I keep seeing people trying to find BS resistant roses but I suspect all modern roses will eventually get BS in humid conditions although there are many that will hold up for a long time. I also know that if you spray just every two weeks with something that has propiconazole or tebuconazole in it you will not have a BS problem. It is a choice you have to make...an endless headache trying to avoid a problem or simply dealing with the root problem in a straightforward efficient way.

I've gown probably hundreds of varieties over the years. In my experience, the following Hybrid Teas are either BS-free or extremely resistant:

Savoy Hotel
Frederic Mistral
Grande Amore
Pope John Paul II
Elina
Grandma's Yellow
Lafter
Belinda's Dream

You have a full color spectrum with the above: white, red pink, yellow, and a bi-color.

I have not yet found a truly BS-free orange or mauve in my climate. I grow them, but they will BS. Barbara Streisand (note initials "B.S.") starts to defoliate from blackspot about five minutes after putting her in the ground. Such a DIVA!!!!!

Vettin; check out the Texas A&M EarthKind rose program @http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earthkind/roses/

The program was established to find disease resistant roses without spraying in Texas. Belinda's Dream, mentioned above, is one such rose.

Other roses to search for are the Griffth Buck bred roses. 'Carefree Beauty' is a Buck rose that received the EarthKind designation and I grow several Bucks that I never spray; EarthSong, Prairie Harvest, and Freckles. Actually I never spray anything if I have to, but the last three roses have absolutely no blackspot in this lousy year for it. See the link on my blog for more info:

Here is a link that might be useful: Griffith Buck blog on Garden Musings.

Climates differ. In my climate, Savoy Hotel and Frederic Mistral will pretty much defoliate from blackspot, and Belinda's Dream from cercospora spot.

My list of most resistant HT or HT-type roses would be:

Elina
The McCartney Rose
Naga Belle
Mother of Pearl
Prairie Harvest (gets cercospora)
Earth Song
Les Sjulin
Lafter (not HT form; gets cercospora)

But none of these would be completely free of both diseases.

I have to agree with henryinct on this one ... if you want to grow HTs in this area, (1) your choices for disease resistant ones are very limited, and (2) you can expand your choices with judicious use of fungicide. There's one HT that I can think of that's doing very nicely in Robert's no-spray garden ... all of the others struggle. Perhaps he'll speak up and remind me what it is.

Disease resistant is just that ... it's not disease proof. Around here, if you're gonna grow repeat-blooming roses without fungicide, you can almost guarantee some sort of fungal attack. It's a fact.

Connie

P.S. the Earth Kind literature in the Texas A&M website specifically states that the roses in the program were not evaluated for blackspot. It's a fairly useless designation for us here in BS Hell.

It hasn't been mentioned in a long time but it is worthwhile again mentioning that a good sprayer that emits a very fine mist makes the job easy with the absolute minimum amount of spray. I also don't spray unless there is no wind and above all don't put in more fungicide than is recommended and don't overspray. And I should add don't spray insecticide. The conazoles are very systemic so that immunity actually builds up and you don't need 100 percent coverage and you don't need something else that kills spores. The foliage is protected from within.

I think we need to get over the fear of what spraying might be doing to the environment. If you use common sense and do it carefully I don't think the danger to the environment is great. Right now my fish and frogs in the pond are thriving and the soil is full of worms. And this after many years of spraying.

You know I was just thinking about this very subject - so I am happy to see these lists.

One I can add: I purchased it this year through Pickering - by Kordes - the rose "Eliza". Because it said "disease free" rather than the usual "disease resistant" and really this IS nearly disease free. I only had like two leaves at the very bottom turn yellow-y. I am amazed.

I hope it will be cold hardy as the Kordes roses are purported to be!

sc gardener,
Thank you very much for that recommendation.
I have tree roses that never have leaves on them because of the black spot they get.
I live in the sand hills, Aiken county, and boy, is it ever humid down here!
I need a rose like the one you have.
I bought a Knock out rose in April and it is doing the best of all. No disease at all, good growth and no black spot on leaves, and it has them.
Thanks again.

"P.S. the Earth Kind literature in the Texas A&M website specifically states that the roses in the program were not evaluated for blackspot. It's a fairly useless designation for us here in BS Hell."

Actually, that's not exactly true. The EarthKind roses were selected because they grew best and flourished under specific conditions, one of which was that they were never sprayed with fungicides or pesticides. There is a publication which lists the fungal susceptibilites of the varieties.

I have two "earthkinds" else poulsen and carefree beauty. Both are extremeley healthy and carefree... unfortunately I had to transplant carefree beauty twice... and she didn't like it and is small - but still healthy!
Else poulsen always has flowers on it. A little spotty/funky though on a few leaves.
I did not spray this year.

I completely agree with Connie. Just about everything has BS here.

This summer I did not spray much due to some problems which kept me out of the garden. Everything had some BS. The majority lost most of their leaves. Earth Song, a Buck rose, was probably the best of the HT types. KO held up pretty well. SdlM, a Bourbon, was almost completely clean.

The Earth Kind trial plants are evaluated on the ability to live without supplemental water (after year 1), additional fertilizer, or pesticides of any type. Most of the roses that earned the Earth Kind designation ARE resistant to blackspot defoliation, but this evaluation was not part of the program.

It's wise to talk to other rose growers in your area about how a specific rose performs. This is a huge country, with all climate extremes, and one size (including Earth Kind) does not fit all. Even David George, at Texas A&M, acknowledges this in the "How Cultivars are Selected" web page:

"This process makes Earth-Kind roses the most thoroughly tested, research proven, and environmentally responsible landscape roses recommended for use in Texas landscapes."

Connie

Harryshoe,

It's weird how your Eastern Pa. location is much different than our location here in Central Pa. (Tyrone Pa.)
Blackspot doesn't seem that bad here, even with no spraying.
Even Mister Lincoln slipped through with no BS this season.
Goes to show you it's sort of hard to recommend roses to others in different locations.

But, I will add, if a rose does good in your location Harryshoe than that rose would be worth being considered by others to try.
Also others in worse BS climates/locations that have a certain rose that does good would be worth considering.
I myself, just find it hard to recommend certain roses.

I'm from Maryland.

HereÂs my list of HTÂish roses what works for me so far with once per month spraying for BS. They are all winter hardy and some get a little BS but not a lot:
Archduke Charles
Souvenir de la Malmaison
Louis XIV
Field of the Woods
Heritage
Traviata is listed as a HT but really looks more like a shrub
Pope John Paul II
Knockout
Europeanna
Ingrid Bergman

Winter Sunset  new this year but looks really promising
Cadenza - Â new this year but looks really promising

Here in my parts of MD all HTs getBS and defoliate w/o spray. There are few that are a little better than others, they can keep some leaves, but still mostly look bare. My list is very similar to Michael's
Elina
The McCartney Rose
Liebeszauber
Earth Song
Lafter (gets cercospora)

With regular spary progrm using such fungisides as Banner max or Bayer Disease control, you can grow any HT here w/o problem. I used to grow a lot of HTs here and spray them. Now I am down to three. They look bare most of the time w/o spray, but this year was much better than usual for MD in terms of BS. We had much higher temps, could be it was too warm for BS spores, they are more happy when night temps (when leaves are wet from dew) are around 70 deg.
Olga

Olga, seems like our Tweedledum/Tweedledee act goes back a long way! I need to try Liebeszauber.

The Earthkind program is terrific, but disease pressures in Maryland or Western North Carolina are worse than anywhere in Texas. Coastal and eastern Texas do have plenty of blackspot when nights are not too hot for germination to occur. However, some roses that resist defoliation in Texas will defoliate in the worst blackspot climates unless they are sprayed occasionally.

Winter Sunset is a good suggestion by Dennis, though it will get cercospora spot in mild, rainy weather. Cut the flowers in very tight bud, or they will blow open and bleach out. Like Earth Song, it is a great producer.

I'm from Zone 6 in the midwest, so don't know if this will help you or not, but I go along with those recommending Elina and Earth Song--very resistant roses.

Now that my Double Delights have matured (6-8 years old), they are pretty good on disease-resistance, but had lots of BS problems their first few years. Other HTs that do fairly well are Well-Being and Valencia and Peter Mayle.

Kate

Michael
I tried Winter Sunset too. I agree that it has better resistance than average, probably comparable to Elina.
Olga

How about Berolina and possibly other more recent Kordes H.T.?

Try Pickering and check hybrid Tea and very disease resistant.

Here is a link that might be useful: link for above

Kordes has released a number of shrub and climbing roses recently that have good disease resistance, but I haven't heard of any that are HT-like. Maybe someone has.

Mainly I'm bumping the thread for the valuable information it contains. Most new growers want HT-like flowers and don't want to spray. There are so few roses that fit that bill for the East, South, and eastern Great Plains. Notice especially the varieties that get multiple endorsements.

Oh, let me second michaelg's recommendation for 'Mother of Pearl.'

Kordes' Brilliant? Isn't that the shrub that looks like an HT? It's garish & right up my alley, but not sure if it has mass appeal.

HMF says "very disease resistant". I've noticed that most of them in my zone get very large and hold their leaves well, staying nice & green in the process.

This year, with unusually hot and dry weather, most of my formerly BS resistant roses got it. So making a list might be very conditional. But then I'm hardly a good source for this question as I now only have 2 HT's. One a fairly new HT from Meilland, Andre le Notre, looks good on that score.