Michael, Thanks for the recommendations. Yes I am pretty much looking for roses that don't completely defoliate and turn into a thorn patch. I have had good luck with my DA's (except for Jubilee celebration, shes not doing so well, but I have hope she'll improve in the fall). I have had exceptional luck with Huntington Rose (aka Alan Titchmarsh rose). She has gotten some BS at the bottom but she seems to just shrug it off and keep on blooming. And i mean A LOT! more than any other rose i have ever known. Its so remarkable in fact that I'm looking for others that will perform as she does. She's a stand out and I'd try every DA rose until I find another one like her LOL. She lives in a 25 gallon pot on my patio (like most of my other roses). She is also grafted onto dr huey. See pic. I absolutely ADORE her. As much as a human can love a plant i think. (i even sing to her LOL)

As the person at Newflora who does the ratings there is so much to say about disease resistance. You are right it is hard to test every location. We know there are at least 12 races of black spot and I think probably more across N. America. The other things I find to affect disease resistance in a particular plant is stress whether it be drought, lack of fertilizer, a hard winter, wrong soil pH can also affect the disease resistance. I would compare it to a person being more susceptible to colds when they are run down or stressed. In one of the threads on this site I mentioned Brothers Grimm had shown black spot in the Midwest but we have never seen it any other place in the world. I can't explain it, but I do believe it had a very bad black spot in this trial location. What we do before we introduce a rose is send it to trial sites across N. America to see the disease tolerance. Kordes also widely tests the roses in Europe. We run our trials with no sprays and try and promote disease by leaving diseased plants in the field and overhead watering to promote black spot. I have strong mildew at my trial site in spring and again in fall. We work very hard to try and deliver roses with excellent disease resistance. That said as we work hard at creating disease resistance roses the fungus is also busy mutating and changing. I don't think we will ever create a perfect rose or if we do the fungus will eventually find a way around it. Realistically I think the way to look at roses is to see if it can maintain health through the summer and maintain at lease the upper 70 percent of the foliage until fall with no spray. In fall as roses start to shut down for the season there may be more disease, but with just a little time left I don't worry about this. The test is that you enjoyed the rose and did not need to spray fungicides to have a great looking rose for the season. A few leaves with spots should not be too great a factor. With mildew if there is a little leaf wrinkle I know it has some susceptibility. but it is keeping the foliage and will be all right when climate conditions change. If it destroys the leaves and ruins the buds, well then it is not something we would introduce. The reason I follow this site is to get feedback on how the roses are performing in a wide geographic area. I learn a lot and if I have something helpful to add when there are questions I do comment. I learned something on this post because Beth's report on Savannah is the first time we have heard of black spot on Savannah. I hope it is transitory for you Beth because this is one of my favorites. Greenburgroses if you are in the south then Wedding Bells has been performing really well on disease and bloom. Plum Perfect is really doing well in the south, but I am not sure about its vigor in the north. We have not finished trials. We introduced PP for southern gardens as part of the Sunbelt series. Poseidon is healthy in the south although tending to be tall. If you buy it you should prune it hard (to 2 feet) in the late winter to maintain it at 3.5'. Savannah is doing well in the south (except at Beth's house :) ) It won awards at Biltmore no spray competition and also did well at the trail at thee U. of Georgia Athens. Wishing very good results with your rose garden.

Two saturated coral reds are Fragrant Cloud http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.1785&tab=1 and its parent Montezuma. http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.4366&tab=1  Some of the photos at HMF show these with a pink cast, but for me they are both strong vibrant pure coral reds that hold their color till petal fall. Both bloom generously here on well branched bushy plants & are healthy no spray in this hot & humid garden. A climber with this same color is America, a child of Fragrant Cloud & grandchild of Montezuma. http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.188 Grow all 3 & wouldn't be without them. The color really stands out & the fragrance of Fragrant Cloud & America is outstanding. Visitors often ask about the "orange" roses & actually mean these.

Hmm, some interesting suggestions! Thank you all. I have Perle D'Or elsewhere and it's a great rose. Ditto Lady H. I also have Sunsprite but it's too small for that spot for me. Buff Beauty holds down the far end of the border, close to the house with less sun, and it's beautiful although the repeat isn't as good as it would be with more sun. I'm dubious about Austins having slowly weeded them out for not performing but the ones you mention are newer ones aren't they - so maybe they would do better? In cultural notes - that's daff and tulip foliage round the base, and if it was just the base that was spotty I'd just grow something taller in front. However it's the whole plant. If they can't cope with the hurly-burly of a mixed border then they aren't a rose for me, space being too limited for more classic rose beds. Summertime and Goldfassade are both new roses to me, so something to research. I have Isabella Sprunt and Etoile at the front of the border at the moment as I don't know how big they are going to get. Probably, like everything else, way too big for their spots. I have that problem in my slightly older pink beds, which I planted assuming that Beales would know what they were about concerning UK rose sizes. I knew they grew bigger elsewhere... Also apparently here too if happy! Re the early yellows - I have R. Primula in a pot elsewhere, not sure it's habit is great for a cramped border? I also have Maigold, which I got as a small cutting late last year - hmf was not incredibly helpful as to it's habit and I don't know if it would work as a shrubby short climber fanned out at the back? I had xanthina but it very suddenly died this spring, don't know why - leaded out as usual and then rapidly died back over a week - looked like it had dried out but that was not the case.