Hybrid Musks are new to my garden, but I'm finding them to be winter hardy. I grow Lavender Lassie, Bubble Bath, Felicia and Daphne. (They have wonderful fragrance.)

In a cold zone the growth habit is more restrained and they form rounded shaped shrubs, I'm estimating 3-4 feet tall in my garden setting.

The Hybrid Musks are very graceful and lovely shrubs and I don't think they necessarily need to have accompanying roses nearby, but that would look lovely as well.

The rugosas are lovely shrubs as well, many of them can get quite large in a cold zone. They have wonderful clove scent.

Of course you will want to hear from gardeners in the upper Midwest, but I'm a fan of Buck roses. Earth Song is my favorite, very prolific and disease resistant, rather shrubby. Other deep and medium pinks with these qualities are Country Dancer and Carefree Beauty. Quietness is a wonderful blush pink rose and a vigorous grower.

Hybrid musks are grown as dieback shrubs in zone 5. I'd guess that established plants would make arching shoots of 4-6', blooming mainly in large terminal clusters, with some repeat bloom. Because they do arch, I wouldn't underplant with roses. Larkspur would be nice.

If you're interested in climbers, be careful to get something that is always fully cane-hardy in your area, because winter-damaged climbers don't perform as climbers, and you miss the grand display in June.

I can only speak to your question about the rugosa. Last year we bought a 'Frau Dagmar Hastrup' from Forest Farm. Although I would not order from that nursery again the plant was a winner. Very tough, scrubby but beautiful. Very floriferous. I love it. I would buy another one maybe a red instead. I thought I had killed mine this spring when I accidentally broadcast lawn fertilizer into the flower bed but after a short period of it sprouting yellow leaves and looking grumpy it recovered well.

What's more the neighbor kids frequently used to cut through my yard and kind of over that bush until they felt the thorns a time or two. Now they show it respect:-) Point being it is tough to take that kind of treatment.

Hope this helps.

Kate

Thanks for all the info! What do the Buck Hardy varieties look like? Are they shrubs? Do they fill out? If I were to go with them would you need multiple plants? Catalogs only seem to show the blooms.

Check out this link at Heirloom Roses on Buck Roses

Here is a link that might be useful: Buck Roses

Some of the Buck roses would not be fully cane-hardy in zone 5, but they will survive reliably, certainly if the graft (if the rose is grafted) is buried slightly. You might have some cane damage above the snow line for that winter. I say this because it would affect the ultimate size, if you are trying to grow big shrubs.

Earth Song has a spreading-upright habit 4' wide with many stems, and I grow mine at 4-5' high after pruning to about 18". Country Dancer is more vigorous and sometimes wider than tall, with some trailing growth. Carefree Beauty has a typical shrub-rose habit and can get big. On the other hand, Distant Drums has a hybrid tea habit. Prairie Harvest (another good, resistant one) grows something like a vigorous hybrid tea and also has that type of flower. Prairie Sunrise is always a compact, bushy small shrub.

Growth of shrubs varies a lot with how they are pruned and deadheaded. If left alone, a rose like Winter Sunset (also recommended) will form an arching shrub 5 x 5, but I am pruning the one in my garden to stand up.

You can probably find whole-bush shots of most of these at HelpMeFind.com.

I was just looking on Rogue Valley website at some nice Bourbon shrub roses that are hardy to zone 5.
Souvenir du President Lincoln and Zephirine Drouhin.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bourbon roses