HI Moses

I grow or have grown all of these in my zone 5 yard, and in my experience the following haven't been hardy for me in a typical zone 5 spot: South Africa, Summer Sun, and Wedding Bells. The latter is gorgeous enough I'm trying it in a protected zone 6 spot, but it's not among the hardier Kordes roses. Eliza, Fiji and Ruby Ice have all survived at least one winter in a typical zone 5 spot but they don't recover well from being pruned to the ground and at least some of them don't look like they've come back fully a second or third year. Sunny Sky is plenty hardy but rarely blooms. Larissa isn't in a great spot so I can't say it's not robust, but mine rarely gets above about a foot (to be fair it's shaded by some other perennials, but still - a foot?)

On the flip side, I love love love Garden Delight - a top 20 and perhaps top 10 of the roses I grow. Tip hardy, blooms all summer, at least 4' tall, covered in blooms of every "hot" color in the rainbow, and striking. Poseidon is another definite keeper and among the best of the lavender roses. Also mostly tip hardy at 4-5' even in a lousy spot and the blooms stay lavender without pinking out at all. Caramella I quite like and it's similarly cane hardy though much floppier canes than the other two, also 4-5' if it would stand upright. I have to support its canes with fencing around the bush. It can have lovely apricot-buff color in cooler weather but can be a basic cream color in truly hot weather. Not as robust a rebloomer but a keeper for me.

Bliss is surprisingly also a tall rose for me even though it says only 3' or so in my records. Mine is a blush pink and around 4' tall, and it blooms off and on in the summer in part sun. I think it'll bloom more with another year of age behind it and it's totally clean as Kordes roses tend to be. Roxy has been more of a 2.5-3' rose but quite impressive a rebloom though the individual flowers are much smaller and less of a statement individually. Orchid Romance has only been in a year or two so I can't really tell about rebloom yet, but the winter survival was pretty good and color nice though more pink than Poseidon. Cinderella is fine but not all that impressive, and at 7 or so years old I think it's as good as it gets. Reasonable sun and conditions, and it has surviving cane most years and regrows quickly from the base, but the rebloom isn't great. The blush pink is so pale it doesn't stand out for me much in the garden and the blooms don't have enough form to be notable otherwise. It's probably the tallest of these you list for me however and the only one likely to climb.

All of these are BS resistant for me though in PA you may get different strains than I do around here. My summary of recommendations would be Garden Delight, Poseidon, Caramella, and Bliss for taller roses, and Roxy for smaller ones. I was very impressed with Ruby Ice for several years before it started to grow backward for me, so it'd be another to include for your consideration, as would Fiji and probably Orchid Romance.

Cynthia

Cynthia,

What can I say? You have gone 110% above my highest expectation of me receiving advice....and straight from a veteran expert! Thank you for the detailed and lengthy rundowns you provided.

You can imagine my current apprehension at the consequences of the winter management changes I have made.....visions of death and destruction everywhere come to mind! I expect the Drift Roses, Earth Angel, Quietnesses, Milwaukee's Calatravas, Lady Ashe, Quicksilver, and Pink Climbing Don Juan to come through intact; maybe the Chantal Merieuxs, Moonlight Romantica, Boleros, and Princess Charlene de Monaco, but the 20 or so other varieties....I wince at expecting them to be either dead or on their way there, in due time.

Your advice as well as that of the other 'Pillars of the Roses Forum,' members who gave their valuable input, has caused me to think more positively.

Since you mentioned that Garden Delight is one of your top 10-20 roses, which ones are your top 20 roses?

Moses

Hi Moses

Glad to help, and I dunno about the veteran expert but I appreciate the confidence. When you've grown as many roses as I have you've also killed even more roses so I guess I can claim expert status at that if nothing else. You're welcome to ask my experiences with your 20 unprotected roses that are most at risk to see if there's less reason to worry. If you can pull through Pink Don Juan you are in a whole 'nother class for winter survival for me, since Don Juan rolls over and plays dead the nanosecond real winter kicks in around here. You may be better off than you think.

Let's see - my top 20 roses. This is a totally fluid list depending on what has done well for me in the previous year or two and some roses move on or off based on repeat performance. I found a list I wrote a couple years ago of top 10 and even those aren't necessarily still on my list. My criteria are hardiness, exuberance of bloom, and garden impact - either a "wow" at a bush level for a block of color or individual bloom "wow" for intriguing color. I like intense colors so that factors in too.

In no particular order, these are favorites that come to mind that meet all these criteria:

Edgar Degas (OK, there's a reason he's almost always first on my list = he's my "desert island" rose that excels in every category of mine)

Sweet Fragrance

Jack's Wish

Felix LeClerc

Heart 'n Soul

Quadra

Bad Worishofen/Pink Emely

Wilhelm

Garden Delight (honorable mention to Firebird Citiscape for a similar hot color ZOW)

Cherry Parfait

Heavenly Pink and/or Guirlande d'Amour

Dames des Chenonceau

Champagne Moment/Lion's Fairy Tale
Munstead Wood

Lady of Shalott or Sharifa Asma (color vs. scent - which one wins?)

Sunrise Sunset

Erfordia

Smiling Jean

Canadian Shield (honorable mention to most Canadians, esp. John Cabot and Alexander MacKenzie)

OK, have to include a Buck rose - tie between Earth Song, Honeysweet and Pearlie Mae (Quietness gets an honorable mention, to make you happy - it is definitely the hardiest of my Bucks)

Who gets the last place (panic time here to avoid insulting the wonderful roses not listed): Linda Campbell (have to honor Moore's best rose)? Red Intuition (individually the most gorgeous flower for me ever but not that hardy)? Ann Henderson (hard to be a good apricot)? Music Box? Morden Blush or any other Morden? Poseidon or Lavender Veranda for best purple? Veilchenblau, Sydonie or Darlow's Enigma for rock solid OGR type roses? And I haven't even STARTED on the Bardens and barely scratched the surface of Kordes, Buck, and Lim roses, nearly all of which do very well for me.

It gets increasingly murky and variable after this point. Thanks for not making me stop at 10 - that's painful.

Cynthia

P.S. OK, I realized I had 20 spots already listed before I started dithering, but I still can't definitively cut off the list there either. There are so many good roses...

Sorry for being slow on the draw, Cynthia. Please give me a couple more days to study your above post, and make my questionables list for you to comment upon. Can you possibly really known how grateful I am for your help! The knowledge you possess is priceless!

Moses