I'm not even on the right continent to know about disease resistance in your area, but I would suggest Albas and Pimpinellifolias as well. A few Pimpinellifolias repeat, such as Stanwell Perpetual, Mon Amie Claire (good repeat) and Aïcha and Frühlingsduft (sporadic repeat). I currently have the Albas Königin von Dänemark and a Norwegian rose called Hurdalsrose. Both with beautiful, matte leaves and totally free of blackspot.

A modern rose that seems very healthy is Alchymist. A once bloomer, but lovely and vigourous.

Maybe someone closer to you can chime in on disease resistance?

This is Hurdalsrose, it can become a small tree!

I think there is no guaranteed answer. So much depends on weather. What I've seen is that if the winter is cold, buds are late to form and there will be fewer of them. Then the weather warms up, it can't help it. When it warms up too many of the blooms will blow out in three days. Not just the blooms with delicate petals, but all the ones I wanted to love.

Perhaps the biggest shock I ever got, rose wise, was seeing the moss rose collection up near Canton Ohio. I had (tried to) grow four or five mosses from Pickering. I got sprays with three or four blooms, but they bloomed fast when the weather got warm. In Ohio, the sprays were ten to fifteen buds, and maybe three were blooming at a time, some were through and the rest were crowding each other, in different stages of opening. I never saw anything like that, even after five years and some variable weather.

OTOH, the spinosissimas in that garden, the year we visited were a no show.

the other thing about the wonderous roses: once they are in good to great garden soil for several year, the root eating hoards work their way through the soil and feast. Just when the roses should be putting on magnificent grow, the vole-mole population has moved in.

One test plant is to put in tulips: if they all come back the next year, you have a chance. Commiserating with a neighbor, we figured that we had kept four tulips blooming were they were first planted (of hundreds of bulbs)

I tried Stanwell Perpetual when I first started with old roses. It did not do well, but then I ordered too many different varieties and tried to fit them to a garden with too much shade. The European roses (once bloomers and repeaters) that do well now did almost nothing for the first eight or nine years until a storm brought down a number of big oaks that were shading the European section. During that same period, Devoniensis and Lamarque, at the south end of the garden, grew large and produced spectacular displays in the sunny space created by the loss of big oaks during a hurricane 10 years earlier, but they languish now in shade as the nearby woods fill up with tall young trees.

RE: voles--I hope/assume that the Gallicas can sucker faster than voles can eat their roots, but I don't know. Over the past two years I have lost two Roses of Sharon (as large as small trees) and a medium-sized Ispahan, and recently a couple of suckers of Tuscany.

Ispahan was planted in a wire cage--there was no visible sign of vole activity above-ground, and I was puzzled by the decline of a usually sturdy rose over a period of a year or more. When I finally pulled it up, I found that all of the roots had been cut and the main stem had been hollowed out. The wire cage did not have a bottom, but was 18-20 inches deep. If I use wire cages again, I will close the bottom. The alternative is a pot; I am finding that roses planted in one gallon pots tend to do better probably because it is easier for them to get out of the pot before becoming root bound.

Lindsey

@jacqueline9CA--what a beautiful picture--such a natural, restful looking garden. I agree with your approach to selecting roses although it was not the approach I took when I first started buying and propagating roses. Instead, I set about trying to collect the earliest representative of each class of old roses, which led me to a number of European varieties as well as Noisettes, Teas, and Chinas. I think the change in sun exposure for Lamarque and Devoniensis is the main reason they no longer do well here, although both did die back to the ground during a cold winter and have never recovered their former size.

Teas thrive in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond which is Zone7B--I am 7A. I learned about old roses from Lois, one of my mother's friends, and most of her roses were either Europeans or Modern--eg Carefree Beauty, a once-blooming Wichuriana rambler, a red Foribunda or Polyantha whose name I have forgotten, etc.. I believe she also had Blush Noisette, Louis Philippe, and Marechal Niel but eventually gave the latter to a mutual friend who planted it near the heat pump. I think the mutual friend said once she had never had any luck with Teas--I must call her and ask. If our experiences here in Hanover are typical, this is not a difference I would expect to see between 7A and 7B over a distance of 20 or 25 miles.

Over the years I have learned to love roses that work for me. The Europeans, which I bought or raised mainly because they were old, have become favorites because they give so much and ask for so little, and I appreciate the fact that most of them are small and do not have vicious thorns. If I were starting anew, I would have more repeating Europeans.

Lindsey

It is indeed difficult to understand why roses of certain classes just dislike certain gardens. For example, I am beginning to suspect that Chinas might not be very do-able in my garden,because of mildew. But it might not be all Chinas; I think the only ones I have are Clbg. Old Blush and Empress of China. Both get mildew and drop all their leaves in late spring; I already dug out the Empress. However, I saw that it was growing in very bad soil,so maybe that was part of it. I'll probably just sp one of my Clbg OBs,since it is in a spot where you can see it well during it's "ghastly" phase. I have others that are doing better because of better soil,and besides they are mixed in with other plants so I don't notice poor foliage. In another thread I mentioned my perplexities with the Noisettes...

@bartbart--Good morning and thank you. May I ask your zone and location?

Lindsey

You're welcome, Lindsey! I'm in Tuscany, Italy, in the foothills of the Apennines,so I don't know precisely what USDA zone that would be-something like zone 8 or 9? In any case, here it's the summer heat and drought that kills, not winter weather.

You've seen the thread about the hybrid Damasks, which ARE the European repeat-blooming roses that don't have China blood. I'll mention a couple of others, mostly referred to in that thread, that strike me as having decided Damask character, however they may be classed. They are 'Enfant de France', 'Rose du Roi' (I know: drastically confused in the trade), and one that hasn't to my knowledge come up recently: 'Sydonie'.

How about the Portlands/Hybrid Damasks? 'Indigo' and 'Marbree' come to mind, both very satisfying roses for me, Damask-looking.

@bart bart--Summers here are hot and not free of drought, but heat and humidity are a much greater problem, hence Blackspot is also a problem. The temperature range here is -12F to 107F, but both only once in my lifetime, I'm glad to say, and I hope we won't have either extreme again. Summer temperatures in the low to mid 90s are above average, but hardly uncommon. We have plenty of freezing cold in winter for a good spring flush on once-bloomers.

@Melissa Northern Italy zone 8--Thank you for the suggestions. I would be inclined to try Sydonie for its beautiful blooms (as least in pictures) but it does seem to resemble Marchesa Boccella which I have and which gets high ratings for disease resistance and a high rating from the Rose Society in this area whereas Sydonie is susceptible to Blackspot, a big problem here.

Indigo is different from any Damask I have, and by all accounts has good repeat and good disease resistance. Marbree is interesting, though perhaps less beautiful but also different from anything I have and with good ratings for disease resistance.

Unless I replace Chinas and Teas with Europeans, I have to think about available sunny spaces, and I intend to replace Portland Rose and propagate two or three more Autumn Damasks--I think the first cutting of AD has already struck--if not, it's deceiving me because it's growing new leaves.

Lindsey

Lindsey, have fun with your experimentation! I've rooted 'Autumn Damask' before, so would say your chances of growing it from cuttings are good. About 'Marbree', I don't know how it comes across in photos--or how your taste in roses is--but I like it. Think of a spotted version of 'Apothecary's Rose' and you'll have the idea. It's very cheerful!

I like all the roses I mentioned, but I don't have to deal with black spot, so can't say much on that head.