I do have some HTs but generally I do not prefer to have HTs. I have lots and lots of Floribundas because I really love them. I like the look of masses of flowers the way a floribunda looks verses the one rose on a stem general look of a HT. And I also have roses that are lumped into the shrub rose catagory. Many that are clements roses and many of the Jackson and Perkins roses they call shrub roses. I guess there is no other catagory that they fit into? But these are not the landscape type roses that I think of as most easy care, but fancy flowering roses that go with all the others here.
Of course, I do always spray (systemic) for blackspot as I can't stand to see anything but shiney healthy green leaves. And the weather here is not prone to any big temperature swings. Just very humid in the summer. Plus usually we get enough rain that I don't need to water but there are exceptions. I rarely loose a rose overwinter. The soil when I started out was not too great but I always dug a nice hole for each rose bush that I backfilled with compost and peat moss. I have put compost over the entire rose beds and always keep them thickly mulched. That means thru the years the earthworms have come and deffinately improved the soil.
