Hi! Seafoam and Red Cascade both will spill down a slope and go crazy. Seafoam has smallish white flowers and is extremely disease resistant. Red Cascade has many small red flowers but will get blackspot. Both will root at the nodes so they would cover the slope. They both would stay fairly low to the ground and spill over the side. Is this what you had in mind? There are other roses marketed as groundcover roses, but some get more bushy and upright. The folks in the roses forum would have more ideas about varieties.

That being said, roses generally don't make really great groundcovers because they don't completely shade the ground and choke out weeds. And the weeds that do grow are devilish to remove because of the rose thorns. Also, if you do this, make sure you plant the bush with some kind of watering basin so water dosn't just head down the slope and bypass the rose.

Hope this helps!
Eliz.

Dorothy Perkins would be great for that, but it does mildew during the summer. The mildew is unsightly but doesn't hurt the vigor of the rose in any way. Dorothy Perkins is the pink rose that you see blooming along the sides of roads this time of year. Excelsa is the dark pink/red rose that blooms on roadsides too. Super Dorothy has some repeat bloom and is supposed to be a lot more disease resistant than Dorothy Perkins. I've also heard good things about Lady Carolina.

'The Fairy' has small pink blooms in profusion all summer. I never have any disease problems with it and it also roots at the nodes some. -Ais.

Almost any of the roses sold as climbing or rambling varieties will happily grow over a bank. Pick one (pick several varieties!) with repeat, or all summer, blooms, and that is disease resistant, and it should be gorgeous. One of the Knockout roses, if they stay low enough for you, combined with one that is highly fragranced, could be stunning!

The main "problem" is, as stated above, they don't really shade out weeds. And putting down landscape cloth won't help - wind-blown and bird carried seeds will still sprout, and the roses can't root at the nodes. A good mulch, if the slope isn't too steep, will help, but you will still have to get in there and pull out the ones from the seeds the wind and birds bring in. Tall, sturdy boots, and long gloves might make it possible.

And you will, as Elizabeth said, have to plan for watering so the water doesn't just run straight down the slope as it hits it. Terracing where the roses are planted, or planting them in hollows could work.

Thanks for all the ideas. I am going to look into Dorothy Perkins and some of the others mentioned. I really don't mind a little work as far as weeding goes. I am more interested in seeing the roses blooming and being beautiful, than finding something to just cover up a space.
I will definitely keep the watering problem in mind.
Again, thanks everyone! What great suggestions!

Crepuscule is taking over my deck. I'm sure it would engulf your yard. There are many choices.

Carla

I have a sloping front yard that I plan to cover with rockscape, which would chock out the weeds. Would a climbing rose work for my lawn? I'd also like to plant a rose bush that would cascade down the slope, and just go crazy.

I do not much on roses, but have seen, "lady banks" small pale yellow flowers growing quite vigorously on fences here in the south (7B) too

Check out sweet drift roses

Sweet Drift roses are beautiful but they do need maintenance. Right now my Drifts of 3 years have for the first time a rose midge infestation - I am spraying, pinching off the infected buds daily. If left unattended it will just destroy all the bloomings for the entire growing season. People think that their Drift and Knockout Roses are supposed to be left alone and grow like crazy beautiful - WRONG. Our neighbors across the street have the cypress ground cover - covering their entire front slope - it is absolutely beautiful and maintenance free. It took about a year or two to completely cover but it keeps all grass and anything else from growing on the slope and looks perfect. I'll try to get a picture and post it but they are working in their yard right now and I don't want to disturb them.