Hi Chris, my favorite fast growing and cold hardy rose is Robusta. It repeat blooms, is a vibrant red with single blossoms. Another very hardy rose with beautiful double pink blossoms is John Davis. Both roses grow to about 5 feet in my location. If you don't mind once bloomers, Harison's Yellow roses are spectacular in the spring-no winter dieback here in southwesern Montana. For shorter roses, Winnipeg Parks, Prairie Joy, Mordens Blush are favorites of mine. The Canadian Parkland and Explorer roses are very winter hardy. In your climate you have many more choices than me, but these are roses that I enjoy growing. Good luck!

I agree with the above poster. In your area, the Canadian roses are a good way to go. I love John Davis & the Mordens. You might also look into the Easy Elegance series from Bailey's. Most of them are zone 4 & they are really wonderful roses.

Thank you both for the input. :)

Can anyone recommend a reputable, dependable supplier. I live far from any real nurseries and have to have most everything come in via UPS.

Explorers: 'William Baffin' for a big, bold statement in medium/deep pink. 'John Davis' is great for a lighter pink and a bit more grace of habit. For red you can't beat 'Champlain' or perhaps 'Cuthbert Grant'. Yellows are harder to find for cold climates, but I suspect 'Mordern Sunrise' will work, and it is one of the smaller shrubs, IE: 2 X 2 feet or thereabouts.

Then of course there are the Rugosas: the species forms are great plants, and I wouldn't be without at least one specimen of 'Hansa', with its intense Clove-like fragrance. It also offer a much deeper magenta color than many others, verging on purple at times.

Hi Chris,
I too sometimes use mailorder rose suppliers. The ones I have placed orders and were happy with are: Antique Rose Emporium, High Country Roses, Heirloom Old Garden Roses & Forest Farm. This year I have orders placed with two Canadian rose suppliers: Cornhill Nursery & Pickering Nurseries. Of course there are hundreds of mailorder nurseries which I am sure are great. It sure helps beat the winter blues thinking about spring rose planting! Best wishes.

Chris - for the types of roses that have been recommended for you, try Pickering Roses (Ontario). Few nurseries anywhere carry much in the way of roses, almost everyone here has to mail-order.

Also search here and on the Antique Rose Forum for postings by "Celestrialrose" a rose lover from NH named Celeste.

Good Luck with your new gardens
Maureen

Here is a link that might be useful: One of Celeste's posts

If you are not yet familiar with the "Help Me Find" database, you should make your acquaintance with that, too.

By the way, if you are open to the idea of using roses that only bloom once per year (typically in mid or late spring), you'll find that your possible choices will immediately increase several fold, and will range from roses that are quite short to roses that are quite large (e.g., shrubs that are 8' x 9').

Hi:

My very first post! Grow roses in the Twin Cities of MN. You may want to consider three new 'Northern Accent' roses from the U of MN that are for zones 3 and 4:

Lena
Sven
Ole (my favorite)

These are designed to act like a perennial. Die back each winter and come back strong next spring. Continuous bloomers, disease free. Not sophisticated roses but hardy and mostly carefree. Ole is white/pink heavy bloomer and grows to 4 ft high each year.

Hi I'm new at garedening I live in Zimmerman MN. I live either zone 3 or 4 I'm not sure. We have sandy soil what kind of roses. Would you recommend for my area? I would like it to bloom all summer and fragrant. I would also like it to be some what matance free. Becouse I'm legaly blind. Thank you for all your help. Lill

Pickering and High Country Roses are good suppliers. You should also look at Habitat for Humanity which is as red as Champlain but larger and Morden Centennial which has been hardy in my zone 5 for ten years without much problems. Do not ignore the Buck roses from Chambless Nursery in Texas. Carefree Delight has been in my garden over ten years. Earthsong has been pretty bulletproof for me and a beautiful rose. William Baffin and John Cabot are two Canadian roses that can get large but they are hardy with no protection. Dortmund is not Canadian but still very hardy and a highly rated rose as well. My climate should be similar to NH and I had temperatures of minus 24 below this winter.

Robusta is a favorite of mine. In general I find Kordes roses great although not all are as hardy as the Explorer roses but some of them have been bred from a cross with a Kordesii ( A new species developed by Kordes that is hardy and disease free)

For a source please use Pickering or Palatine both supply roses grafted on Multiflora root stock that is great for colder climates. And if they carry a rose you can be sure it is a good one.

A really great very hardy Rambler is Baltimore Belle. It is huge and when it blooms it is an event to be looked forward to every year.

This is also my firt year gardening in zone 5. I moved to central NY last year from CA, from zone 9 to zone 5.

I ordered hardy roses from Vintage, 5 different unusual rugosas, a hybrid setigira, some Portlands, one floribunda from Tantau and some large flowered climbers, all descendents of New Dawn, which I hope will be hardy with winter protection.

I lost two roses last year, a Cl. HT (but two more Cl. HTs survived and are leafing out nicely) and a bourbon/noisette.

My order from Vintage arrived here in NY TWO DAYS after being shipped!! I would not order from them in summer, however, because of heat and dryness across the country at that time.

I have had good roses from High Country Roses for the last decade. Never a mislabel, never a mistake of any kind and large, healthy roses.

I am also finding that it is much easier to create mini climates in this zone than it was in CA, where every part of one's yard was hot and dry, with some parts being dryer than others. There is a need to protect from drying, cold winds in early spring--I made temporary wind breaks--but it does not seem to be necessary to provide afternoon shade.