Hi, I'm not in the same zone as you & I'm in coastal W.WA but blackspot is a problem here too & I also don't spray. I love the rugosas & am especially fond of Moje Hammarberg, Therese Bugnet, Marie Bugnet, Roseraie de L'Hay & Schneezwerg.All very disease-resistant & very sturdy with beautiful blooms & fragrance. I also grow some David Austins namely The Mayflower, The Wife of Bath & The Mary Rose. Another rose I like is Julia Child. Check on HMF, I think they should be OK for your zone. Good luck.

Jane

Oops, I'm not sure if these are old enough, esp JC, I should pay more attention. Sorry about that.

It's too open-ended a request to know where to start.

Most of the hardy, blackspot resistant OGRs are once bloomers. They are much more similar to other once blooming shrubs like lilacs and viburnums than hybrid tea roses. There are the occasional one-offs that break that pattern, but it would take some thinking that would go in very different directions depending on what you have in mind.

I second Therese Bugnet and Rosarie de L'Hay. Both beautiful and very easy to grow. Another good choice might be Snow Pavement. The white flowers tend to be slightly lavender at times :)

Three that I'd highly recommend: Darlow's Enigma, Rose de Rescht, and Orpheline de Juillet. All have been hardy, fragrant, BS resistant, even shade tolerant. Rose de Rescht gets a bit of BS later in the fall, but by then the garden is going to sleep anyhow. Some people report it to be rather disease ridden, but it hasn't been for me, so perhaps it's less susceptible to the BS that lives in this neck of the woods.

Thank you everyone for your comment and suggestions. It has been very helpful!

i have found good healthy soil to be the most important thing i can provide for the health of my roses if the soil is healthy, the rose will be healthier and all the humidity we have here, south of houston, tx on the gulf, will cause less problems, (today the roses were "wet" until after noon-from dew) also having good air circulation is essential i use no spray .... and have had no blackspot or powdery mildew at all in this garden (which is only 2 yrs old...)

i have a Kordes Beverly, Ambridge David Austin, bailey's red, ducher, cinderella, mrs dudley cross, mrs r b cant, grandma's yellow rose, in particular who are very healthy,

Yes, but the warm climate roses won't be hardy in zone 6. How are your researches going, Gibsongirl?

The search is going pretty well. So far my list includes Maggie from Rose Emporium (I know I will have to watch that for black spot) but it is going in a great spot. Full sun and sun first thing in the morning. Also, Rose de Rescht, Rosarie De L'Hay, Climbing Madame Carriere, Souvenir de la MalMaison, Marie Pavie, and Marchessa Boccella. and blush noisette. I am clearing out a pretty large space for the roses and some of my divided heirloom irises. Right now it is full of horrible invasive ground cover and saplings. It probably won't be until 2017 that I get these roses in the ground but there are so many to chose from.

I know the feeling, everytime I plant a rose I am pulling up runner from various bushes and digging large rootballs out from others and pulling up pine trees by the dozen. You are so patient to plan a garden so far in advance! I tend to follow deer trails, thus my garden will be full of convoluted paths leading to open area of roses. Your choices sound beautiful. I will look forward to pictures of your progress.

I find I have two sets of thoughts about your rose quest. I hope it will be acceptable if I put them into print here.

First. Your choices sound like a good start. I have most of your varieties and like them; I like it that you've chosen all fragrant varieties.

Have you double checked hardiness of your varieties? 'Blush Noisette', for example, is a southern rose and I don't know how it does in your zone.

Second. Mad_gallica's comments are worth paying attention to. She (he?) gardens in a different and much harsher climate than mine and probably more similar to your conditions. I share mad_gallica's love of the once-blooming roses and also find them easy to grow. I can and do grow Teas, Chinas, and Noisettes, and love them, but the once-blooming roses have their own unique character which I wouldn't be without. Like you I started out growing mostly repeat-flowering old roses for cold climates, but over time I came to prefer the once-blooming varieties.

I've never gardened in a cold zone, but I gather from posters who do that hardiness matters. Will a rose freeze back to the snow line? Will it require winter protection? Will it be killed back so far it can't recover the following growing season? Other zone 6 growers can say whether these are relevant questions for you. What I do know from my own experience is how frustrating it is to grow a plant that doesn't do well. A bad growing rose is an offence to the eye and an irritation to the spirit. I like an easy rose, one that I can dig a good hole for, plant, water the first year, and which is then content with an occasional armful of mulch and an annual pruning.

The questions are: which roses are most beautiful to you? Which roses will grow well in your conditions? How much work are you willing to do to have good roses? Only you can answer those questions, with help from gardeners who grow roses in conditions similar to yours. I would take the issue of hardiness seriously, and also encourage you to look into once-blooming roses, to see whether you might like them. 'Marchesa Boccella' has a lot of the character of a once-blooming rose and is glorious. If you like her she might be the entrance drug to an addiction to these beauties.

I hope this is helpful (and not obnoxious).

Melissa

Melissa's advice is very wise. Borderline hardy roses are never going to do more than limp along.

Gibsongirl, Northcreekfarm.org has lists of hardy roses that would do well for you. High Country Roses and Northland Rosarium are excellent sources.

thank you everyone for your advise and comments. Anne, thank you for your comment about planning so far in advance. I love to plan and research gardens. I have a collection of irises that are pretty rare and it took years to establish that garden. This one I'm planning so far in advance because it is covered in saplings and creepy vines which I just recently learned the hard way are poison ivy. So next year will be the removal year. Not as fun as planning and planting:-)

Melissa and Sheila, you are absolutely right about checking the plant hardiness. We are quite a bit warmer than the rest of New England. I think we are the only state that is a zone 6. I can grow things here that my parents can't only 2 hours north! But I don't want plants that just limp along. I only have a quarter acre yard so I don't have room for sad looking plants. So I'm going to visit Elizabeth Park which is a huge rose garden only 10 minutes away and see what grows there. Thank you so much for suggesting High Country Roses. And Melissa my research has led me to add some of those beautiful once blooming roses. I've added Madame Hardy and Cardinal de Richelieu. and yes I can see how this can become addicting!

Thank you Mad_gallica! You are very close to where I live! I was on the fence with Madam Hardy so thank you for your input because I loved Mme. Plantier too! And the Apothecary rose is really pretty and interesting! Do you have any experience with any of the roses: Ballerina, Grus an Aachen, Perl D'or, Albertine, Seven Sisters, or Barrone Prevost? I'm also sold on the once blooming but hardy roses.

You might want to consider Fru Dagmar Hastrup--hybrid rugosa, very cold hardy and very disease resistant --has lovely delicate blooms:

Fru Dagmar Hastrup--viewed through back alley fence.

If you want a climber, you might look at Ghislaine de Feligonde, a hybrid musk/hybrid multiflora/rambler --another very cold hardy and very disease resistant rose--re-bloomer.

Ghislaine de Feligonde (photo google image by "saya")

Let us know what your final choices are. Good luck,

Kate

Ballerina and Gruss an Aachen both got more blackspot than I am comfortable with. However, they aren't nearly as bad as Baronne Prevost which is pretty much ungrowable without a spray program. Perle d'Or is probably too tender, since it is sometimes referred to as a poly-tea. Albertine I have no experience with. As far as Seven Sisters goes, there are multiple roses running around under that name. The 'official' one, R. multiflora platyphylla, is considered zone 7. Tausendschon is a much hardier multiflora rambler with a good reputation. There are others, so I would be very hesitant to buy a rose sold under the name Seven Sisters without a good explanation.

There are some of the tried and true of the older roses that will give you pleasure without a lot of work but they are sometimes hard to find. Many Gallicas are very beautiful ,but Gallicas have got a bad name because they sucker badly when on own roots. Budded and not planted deep, plus keeping an eye on them, usually will keep them under control. Every gardener has their favourites, so you will get loads of help with many different roses. The list can be a long one but here are some suggestions of mine which in my garden are very hardy, have flowers that look attractive for most of the time, and the bush is a reasonably tidy one. And of course have a very strong fragrance.

Belle Isis ia a Gallica and grows into a medium bush

D'aguesseau makes an average bush and the brightest of the Gallicas

Armide is an Alba and a taller bush

The Damask Ispahan is a very tall bush, but blooms for a long time

Rose de la Maitre d'ecole is another medium Gallica

Konigin von Dänemark is tall and a favourite

I love oldrosarian's choices, most of which I have. 'Konigin von Danemark' appears quite reluctant to sucker, even on its own roots. I wish it would do so.

Mme Alfred Carriere forms a tall shrub in my garden setting. It's about 5 feet tall. In your warmer zone it should grow taller.

Marchesa Boccella is 4 feet tall; it forms a rounded dense twiggy shrub. I love this one for the exceptional fragrance. I got mine from Antique Rose Emporium many years ago.

I grow Blush Noisette, it's 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall.

I lost my Gruss an Aachen last winter to the cold, but will grow it again. It was 13 years old.

Baronne Prevost has beautiful blooms. I get a little repeat bloom from it. It's 2-3 feet tall.

I don't spray, they all routinely get blackspot.

Wow these suggestions are awesome! I think I need a bigger yard. I love Ghislaine de Feligonde and I think it would do well here. All of those albas and gallicas are amazing. I think that Konigin von Dänemark is my favorite too. I just love that traditional light pink rose. Krista thank you for your feedback on all the roses you grow. Your zone sounds very similar to mine and I bet it was last winter that killed your Gruss an Aachen. I really love that one and I think I have just the right spot. Thank you!