Roses

I garden organically in zone 5a, so I am looking for roses that are healthy, hardy, and relatively low-maintenance. I also highly value fragrance in a rose. So far this is what I am trying out:

Rosa alba 'Madame Legras de St. Germain'

Old Garden Roses

These bloom only once in June, but are relatively healthy and have outstanding fragrance and beautiful foliage and overall habit.

Rosa alba ‘Madame Legras de St. Germain’ - double white rose on arching 7 foot canes

Rosa alba 'Felicite Parmentier'- small for an alba, with soft pink blooms. Sweet, fruity fragrance that is perhaps my favorite rose scent.

Rosa damascena ‘Ispahan’ - shaggy mid-pink blooms with heavy, intoxicating fragrance

Rosa gallica 'Cardinal de Richelieu' - deep purple-gray-magenta

David Austin Roses

Flowers and fragrance like OGRs, but with at least some rebloom. They are supposedly somewhat iffy on disease-resistance - I'm trialing some that are reported to be pretty healthy. We'll see!

Austin rose 'Eglantyne' - tall rose with blush pink blooms

Austin rose 'Sophy's Rose' - double bright magenta red on a short bush

Austin rose 'Winchester Cathedral' - double white sport of 'Mary Rose'

Modern Roses

These rebloom reliably, but have little to no fragrance. I have tried to select disease-resistant varieties.

Shrub rose 'Lichtkonigin Lucia' (Kordes) - a tall willowy double yellow rose, said to be quite healthy for a yellow rose

Shrub rose 'Marjorie Fair'  (Harkness) - Similar to 'Ballerina' but with darker colored magenta-red flowers.

Shrub rose 'Rosarium Uetersen' (Kordes) - a shortish climber with vivid coral pink flowers. Flowers abundantly. Blooms packed full with insane number of petals.

Hybrid perpetual 'The Fairy' - ubiquitous healthy little rose with sprays of small light pink blooms.
 

Species Roses

Rosa virginiana - a very late blooming native American species (blooms late June-July here) with bright pink single flowers. It has brilliant yellow-orange-red foliage in fall, and bright hips and red canes in winter.