Choosing the Best Hardy Shrub Roses

Choosing the Best Hardy Shrub Roses for Your Northern Landscape
(Updated January 2008)

Terry L. Yockey

I come from a long line of gardeners. My grandmother had a huge perennial bed, my aunt gardens every inch of her yard and my grandfather loved to grow vegetables. Everyone gardened except my mother who was definitely the black sheep of the family--gardening-wise, that is.

That all changed about eight years ago when my mother decided to grow a few roses. Like most things that my mother enjoys, she didn't stop at just one or two roses--she planted over forty roses. I tried to tell her that roses were labor intensive and required way more time and energy than most care to commit, but of course, she dove right in anyway.

Boy am I glad she did. Thanks to Mom, I discovered hardy shrub roses.

What I've found since my mother became a dedicated rosarian is that not only do most modern shrub roses repeat bloom all season, but many are fragrant and disease resistant. There is definitely a shrub rose for every landscape requirement.

Another thing that I've discovered since I started collecting shrub roses is that not all of them are northern-hardy here in zone 4a. I would guess that I've probably lost at least a third of the roses that I've planted. I don't want that to discourage you, because my loss is your gain. I'm going to list my favorite shrub roses first and after that I'll also give you the roses that had problems or bit the dust the first winter out. I would heartily suggest that you also buy the book, " Growing Roses in Cold Climates," by John Whitman and Jerry Olson. My mother and I took it right along with us when we went to the nursery and depended on its brutally honest rose reviews to make our final choices.

My Favorite Roses:

'Hope for Humanity' Rose--This very hardy, low growing (2' high x2 'wide) rose is one of the Parkland Series of roses bred at the Morden Research Centre in Canada. It has gorgeous blood-red hybrid tea-like blooms and glossy foliage.
'William Baffin' Rose--This tough rose can easily reach over 10' tall. One of the very best for your garden arbor, the fuchsia pink flowers cover it in late spring and intermittently the rest of the season.
'Cuthbert Grant' Rose--Another Parkland Series rose, CG has a 5'x3' spread, is disease resistant and sports fragrant, semi-double crimson red blossoms most of the season. Just a good all-around rose for your landscape.
Pavement Roses--All the Pavement rugosas are wonderful plants for the landscape. Most reach about 4'x4' with double blossoms in shades of lilac, mauve and white. They bloom all summer, are fragrant, disease-free and salt tolerant.
'Therese Bugnet' Rose--The double purplish-rose blossoms are very fragrant and appear on and off all summer long. What sets this shrub rose apart are the red stems and bright orange hips that make it a nice plant for winter as well as summer interest. Does tend to mildew later in the season, but it doesn't seem to harm the plant.
'Jens Munk' Rose--A 6' high, dense bushy shrub rose that is covered with bright pink flowers in late spring and intermittently the rest of the season. Very disease-resistant.

My Not-So-Favorites:

Dr. Buck Griffith Roses--Shrub roses with blossoms that really do look just like hybrid teas. Buck roses are supposedly crown hardy in the north which means that although they die back to the ground, they should send up new canes each season. I've tried several and they all died.
'Knock-out' Rose--Non-stop hot pink roses on a very disease resistant 3'x3' plant. Planted three and not one made it through the winter. I planted them deeper the next year--still didn't have any survive. However, if you live in the southern part of zone 4, they will thrive magnificently and are a real showstopper in the rose or shrub garden.
'Topaz Jewel' Rose--One of the few yellow shrub roses, 'Topaz Jewel' does have a very nice light fragrance and beautiful pale yellow double blooms. It also has a lot of die back each winter and very nasty long thorns.
'Winnepeg Parks' Rose--Not at all vigorous. Mine limped along for 2 years and then didn't come back after a hard winter. It does have lovely double raspberry colored blooms on a compact plant.
'Morden Centennial' Rose--Like many of the Morden roses, this shrub is very susceptible to black spot and other diseases. Many have good luck with the Centennials, so if you don't have a problem with blackspot in your garden give this one a chance.

UPDATE 2008

My new favorite shrub roses are the Easy Elegance Rose Collection from Baileys in Newport, MN.

Easy Elegance 'Little Mischief' and 'Sunrise Sunset'
roses in the front of my rose garden.

Ping Lim, an internationally recognized rose hybridizer, crossed over 25,000 plants to come up with roses that are hardy, disease resistant, and best of all bloom all season long. All of the roses are also grown on their own roots which is a definite plus in our colder climes. In fact, Baileys is so sure that they will thrive in your northern yard or garden that they even offer a two year guarantee!

I have tried several varieties of the new Easy Elegance roses and never lost one yet including the roses that Baileys describes as hardy only to zone 5. However, I do cover them with mulch in the winter which definitely helps.

Even the hardiest Easy Elegance roses usually die back to the crown every winter without mulch. They will send out new canes in the spring, but since I already have cages around all my roses to protect them from rabbits [look closely at the photo and you can see the cages], it's easy to just dump some chopped leaves or straw inside each cage after the ground freezes.

Baileys will be releasing new varieties of Easy Elegance roses every year, but here are my favorites so far:

Sunrise Sunset Rose: Deep-green semi-glossy foliage. A very prolific bloomer, the 2.5 in. blossoms are a bright fuchsia pink with an apricot center. It reaches about 2.5 ft. tall by 2.5 ft. wide in my gardens.
Little Mischief Rose: Clusters of deep pink 1" semi double blossoms with a bright white eye. Smaller than Sunrise Sunset it is perfect for the front of the border.
All the Rage Rose: Large 3.5 inch semi-double apricot-blend flowers all summer long on a 2.5 to 3 ft. high by 2.5 ft. wide plant. Remove spent blossoms to promote repeat bloom.
Great Wall Rose: Attractive foliage that emerges red and gradually turns dark green. Neon pink semi-double 3.5 inch blossoms on a taller plant with canes reaching about 3 or 4 ft. tall. Good plant for a short hedge.