Tell us what roses you have tried to grow so we can get an understanding of your disease pressure.

Here, Austins are definitely roses that require spray. The roses that do well no spray with a good fragrance tend to be once bloomers.

Thanks - here are the ones I can remember in no particular order (some are gone already):
Mme. Pierre Oger (bourbon, adore this rose, had bout 8 of these, but all were infected),
Sombreuil (HT),
Martha (bourbon),
Comtesse de Murinais (moss, this one did the best of them all, but was also blackspot about half way up),
La Reine (HP),
Mr Lincoln (HT),
Tropicana (HT),
Evelyn (DA - amazing flowers, completely defoliated by mid july),
Coquette des Blanches (bourbon - god I loved this flower),
Reine Victoria (bourbon)

Maybe my error was in choosing bourbons, known to be blackspot magnets. but the others, some of which I inherited (Like Mr Lincoln which was a whopping 8+ feet tall) were just as bad.

I have lived in California for many years, but I began my rose growing career in Butler County, Pennsylvania, so I am familiar with what you face.

Hybrid perpetuals and bourbons are not your best bets. Even here in dry California they benefit from spray. If you love these roses so much you are willing to experiment, I would suggest 'Joasine Hanet', 'Sidonie', and 'Yolande d'Aragon' as the best to grow in a no-spray regimen. They may still get blackspot, but they are the most disease resistant HPs I know of. Here the found rose Grandmother's Hat is also highly disease resistant, but I have heard that it does not do quite as well in humid climates. Still, if you want to try it, it might be worth the risk. All four of these are fragrant and lovely.

Do not ignore the rugosa class. Most of them repeat well, are highly disease resistant, cold tolerant, and very fragrant. I love them, but alas, they simply do not grow well in my climate and soil. I do grow one (Dart's Dash) even though it is not happy with the western alkaline soil. They will sucker and spread if grown on their own roots, so you might consider getting them grafted. Pickering Nursery is an excellent source for grafted rugosas. I should mention that the rugosa roses cannot be sprayed.

As Mad Gallica mentioned the once blooming European old garden roses are less susceptible to black spot than later classes of roses. Albas and damasks are the most fragrant. Gallicas are moderately fragrant. Gallicas and some of the others will sucker and spread the same way the rugosas do, growing like a thicket. If this is fine with you, go for it. If not you will want to grow them grafted. Again Pickering is a good source.

When considering once bloomers, consider ramblers. Some are very fragrant, some are not. Keep away from Dorothy Perkins. I don't think it gets much blackspot, but it gets horrible powdery mildew. But there are literally hundreds of ramblers, some of modest size, some big enough to climb into trees or swallow a shed. Many are not much planted because people are unwilling to plant once bloomers, but they are stunning when in bloom. I myself would not want a garden comprised entirely of once blooming roses, but I think a very good argument can be made for planting 10% of your roses as once bloomers. When in bloom, they outshine anything else you can imagine.

There are modern shrubs that are bred for disease resistance. Kordes in Germany is famous for this and has produced some lovely roses, not only disease resistant but also cold hardy. Until recently they did not seem to be selecting for scent, though I do believe some of their recent introductions are fragrant. The ones I have grown were not, but I have not grown many of them.

Among the Austins, look among more recent introductions. Disease resistance did not seem to be high on his list of characteristics in the early days, though I'm sure a few were. Mayflower is the first one to be marketed for that quality.

There are other breeders who are selecting for this particular trait, and also for fragrance. Paul Barden who sometimes posts here is one. His roses can be found at Rogue Valley Roses. Tom Carruth also considers these two qualities (also stripes, also near-blue color). He currently works for Weeks Roses. He also has posted here from time to time, though I haven't seen him in several years, perhaps because I spend less time on the Roses Forum than this one.

And also, please remember that disease resistant does not mean disease immune. All roses get some disease at some point. However, the level of disease varies widely.

So that you will get a clear idea of how I judge disease resistance, I'll describe my own practice. I do a single dormant spray of copper (organic) once a year after pruning to break the disease cycle, and no other spray for the rest of the year. Roses that cannot perform reasonably well with this practice will be removed. As I mentioned, my garden is in a low rainfall, semi-arid area. (More arid than semi this year!) Black spot exists here, but rust and powdery mildew are the diseases we worry about more.

Rosefolly

This post was edited by rosefolly on Fri, Feb 28, 14 at 14:16

Wow - thanks so much for the excellent info - I read about Mayflower and Susan Williams-Ellis (sport of Mayflower) I did look at Kordes but didn't see much I was excited about - Ill need to look again.

And thanks for the info on your own spray practice. You have given me much to move forward on.

You are welcome.

If you would like to see some of these once blooming old roses at their peak, you can. There is a garden not terribly far from you in Wooster, Ohio affiliated with Ohio State University. It is at its peak for the first two weeks in June. I have not been there myself, but I have been told it is well worth the trip. It is good to see for yourself rather than take it on faith from what someone on the internet said!

Folly

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden of Roses of Legend and Romance

I am in southwest PA as well so I thought I'd chime in, though there are many who know far more than I do. I'm always interested to hear from people who are growing in the same region because roses seem to perform so differently based on climate, soil, even placement in the yard. My experience is limited but here is what does well for me:

Golden Celebration: Gorgeous blooms and 4.5' after one growing season (I like big plants). NO disease in full 8 hrs. sun.

Peggy Martin (not DA, a found rose): Purchased from Antique Rose Emporium and in the ground last April. Again, very clean. Huge though, it's a rambler and is 15' up my south facing chimney already. No scent.

Carding Mill: Everyone seems to love this one and it's such a nice apricot color. Pretty clean for me.

I also have a big old New Dawn that we inherited with the house. It gets some bs as the summer wears on but reblooms nicely and really looks pretty good even with the bs.

I've only been planting roses for a couple of years so we'll have to see how these do when they're established. The only flop I have is Julia Child which was completely defoliated from bs all summer last year. I don't spray so she may not stay.

I've bought quite a few roses at The Farm and Garden in Allison Park and the owners sell many DAs and are very knowledgeable about the plants. They've grown many of them in multiple locations as they have a landscape architecture business and they've been really thoughtful and helpful in choosing the right rose for the right spot. They have a fantastic native plants selection as well. Great prices.

Within the last 25 years or so, Kordes has released some large and small roses which do have the old fashioned flower shape. Some are the Fairytale line, and larger shrubs Laguna, Larissa, Rosanna. I have Rosanna, but only since last year. All I can say so far is that it seems to be a vigorous grower. The Canadian companies, Pickering and Palatine, have them.

If you ever have the chance to buy the floribunda Ivory Triumph you might want to try it; it had no BS in my yard until the very end of the growing season, and then only on a few bottom leaves.

If you truly want Austins, check some of the new offerings from the last few years. Austin has shown much more attention to "health" (as he puts it) and and his newer offerings are often quite disease resistance. One clue: Austin hates to use negative words like "disease" resistance. He is much more likely to describe the rose a very "healthy," excellent "health," exceptional "healthiness. " If he says nothing about how healthy the rose is, watch out--its a disease magnet in many cases.

Mayflower and it white cousin Susan are both good roses in some ways, but they do have some other problems--like not always opening in all kinds of weather. And they aren't very showy blooms a lot of the time. As reliable and dependable as my Mayflower was (I had it about 5-6 years) I finally replaced it with Secpter'd Isle--also a lighter pink and downright beautiful and supposedly disease-resistant, but it is still new so I can't give a definitive report on it yet.

Some other Austin pinks that are very "healthy"--Mortimer Sackler, Queen of Sweden,. My new Munstead Wood (purple-dark red) shows a lot of promise, and Apricot/gold Lady of Shalott is quite disease resistant. I haven't grown them, but Princess Alexandra of Kent (darker pink) and several of the newer purple-pink roses are supposed to be very good, according to other gardeners.

Those are a few possibilities among the newer roses to explore.

Kate