Mel, before you go about making your plans, check your neighborhood (and by that, I mean 5 or 10 miles around you) for RRD on wild multiflora or in other people's gardens. I've lost 3 roses to it already, and am not planting any more roses until I've rid my property of all Multiflora, and can be reasonably certain that there aren't large stands in the immediate neighborhood. I would hate for you to grow gorgeous roses only to lose them. Larger roses are more likely to be susceptible, simply by virtue of size.

As for roses, disease resistance in the Mid Atlantic region (aka Black Spot Hell) is hard to achieve. There are very, very, very few roses that are bulletproof; something like Darlow's Enigma comes close.

A few roses you may want to investigate:

Red

Illusion, Cl. Etoile de Holland, Guinee, Orfeo, Cl Fountain, Red Eden, Cl Crimson Glory, Fields of the Wood, and Courageous

Blanking out on whites, and I'm not sure how large some of these will get for us

Pax, White Dawn, Ilse Krohn Superior, White New Dawn. Cl. Clothilde Soupert and Cl. Souvenir de la Malmaison are both very pale pink, almost white (I only have the bush forms).

Suja

Thanks for the info. I was thinking about some of those you mentioned. How about Dortmund or Dublin Bay for reds?
Also, what is RRD? I don't think there are many wild roses in my nieghborhood--I'm in the city.
Also, I planted two Mme Aldred Carriere last year, and they took a while to get going, but they started shooting up in fall and they are still green today (after two weeks of nights in the teens) so I am really hopeful for them. Also, same for two Zepherine Drouhin--still green! We'll see what happens next summer, though!
--Mel

Based on personal experience (and those of friends), just about any rose you plant, with very few exceptions, will require some sort of spray program if you expect them to not defoliate from black spot. Illusion is the only red I know that stays fairly clean with little effort.

I have no experience with either Dortmund or Dublin Bay. I'm not crazy about the white eye of Dortmund, but Dublin Bay is supposed to be a good, prolific rebloomer.

RRD = rose rosette disease. Make sure to look it up and familiarize yourself with it. Unfortunately, it's pretty ubiquitous in this region, and there is no preventative/cure/treatment. Being in the city makes it less likely that you'll get it, although it wouldn't be a guarantee. I've even seen it in the landscaping roses planted in mall parking lots.

Suja