Thanks! Very glad you decided to try no-spray and see how the roses did - if I were you I would only keep the ones that did fine w/o spraying. That way you can have lots of beneficial insects to eat bad bugs in the future, not to mention bees & butterflies, etc.

My zone is 9 in No Cal, Mediterranean climate, so no comparison, but to answer your question I planted 5 polyanthas (Lauren, Margo Koster, Dick Koster, Mignonette, and Charles Walker Mignonette), 2 modern shrubs (Blushing Knockout and Peach Drift), and 4 tea roses (Lady Hillingdon, Mrs. Dudley Cross, Niles Cochet, and Susan Louise), this past Spring/Summer. They are all doing wonderfully with no spraying. They all are still blooming as we speak, and their foliage is clean. The tea roses had all been languishing unhappily in large pots (except for Niles Cochet, which was using its pot as a launching pad to take over the universe). It was amazing - within 2 weeks of being planted in the ground, they stopped sulking, & began putting out new growth, and within a month they were all blooming! My garden has been no spray for over 20 years, and I am very happy with the results. We get an amazing number of ladybugs, soldier bugs, and even tiny birds who come in huge flocks to eat the aphids in the Spring.

Jackie

I forgot one - we also planted a Grandmother's Hat (mystery OGR) this summer. It is also taking off - has tripled in size so far, and today I saw 3 buds on it - can't wait for it to bloom. I've heard it gets mildew some places, but here it is clean as a whistle. Not only do we live in a dry summer (read 8-9 months) climate, but we live 4 blocks from the downtown of a 50,000 pop city on a busy street, and I have heard that that discourages fungus.

Jackie

Yes, definitely worth it to find ones that do well in your backyard without spraying. Who has the time or money to do it, and who needs those toxic chemicals all over the place.

With varieties available that will grow disease free in a range of climate conditions, I suspect that at some point spraying will be something only the exhibitioners do.

I'm glad to hear you've had good luck with Will Shakespeare and Queen of Sweden and I've been told that Princess Alexandria is worth some patience, as she gets better each year.

Princess Alexandra is a beautiful bloom...and tough. Held up to some pretty rainy days after she first bloomed. It kept its shape really well. Next year I'm going to try dusting with cornmeal to prevent blackspot.

Sounds like you're off and running with some lovely roses! I have to agree with you about Hot Cocoa. I do love the blooms but it is the weirdest shaped plant I have. It sends out gangly canes at awkward angles all the time and no amount pruning seems to be able to shape it decently.

If that's the case with Hot Cocoa, I'm glad I planted it where I did. I put it right behind an orange butterfly weed. Most of the summer the butterfly weed will fill in the look around the rose. The colors are awesome together too.

I planted so many roses this season, I don't even want to start adding up what I've spent! I do have some definite front-runners and some that are risking being shovel pruned. Here's 5 winners, and 5 losers:

Winners:
Koko Loco
Easy Does It
Cinco de Mayo
Rouge Royal
Glamis Castle

Losers:
Bella-Roma (I got one small bloom & a bunch of dead canes)
White Licorice (never broke dormency)
All American Magic (had one good flush...then blahh)
Love (another one bloom wonder)
Antico Amore (never bloomed and foliage was very slow to regrow, but I'm going to keep my hopes up that next year it will be better)

~Tammy

Oh Tammy, sorry about Love. I planted it this year too and ours has bloomed non-stop. Maybe it's just a dud? Ours is on multiflora from Palatine.

I'll second the odd growing habits on Hot Cocoa. It sends out a ton of spindly canes in odd directions, yet still manages to have full-sized blooms on the end of each. It looks like a tangled mess by the end of the season.

Tammy, my Love is 5 years old and I still only get one flush in the spring every year. It's not a very prolific bloomer.

Thanks Seil and Flaurabunda for your comments on Love. It was one of those late season deals from Edmunds (like 1/2 price or something), so it didn't make it into the ground until probably June. I'm hoping it just needs to establish itself a little more. Luckily its not in a very noticible location, so I'm going to see how it does is the spring. Crossing my fingers!
~Tammy