Skiekitty, Thanks for the warm welcome!
I'm a confessed rose addict. HT's keep being an ever smaller portion of my rose budget because I cannot succeed with them. If it's not blackspot, it's frost. Or drought. Or maybe just general weakness. Or orneriness (though in this case it's not clear if we're talking me or the rose.) But I've officially given up on HT's because I cannot help but think of them as being stinkers in the garden. I'm not fond of how they look out of bloom. And they are perpetually in the process of dying on me.
I think I've had better results with just about every class of roses except, perhaps, tea roses and noisettes. But in those cases I knew I was pushing the envelope on cold hardiness; so it was my bad that they failed. Not sure what I'd grow if I lived in Colorado. I'd probably try some Kordes roses, some Hybrid Musks, and some roses bred by Geschwindt (because he was dealing with some of the same weather problems as we have here at high elevations.)
For something easy to grow, try a purple smoke bush (cotinus coggygria "Purple Prince) It's smouldering dark purple foliage will make your dark red and orange roses positively glow. And it is about as easy to grow as your most troublesome weed. Sometimes one can improve a rose garden by planting something else!
