My best performers are Veteran's Honor, Sparkle N Shine and Crimson Bouquet. Sparkle N Shine has very good disease resistance, however VH and CB are BS magnets.

Please share your best performers and the level of disease resistance your roses have, thank you.

A few first thoughts: Mutabilis, Mrs B R Cant, Old Blush, Mermaid, Seven Sisters, Peggy Martin... to be continued.

@Mari33 ....

For me, it depends on where I am gardening and the cycle of weather as to which are my best performers. Down south near the ocean, I loved Timeless, French Lace, Yantai, Gloire des Rosomanes, Grace Seward and a whole lot more. I was gardening in Rose Heaven down there.

Up here in the mountains, Lynnie, Fabulous, Kardinal 85, Yantai, Kim Rupert, Sequoia Gold, Splish Splash and a whole lot more.

Good candidates for your garden will depend heavily on where you live. In my zone 6b no-pesticide garden in Pennsylvania, after two growing seasons, my best performer has been disease-free and fragrant Savannah, which performed very well all season.

Photos and information about Savannah are here:
Rose (Rosa 'Savannah')

Savannah won awards in the 2015 Biltmore Trials, as you can read here:
http://www.biltmore.com/blog/a...

Savannah scored very well (94 out of 100) in Peter Kukielski's excellent book, "Roses without chemicals" which I would enthusiastically recommend to you for additional roses you might want to consider. You can read a preview of this book here:
https://books.google.com/books...

That's very helpful and thank you for the feedback on which roses perform best in your locations. I'm in NY zone 6.

Mari33 said:That's very helpful and thank you for the feedback on which roses perform best in your locations. I'm in NY zone 6.

NY zone 6 is exactly right for strongly considering the reviews in "Roses without chemicals" because the roses featured in that book were evaluated at the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx.

I love the rose South Africa for its vigor, disease resistance, and generosity in bloom. But it does require a lot of bright sunlight to do well.

I'm amazed by Larissa for its ability to grow into a dense shrub quickly, for its ability to flower through the season, and for its disease resistance.

The only HT rose which I would say displays any vigor at all in my garden is Selfridges grown on multiflora rootstock (Palatine). Somewhere behind that might be Folklore whose flowers I admire a little more. In both cases the flowers display that high-centered, scrolling petal behavior that I find completely essential in the class. Gemini and Moonstone might place third and fourth, but my experience with them is categorically worse.

Rainbow Sorbet takes some special efforts to train into a pretty plant, IME. And it is a rose whose foliage is much loved by deer. But it is a tireless bloom machine and its blooms are among the more photogenic in rosedom, IME. Not much bothered by fungal diseases here in my Arizona garden.

I think of the roses almost never mentioned as faves, I'd nominate Crocus Rose or Water Lily.

While it is only in its third year, Teasing Georgia seems quite promising in my garden. I love the color of the blossoms: bright and cheery, but still very garden-friendly.

Lady of Shallott, strikes me as being vigorous, disease resistant, generous in flower, shrubby, good at repeating, photogenic, and fragrant. It's hard to do better than that.

As Lynn suggests, each person will have a different experience. It is helpful to understand how climates are similar and how individual cultivars behave differently in different conditions. I think Carol and Margie might have more insight on good plants for zone 6 near NY than most of us. I can say that I remember growing Olympiad in zone 6 NJ and was quite pleased with it. Ballerina, Quen of Denmark, and Felicia did well, too.

By the way, I love Sparkle & Shine too! I first saw it growing at Longwood Gardens and immediately fell in love with it. I found one a year ago for my garden at a local garden center. I was very pleased with it in its first season in my garden.

My rose gardening experience (beyond KnockOut roses) began with the 2016 gardening season, so I am still in learning and experimenting mode. Margie, whom Steve named and who gardens on Long Island, can share a wealth of expertise and experience with you. I am encouraging her to chime in here: @MargieNY

Carol, is that the "Weeks" or "Kordes" Savannah rose? It looks like the "Weeks" earlier version. Very pretty regardless!

fwmosher said:Carol, is that the "Weeks" or "Kordes" Savannah rose? It looks like the "Weeks" earlier version. Very pretty regardless!

Frank, It is Kordes. You can read about the experiences of others who have grown Savannah starting here:
http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

My three Savannah plants came from Chamblee's Rose Nursery and were shipped as potted own-root plants. Savannah is also available grafted to Multiflora rootstock from Palatine.

Steve, I actually had my eye on South Africa and I forgot about it. I'm definitely going to revisit that one and perhaps a few others mentioned here.

CSANDT, I've been gardening with roses for about 10 years now and I'm still learning! I don't have a large collection as I prefer to have other perennials included in the mix. Each time I intergrate a new variety I'm learning about that specific plant, I'm beginning sedums this upcoming spring. Although I tend to look up plants before purchasing, it seems I sometimes missed a little something that's really a big something. I purchased a Sunny knockout for my mother's garden and the leaves were being devoured by a certain critter. The roses next to them were unaffected, therefore it left me puzzled at the time. I didn't realize certain bugs will gear towards certain plants and that was one that was heavily hit. I went to look up SK again and I found someone who had the same experience, so yes I'm always learning something new. I bought my first Rambler rose a few years ago, Linda Campbell and it's supposed to be vigorous but it only grew a few inches in it's second year. I'm hoping it will make a leap this season.

Thanks again everyone I appreciate the feedback!

Mari33 said:Steve, I actually had my eye on South Africa and I forgot about it. I'm definitely going to revisit that one and perhaps a few others mentioned here.

CSANDT, I've been gardening with roses for about 10 years now and I'm still learning! I don't have a large collection as I prefer to have other perennials included in the mix. Each time I intergrate a new variety I'm learning about that specific plant, I'm beginning sedums this upcoming spring. Although I tend to look up plants before purchasing, it seems I sometimes missed a little something that's really a big something. I purchased a Sunny knockout for my mother's garden and the leaves were being devoured by a certain critter. The roses next to them were unaffected, therefore it left me puzzled at the time. I didn't realize certain bugs will gear towards certain plants and that was one that was heavily hit. I went to look up SK again and I found someone who had the same experience, so yes I'm always learning something new. I bought my first Rambler rose a few years ago, Linda Campbell and it's supposed to be vigorous but it only grew a few inches in it's second year. I'm hoping it will make a leap this season.

Thanks again everyone I appreciate the feedback!

Oh dear, a Sunny Knockout alarm! I planted Sunny Knockout for the first time last summer after receiving it as a gift in the NGA "raffle that is not a raffle" contest! I hope it doesn't prove to be a magnet for bugs here! All my roses are interspersed with perennials and shrubs. Sunny Knockout is surrounded mostly by daylilies and Siberian iris. I am trying to add lots of rhyzomatous (not bulbous at this point) Allium near the roses to discourage insects because I saw this tactic being tried at several public rose gardens.

CSANDT, I should add that it occurred only for the first season, fortunately thereafter the bugs didn't touch it?!

Hi Mari33 - welcome to the rose forum.
I live on Long Island zone 6B. In general, I would recommend the Kordes roses from 2002 to date. It is my understanding these roses were field tested for disease resistance. Steve mentioned South Africa. I have 2 SA - they do very well here also. Carol mentioned a book that I wrote an article about:
https://garden.org/ideas/view/...
The author offers suggestions as to which roses do well in particular climate regions.
Please feel free to contact me about any of the roses on MargieNY's plant list.
https://garden.org/lists/view/...

As far as performance and disease resistance is concerned the one hybrid tea that stands out above all the rest is: Electron.
My best grandiflora - South Africa do not hesitate to get this one.
Floribunda - honestly, all floribunda's I have in my garden do well. Betty Boop does get blackspot but it recovers very quickly and in my opinion worth keeping. I have a rose named Midnight Blue and for the 1st 3 yrs. had blackspot. However, by the 4 year, it had built up a resistance to b/s. The same thing may happen with Betty Boop - sometimes you just have to give them a chance to build up their immunity. It is my understanding it takes 3+ years for a rose to reach maturity.
Each summer, I map out my garden and document the number of hrs. of sun, shade, partial shade etc. in each garden bed between the hrs. of 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Over the winter, I use this information in planning my rose garden for the following Spring. It aids me in deciding where a new rose will be planted or transplanted or shovel pruned.
I map out my garden using paper and pen. As a backup, I use a google Picaso program. One of their features allows one to create a picture collage. Example: 1) I take a photo of one of my garden beds
2) I site & add photos of the plants I want to add to my bed - the photos are scattered so you can move them around where ever you want 3) add text names of each plants 4) save it.








I found that I had more success growing hybrid teas by providing shade to this type of roses during the warmest time of the day.
1) early morning sun from 7-11 a.m. allows for dew or overnight rainfall to dissipate- be absorbed.
2) the partial shade from 11 a.m. - 2:23 p.m. allows for transpiration - cool down
3) the full sun from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. combined with the morning sun offers a total of 7 hrs. of available sunlight.
Result: this garden bed seems to resists blackspot.
I don't know where you live in zone 6 but here on Long Island (hot & humid) it can be a big problem.
And lastly, I don't know if you are familiar with the symptoms of rrd - please take the time to look over the following link:
The thread ""The cat is out of the bag"" in Scientists Seek Public Assistance in Tackling Rose Rosette Disease

Thank you for the welcome Margie and for the insightful information it's a wonderful guide! I see you've listed Singin in the Rain, I remember I sought that rose once years back but at the time I couldn't find it, maybe I'll have better luck this time. Your flower bed is beautiful, I also love the idea of the Picaso program, it's something that's right up my alley.

While not my best performers but roses that are high up on the list would also be Earth Song and Double Kock out, both have excellent disease resistance.

There is one on your list Margie that I have, it's also a great performer, which is the beautiful Blue Berry Hill. I got her from Heirloom own root, however she BS's a lot more than the others. I suspect it's because she's next to my Hybrid tea Moon Shadow which gets decimated by BS and defoliates unless I spray. There are several I'm thinking of replacing because of the level of BS they get.

I'm from Queens NY perhaps not too far from where you are on LI.

I'm somewhat familiar with rrd virus after looking into it long ago but I definitely need to revist that concern, thanks for the reminder and for the link and for the help!

In my garden, where almost every single rose exhibits vulnerability to black spot, the roses that look the best at any time of the year are Playboy, Rainbow Sorbet, and Penelope.

I had great luck growing Playboy in NJ; in part shade it got to about five feet in each direction and was very generous with its blossoms. I was happy with Electron in NJ, too. Penelope did pretty well, but it did collapse from lack of water one summer.

I am quite fond of Cherry Parfait in my garden here and it was one of the better looking floribundas in a nearby park in NJ.

Mari33, I bought Singin' in the Rain from Roses Unlimited. Regan also carries it.
https://www.regannursery.com/i...

When viewing my plant list, I wrote if it was own root or grafted and where I purchased that particular rose.

In my growing area, floribundas outperform many hybrid teas. I am attracted to hybrid teas for 2 reasons. 1. because of their form 2. sentimental reasons. My father and I grew them in our backyard. I often refer to myself as a Hollis Kid. I grew up around the block from Gov. Cuomo and near Pres. Trump's childhood home. And yes, I think we should meet to exchange ideas and experiences.
Please feel free to contact me.

Margie

Zuzu, you brought up Rainbow Sorbet in an earlier post. See what I did over the winter using this method.
http://hartwoodroses.blogspot....

The first 2 photos are Cinco de Mayo and Rainbow Sorbet - taken 10 days apart. The last 2 photos are The Yellow also taken 10 days apart

Nice work, Margie!