I'm a solid zone 5, but I've planted some of the roses you list in a virtual zone 4 pocket on the east side of my house so I can vouch for them being survivors in the cold. Ones that have been cane hardy for me: Alchemist, Bonica, Prairie Joy, Rosarium Uetersen, Morden Sunrise. Prairie Joy is mostly a once bloomer for me but it's in part shade and might do better with more sun. I would expect the rugosas FJ Grootendorst, Jens Munk, and Snow Pavement to be no trouble in zone 4/5 either. Just don't do any spraying of rugosas - let them be and they'll enjoy your relatively acid soil in Vermont. My kind of low care! Most Austins do well for me so I'd expect Gentle Hermione to be hardy as well, but I can't say from my experience.

Stanwell Perpetual is supposed to be hardy to zone 3 and below, but it didn't survive the winter in my zone 4 pocket so it may be more like a zone 5 plant. Rose de Recht hasn't been hardy for me in two or three tries so I'd be cautious with that one. At Last never got established so I don't know about its hardiness, but I would suspect zone 5 is its preferred limit and it probably dies to the ground after winter.

Of the roses you list, the one I recommend most enthusiastically is Bonica. The blooms aren't individually showy but the bush is steadily blooming, nicely branched out, and basically trouble free. All of the bushes will benefit from some pruning out of dead wood after winter however hardy, but otherwise not require fussing. If you have access to any of the Canadian Artist series roses, particularly Felix Leclerc and Campfire, they're nearly constant bloomers and rock solid hardy. All of the Morden roses are comfortably hardy in zone 4 and need very little care. If you can find Easy Elegance roses by Ping Lim (look in the local Lowes in spring) those are almost all hardy and easy care, with a few exception. Sweet Fragrance is my favorite of these.

Cynthia

Krista, do you deadhead Stanwell Perpetual between bloom cycles?

From your list, I grow Morden Sunrise, Rosarium Uetersen and Stanwell Perpetual, and those all do very well away from the house or any protection.

Flowers, I deadhead sometimes, but not on a regular basis. It's so twiggy; I use pruners on occasion, but don't shear it back.

Thanks, Krista. That is one rose that I dread deadheading more than any other. So many blooms and all those prickles. With it blooming from deep inside the bush they're not all easy to get to, but I'm always afraid it won't rebloom if I don't take off the old ones.

I think it does rebloom even if not deadheaded; I deadhead more for tidiness than to encourage rebloom.

Rose de Rescht, one of my favorites! It is probably the hardiest remontant rose I've grown (aside from Darlow's Enigma which I highly recommend if you have room for a giant). Wonderfully fragrant, bold color, reliable re-bloomer. The foliage gets cruddy in the autumn, and anti-fungal spray doesn't seem to change that; just what this rose does before it goes to sleep for the winter. I don't fault it for that, most of the summer it's a fine looking shrub with very tidy growth.

Gentle Hermione has been a slow grower for me for three years. It hasn't bloomed a lot, though when it does the flowers have a lovely, delicate beauty. Hardy enough I guess, tough to judge a when all you've had is young tender growth. Foliage is healthy.

Morden Sunrise was a terrible black spotter for me (had 4 plants, gave them up after 4 or 5 years). They were constantly dropping their foliage and suffered badly for it. Didn't bloom much once the foliage went bad, all the energy went into growing new leaves. Mine never grew very tall and were snow line hardy. In a year with little snow and frequent sub zero temps they died to the ground and didn't spring back very well.

Ah of course, the dreaded blackspot! I forget about how pervasive that is out East sometimes. Our OP should take the most advice from Ratdogheads in a neighboring state or Krista, since both can attest to East coast cold conditions.

It's interesting that we've had such different hardiness results from Rose de Rescht and Stanwell Perpetual. I suspect that consistent snow cover is a factor, since we rarely have good snow cover over more than a week or two in winters and a lot of roses will dry out and lose hardiness that way.

I second the recommendation for Darlow's Enigma as a totally low care hardy rose that can survive almost anything. It isn't showy with small single blooms but it takes care of itself and has profuse blooms that make a nice statement even in almost total shade where I have mine.

Cynthia

I grew a nimber of these roses unproblematically on the zone 4/5 border in Ontario. I did have pretty reliable snow cover. Rose de Rescht grew very well and I liked it a lot. Stanwell was a strong beautiful grower for a long time; it bloomed consistently and reliably with so many flowers and with relatively little care; and then suddenly kicked the bucket and died. It was a good sized bush too, probably three feet high and four to five feet wide. Nothing was any different about the temperatures that year, and I think it was mostly about going into winter with dry roots; I'd get it again in a heartbeat if I move farther north. Snow Pavement was quite hardy and I loved it with its touch of lavender to the generously supplied blooms. All the roses carrying a strong strain of Rugosa were fine, though some of the hybrids with a rugosa ancestry that did not boast in the leaves were weaker (like Robusta). Bonica was fine. Uetersen seemed hardy enough. It was so heavy with flowers it kind of clung to the ground, which perhaps helped keep it under the snow; I liked having despite its procumbent habit.. Gallicas were reliable, I had both rosa mundi and apothecary rose which were dependable and delightfully floriferous. Darlow's Enigma seemed about as hardy as the explorers, a constant bloomer and charming with its little red hips. Other things that were hardy for me surprisingly perhaps included Ghislaine de feligonde; it didn't grow as a large rambler but was a crown hardy shrub, about four by four, very reliable and floriferous. Also I had a delicate but strong lens shrub called Maria Matilda, billed as a miniature but not so miniature in reality; it had perfect two to three inch blooms in a delicate blush on a four foot bush. Crown hardy but came back biger and stronger every year.

Thank you for that list. Maria Matilda sounds interesting. I like to zone up.