty of water, I have overhead sprinklers and run them several times a week, depending on the amt. of rain.... I have several rain-gauges around to keep track of the amt. of water they get, they need several inches per week so the ground under the mulch stays damp, but not wet..... I am all organic no-spray, and find a well-fed roses doesn't usually need any spray, and if it does get too much Black Spot I replace it with a more resistant variety...... you can do a lot of research by going on Google and typing in 'roses in Fla' or 'rose growing in Fla', and various wordings...... also on the Garden Web there are several Rose Forums with helpful folks..... Good Luck, sally

Below is the info. that Floweraremusic (zone 5) in Washington gave on her 2020 winter-survival. She has alkaline clay with rocks at bottom like mine & less snow in winter: "My hardiest roses are the Canadians. John Davis, John Cabot, Wm. Baffin, Morden Sunrise, Morden Blush and Morden Centennial, Victorian Memory aka Isabelle Skinner, also a Canadian rose. All these only have tiny bit of tip damage and bloom a lot with no special care. Also, my Hybrid Perpetuals only have tip damage after winter. Magna Charta, Mrs. John Laing, Black Prince and Marchesa Buccella. The only negative is they don’t have long enough cutting stems. All my Austins are very hardy. The one I just can not grow is Jude. Leonardo da Vinci is super hardy and always healthy. Quietness comes through winter very well. Even Rouge Royale survives beautifully. Cinderella Fairy Tale is very hardy. Gruss an Aachen also. Ballerina and Marjorie Fair are both hardy. Poseidon, Princess Charlene de Monaco and Crazy Love didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. The surprise losses this year are Quicksilver, and Dames de Chenonceau who is left with only 1 cane. Versigny is also reduced down to almost nothing. This was a mild winter with very little snow. " Floweraremusic (zone 5). From StrawChicago (zone 5a with hard black-gumbo alkaline clay & less snow but with freezing rain in winter). Versigny didn't survive winter either. So I lost Versigny TWICE. Besides Versigny, other wimpy own-root roses that don't survive winter well: Paul Neyron, Anna's Promise, Pink Peace (own-root died 1st winter, but grafted-Pink Peace survives many winter), Elantyne, Jude the Obscure, Young Lycidas (bought as grafted-on-Dr.Huey, now with only one cane), Mary Daly, and many floribundas don't survive my zone 5a: Pink Chiffon, Sheila's perfume, King Arthur, Deep Purple, Shocking blue, Honey Bouquet (survived 1 winter). Polka Climber (survived 1 winter), Cloutilde Soupert (died twice on me). Sutter's Gold didn't survive winter, same with many fragrant mini-roses from Burlington nursery. Below are my hardy OWN-ROOT roses in my zone 5a alkaline clay, only Double Delight, Young Lycidas and Lavender Crush are grafted-on-Dr.Huey. Bold-faced are the very vigorous ones: Own-roots with 3 feet of green canes: Carding Mill (since 2012), Princess Charlene of Monaco, Duchess de Rohan, Crown Princess Magareta (since 2012), Zepherine Drouhin, Lady of Shalott, James Galway, Lavender Crush, Queen of Sweden (gave away but very hardy), Poseidon (right below the rain-spout, dug down to 2.5 feet), Scepter'd Isle (very big & hardy own-root but gave that away with its lousy scent). Own-roots with 2 feet of green canes: La Reine (many winters), Blue Mist (since 2012), Prairie Harvest (since 2014), Mary Magdalene (since 2011), Evelyn (since 2012), Radio Times (since 2011), Pat Austin (since 2011), Christopher Marlowe (since 2011), Golden Celebration (since 2011), Lilian Austin (gave away but very hardy), the Squire, the Dark Lady, Wise Portia survived 4 winters but died in poor drainage clay, Dee-lish (since 2015), Twilight Zone (since 2016), William Shakespeare. 2000 (since 2011), Comte de Chambord (since 2012), Princess Anne, Sweet Mademoiselles, Aloha climber, Orchid Romance, Bohemian Rhapsody, Marie Pavie, Lagerfeld (since 2017), Frederic Mistral survived 2 winters but died when I didn't winter-protect with leaves, Sonia Rykiel (survived 3 winters) but died in freezing rain winter, same with 1/4 of the street-trees in my neighborhood, Excellenz von Shubert (since 2013), Own-roots with less than 1 foot of green canes: Gina's rose, Tchaikosky (since 2015), Cornelia (since 2018), Bolero (few winters), Peter Mayle, Sharifa Asma, Neil Diamond, Amber Queen, A Shopshire Lad, Strike it Rich, Old Port (since 2012), Veteran's Honor (many winters), Double Delight (grafted on Dr.Huey), Savannah, Tess of d'Uberville, Gene Boerner (since 2014), thornless Yves Seedling (since 2013), Stephen big Purple (since 2012), Louise Este, Mirandy, Crimson Glory, Liv Tyler survived 1 winter but needs winter-protection, Rouge Royal (bought last year with no winter-protection). Annie L. McDowell (survived 2 winters but needs a wet-spot since it's almost thornless), Nahema (survived 1 winter then died during freezing-rain winter), same with Eyes-for-you (drought-tolerant and doesn't like freezing wet winter), Souvenir du President Lincoln, Madame Issac Pererie and Madame Earnest Calvat, Firefighter (survived 2 winters) but died since it's next to tree. Bayes Blueberry (survived many winters but I gave away), Charles Darwin (gave away since it fades badly), Arthur Bell (since 2012 & killed it since I don't like the flowers). StrawChicago.

sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida 9a) SAID: "Although Mrs B R Cant might not be technically a OGR (1901), she is still pretty old lol. I really love her fragrance. I think she is one of my all time favorites . . . " BUT SHE IS AN OGR! ARS's official definition of "Old Garden Roses" is that ANY rose OF A CLASS OF ROSES that existed prior to 1867 is considered to be an "Old Garden Rose." SO, if I were to introduce a Tea Rose, say next month ... it would be an "Old Garden Rose." And people HAVE created modern-born "Old Roses". At the same time, Hybrid Musks and Polyanthas (as examples) are NOT "Old Garden Roses" because they did not exist as a class prior to 1867. Why 1867? Because that was the date of the introduction of the first Hybrid Tea Rose -- The first "Modern Rose".