Mary Stella. You can find discussion and links to photographs of native roses here:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/...

You can also browse through our roses database:

The Roses Database

You can search for specific rose characteristics (color, bloom size, etc) by clicking on "Search by characteristics".

Or, you could ask Zuzu, probably the most knowledgeable rose person on the planet.

Oh, I am not that much into roses. Just that I have a couple just to say I have them. Morden's Blush is a lovely little rose. I suppose if I am nuts on anything it is peonies and lilies, neither one of which provide anything other than beauty -- and dependability of course -- unless you have a mouse/vole infestation, whereupon you can kiss your tree peonies goodbye.

I think one good reason to grow peonies is that you can. (I think this comes under species diversity that Dave mentioned earlier in this thread.)
They don't grow in Alabama. The one's Ive tried that are supposed to grow in Zone 8, don't. We can't grow tulips or lilacs, either. So I think there is good reason to grow the plants that are most characteristic of an area (some people call these natives--but with the shifting zones now and to come the plants specific to an ecological biome are important to preserve.

I can't grow peonies, but I hope someone in Zone 4 or less will.

On the other hand, permaculture is a great strategy for incorporating micro-climates to grow marginally adapted plants. Here in zone 8 we grow figs, but they do best only if planted against the south wall of a stucture to reflect the most heat and sun.

I am a zone pusher for sure. It has cost time and money for me to find the ones that work for me but no one outside my little micro-climate in Anchorage. The local botanical garden map even shows it on their maps. Obviously not just my yard, but a small section of western Anchorage. I think it is our proximity to the inlet. I am trying winter sowing this year and have even included vegies to sprout out in jugs. Not sure where that comes in. I guess my reading about plants that take certain things from the soil need other plants that take different stuff and return diff stuff. I wont be raking and pitching this winter, but rather cutting pruning and then trying to intelligently leave the stuff where it might become incorporated into the soil. Not too sure about the brush stuff. That may go into a hole we are trying to fill in.