The best advice you can get is local, local, local. That is because it turns out that roses all respond differently to different conditions, unlike what they will tell you at nurseries or in catalogs. A certain rose might love it in my garden, and hate hate it where you are, and vs versa. That it why I am not going to suggest anything specific about plants. If I were you I would join a local rose society, and also walk around your neighborhood or town and see if you can find any roses you like the look of, which are healthy. Then I would ring the doorbell and ask about them. Concentrate on finding out what TYPES of roses do well there. There will be some OGRs and other roses that love it there - you just have to find out which ones they are.

Hopefully someone from NC will see this and speak up. Good luck!

Jackie

Do what catsrose said above. When I mentioned "nurseries", I was not referring to specialty rose nurseries like Roses Unlimited. It has a great reputation. I am jealous that you can get there so easily.

Jackie

Roses Unlimited is fantastic and will have the roses you want.

The most important tips are get good soil and get good roses. RU can help you with the second one. I also live in the Piedmont, in Georgia. I have mostly red clay, which isn't terrible, but to grow roses that will thrive you will have to amend with organic matter. I use products like soil conditioner, composted manure (Black Kow is a great brand available in the SE) and garden soil (I use organic soil mixes). Some people also add some sand in, it depends on your soil. You do add about 1/3-1/2 of the native clay soil back in. The result should be a loamy clay mix. You plant your new roses in that and then mulch. Then you wait for the roses to put down roots and show some new growth. THEN you fertilize, not before. I use an organic fertilizer similar to Rose Tone. I also use seaweed and fish emulsion as a foilar feed. Sometimes I also give them a shot of a 10-10-10 water soluble fertilizer, especially if it hasn't been raining. Your roses will love this. You may not get many blooms this year, but you will be set up for next spring.

I'd like to say that we don't need winter protection in our zone, but the last two winters have proved me wrong. If you are doing Old Garden Roses, they will be own root. After the first freeze, I would put leaves or pine straw around the bases of the roses, just to keep the root ball insulated.

Some roses I can recommend, Crepescule, a tea/noisette, never gets fungal diseases, can get large and be grown as a climber or a large mounding shrub. Reve d'Or, another noisette which is also very disease resistant is a climber that has delicate light apricot flowers and is gorgeous. It does well on an arbor or fence. If you want to make a statement and have the room, Mrs. BR Cant is THE rose. It's a tea and can get huge 8X8 feet. But it will be covered in blooms several times a year and they are a bright dark pink. I had one that was magnificent, and unfortunately I lost it in some construction. But now I have two!!! tiny babies, but I know they will fill up the spots I have for them soon. Roses Unlimited will have these roses.

Hey, neighbor! Roses do really well here, I think. We have to deal with Black Spot, but choosing resistant varieties and good sun and airflow helps a lot with that. I don't have to spray very often, and that's not bad for an area as humid as ours!

Plan on watering pretty often in the summer. It gets dry fast when it gets so hot. Roses just take more water than a lot of plants. Pots need watering so often that I don't even like having to go there (but I have a few, because they are pretty!).

My favorite roses for disease resistance are the newer Kordes ones. They rock! But there are lots of good ones. Hyrbrid teas really are the worst for disease. For moderns, I tend to go with shrub roses. Lots of old roses are great, with some random exceptions. Austin roses are hit or miss for BS here, but they are often pretty enough to spray :)

You can look up varieties that you're interested in online at Help Me Find Roses. Roses are wonderful to grow, but I think the most important things for success for newbies is to start with good soil ( covered by Buford above), choose disease resistant varieties, and choose varieties that grow well in your area (climate). Keep the mature size in mind when planting, so you don't have to keep digging up the bush to relocate it. Some roses that look quite lovely in photos can end up being gangly monsters.

I do like old fashioned looking blooms, but I prefer some of the newer varieties that have frequent blooming and good disease resistance, as well as loads of blooms. There is a breeding trend towards roses of this type called English roses, popularized by David Austin's roses. I love romantica roses by the Meilland. They are hybrids that "have old fashioned flower form with wonderful fragrance, improved disease resistance, hardiness, and compact habit and size." Bolero is a new romantica in my garden and quite lovely. Harkness roses also have these english rose qualities and many lovely varieties are available. Floribundas like Julia Child and Pretty Lady (Austin) produce loads of blooms and have that old fashioned charm. There is no shortage of roses to choose from, that's for sure. The hard part showing some restraint when choosing!

Roses Unlimited would be a great resource for you to visit. Heirloom Roses has lovely photos of many varieties that you can peruse, and they're classified in an easy-to-find manner.

I live about an hour from Roses Unlimited and go to their open house every year. I love going through all the green houses and seeing and smelling all the roses. Where in the piedmont of NC do you live? I am in upstate South Carolina.

Go see and smell as many roses as possible and take note of the ones you like. Decide if certain features are important to you - I am a fragrance maniac so any roses that don't smell nice to my nose are a definite no for me. I also prefer roses that repeat well and last well when cut. Ask your local forum members about the varieties you like and see if they are easy to grow in your area. If you plant only the ones you truly love you will look after them really well and they will reward you in return.

Sheet mulch Lasagna Gardening

Thanks SO much everyone. I posted this and then promptly went out of town, so I'm sorry for the delay getting back over here. What great advice.

Searching locally is a great idea. There is a rose garden in downtown Raleigh that I used to walk through when I was in college. Beautiful place and you all have reminded me to go again to see if there are identifying tags for the roses!

We are building in New Hill NC, which is about 30 minutes southwest of Raleigh down US 1. Looks like Roses Unlimited is about 4 hours away (have to get through Charlotte), so it could be a nice day trip without the kids!

You all have given me a great starting point and just the type of direction I was hoping for.

Thanks again. I'll check back in with my progress in a couple of months! :)