Terri, the person who discussed shade-tolerant roses on Dave's Garden a few years ago was me. American Rose magazine had published a list I compiled of roses that are known to bloom well without the customary 5-6 hours of direct sunlight per day, and I reposted the list on DG. For the sake of clarity, "shade tolerant" doesn't mean that those cultivars will bloom in complete shade; their tolerance for shade is along a continuum, and most of them still require a few hours of direct sunlight per day. I think I stored a copy of the list on an older laptop that I'll dig out of the closet, fire up, and repost it here if it would be useful. But I prepared that list some years ago, and since then I've noticed that some of the major distributors are doing a better job of labeling their offerings for shade tolerance. However, to be honest, I've been a bit skeptical of just how many roses have been getting labeled as "shade tolerant," and have wondered if this is just a marketing ploy in some instances.
Your best best is probably to ask members here in the forum which species they have successfully grown in partial shade. My first recommendation would be Cherry Parfait (and I've never seen it labeled as shade tolerant, but in my experience, it's does very well in a wide range of lighting conditions, and is a consistently reliable rebloomer). I have also found the hybrid musks to do well with only morning sun, altough if you let them grow really big like I have (i.e., 10+ feet high) they behave a bit like OGRs in their blooming habits - one big show in the spring, and incidental blooming thereafter.
The climber Zephirine Drouhin always gets mentioned as a shade-tolerant variety, but that has been disputed. I've grown mine in shade and although it bloomed occasionally, the canes were floppy and thin. My ZD survived the move, and I have replanted it in a sunnier location and it's doing well. Of course, I had to cut it way back, and you know the old saying about climbers: In the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap! But mine has already put out a few blooms this year.
