Sue suggested I post on here to get some suggestions for zone 6a. I'm a newbie at roses.

I am looking for some climbing types or shrub types with the look of old fashioned roses in pinks or rosy colors. I love the David Austins.

Any suggestions as to a good place to purchase same would also be appreciated.

Thanks all!

OK, I can at least give you the good place to purchase! Zuzu and I just got an order in from them a couple of weeks ago.
http://www.palatineroses.com/

Thanks you ma'am!

That's a great place to purchase from -- my order was WONDERFUL!

Thanks Betty!

I'll second and third their recommendations. For your zone (and mine - I'm 6b), they use the appropriate root stock.

Thank you, Mike.

Mike, do you have a list somewhere of the roses you grow successfully, your favorites, etc? Our growing conditions are similar, although we get a lot more snow.

I love Palatine roses.. they're really really beautiful plants when they come in. Awesome for zone 5 (me). Reason why I didn't answer before is that I don't do shrub, nor do I do climbers, don't do Austins, & don't really do pink roses. So I'm no help. LOLLLLLLLL

Well, your recommendation for Palatine is a help! Thanks!

I think David Austin roses - especially those produced with and after the introduction of Graham Thomas, Heritage, and Gertrude Jeckyll onward - are great choices for rose gardens in the NE. Golden Celebration might need some protection from black spot, but many are just about flawless. I'm a great fan of Tess of the d'Ubervilles, Eglanyne, Abe Darby and Graham Thomas.

I'm a great fan of Palatine roses, also. I've also had great luck with roses purchased from David Austin Roses (USA). The plants tend to be big and healthy. I've gotten plants with main trunks more than two inches across from there - unheard of from any other supplier. Another advantage of this source is that they will have a greater selection of newer DA roses as well as a good selection of older ones. For older DA selections grown on their own roots you might try Chamblees.

When I grew roses in NJ zone 6b I also had really good luck with roses from Antique Rose Emporium. Not too many DA roses, but the roses they do have are healthy, vigorous, and pretty resistant to disease. I was especially pleased with Felicia. It's a hybrid musk that gets nicely shrubby and is really care free. This year I discovered Caldwell pink which grows vigorously, is very nicely branched, has flowers with a nice little button eye, and repeats almost continuously. It also had red foliage in my garden this fall.

Other roses that pleased me when I grew them in NJ:

Electron and Midas Touch were just about the only HTs that worked for me. I know it's a cliche, but I was very happy with New Dawn planted on the south facing wall of a garage. Even though it bloomed once, I was very pleased with the alba Konigen von Danemark, sold by DA roses as Queen of Denmark. People who grow roses in California may not be very pleased by it, but I found Knockout to be a rose of amazing vigor and a model of good health. It looked good planted with Sally Holmes, some iris, and a few pink peonies. If its roots were kept moist it was even slightly fragrant. Madame Plantier looked really good until it got a slight whiff of Roundup over-spray and died instantly. Finally, I found most of the Canadian Explorer roses to do well: Champlain, Henry Kelsey, John Davis, Alexander McKenzie. They lack the fragrance and refinement of DA roses, but they can be real workhorses when it comes to producing bloom.

Good Luck.

Some great suggestions there. Thank you so much. The only one you listed I have is Madame Plantier. So, I have lots to look at.

Much appreciated.

Polly, the Austins are awesome! A few have an added bonus of not having thorns. Email Austin USA for a catalog--they do list which ones are nearly thornless. You might also look at Romanticas and a newer rosy-pink rose, Grande Dame. The Explorer series do great both in heat and extreme cold. Polonaise and Penelope and Belinda's Dream are super easy. All the Earthkind roses are low maintenance. Chamblee's Roses in Texas is the go-to place for Earthkinds. Cape Diamond and Martha's Vineyard rose are beautiful pinks that are easy growers.

Thanks Cindi! I will look at all of those.

I had looked previously at the ratings for the David Austin nursery on Garden Watchdog, and their rating was not great. Are most of you rose people having good luck with them?

We find Austins at other nurseries for the most part, unless it's one of the more obscure ones that only they carry. I have never ordered from them.

I've never bought anything from them either, although I have close to 100 Austin roses, so you know they're readily available elsewhere. I think I've bought most of mine locally, but the Canadian nurseries (Palatine, Pickering, and Hortico) carry a wide selection of them, especially the latter two, and Chamblee probably has the lowest prices for them, if you don't mind waiting a year or two before they catch up with the bare-root grafted ones you could be ordering now.

Thanks Sue and Zuzu!

I live in zone 6a in the Pocono Mountains, PA. I am not sure where Hannibal is, but it sounds familiar. I went to school in Ithaca, NY maybe I drove past the exit or something.

You are lucky to find this forum before you start growing roses. I killed a bunch of big box store "body bag" roses before learning which ones to grow. I have had the most success with own root roses. Chamblees is a good place to find own root roses. Melva also has some antique roses. I am growing Veinchenbleau and Heiderlosen from her and have more coming this spring.

The first rose that survived in my garden was Austin's Wildeve. I have added a few more Austin's, but Eve is still my favorite (I like it much better than the similarly colored Abraham Darby). The David Austin site says that Wildeve is a smaller rose, but mine has 6' canes. The Austin roses get bigger than expected in America - keep that in mind when you are locating them. The yellow Austins have a reputation for blackspot (yellow roses in general due to their ancestry may be more prone to blackspot, if I remember correctly). I grow Golden Celebration. It is beautiful, but prone to blackspot. I got lucky and got my Wildeve rose literally just off the truck at Walmart, but haven't seen potted Austin roses there since. I had no idea what an "AUSbonny - it's official name- was, but the plant looked very healthy and I loved the blooms. I was perplexed when I planted it because I couldn't find the graft - it didn't have one! I googled AUSbonny, landed in a forum with Sue and Zuzu and am still growing roses.

I LOVE Buck's Honey Sweet. It is classified as a shrub rose but has blooms like a hybrid tea. Buck lived in the Midwest and bred cold tolerant roses.

Kordes, a German company, also breeds hardy roses. I like Westerland climbing rose and Lavaglut floribunda. I have read fabulous things about their "Fairy Tale" roses, but don't grow any, yet.

Julia Child is another great floribunda - a disease resistant yellow. NewYorkRita grows lots of floribundas in groups that she calls "floribundaville". She has a thread of pictures here somewhere.

A good site to look up roses is www.helpmefind.com in addition to this site, of course.

Radler of knockout fame has been breeding hardy, own root roses. I grow Carefree Celebration. It is one of the earliest to bloom and continues blooming all season. I still had blooms the day after Thanksgiving when my other roses were already hibernating. The blooms aren't as attractive or fragrant as hybrid teas or Austins, but the shrub is a blooming machine!!! The red and pink knockout roses were everywhere last year including the big box stores.

Speaking of big box stores, if you bring home a mini rose this spring try planting it in your garden once the danger of frost is past. Many are very hardy. Miniatures, in general, are quite hardy and typically grown on their own roots.

There are also some great Canadian roses including the Explorer Roses and the Parkland roses. I grow William Baffin and Jens Munk. I have seen pictures of Quadra, a very nice climbing red rose.

There are lots of other roses that grow well in our zone as long as you start with quality plants.

Andi, thank you so much for all the great info!!!!

And have a beautiful winter in the Poconos! Lovely, lovely mountains.

The mountains are lovely. Gardening among the rocky terrain, not so lovely, but the price you pay for the scenery.