I'm a novice like yourself, and my peach floribunda has been thriving since I planted it 3 years ago. The first year I fed it, but not since. I give it a lot of water and sun.

In the winter it doesn't get a drop of sun and can be coated with ice for days, and it still thrives.

I do deadhead it though. I don't deadhead my KO's or my carpet roses.

Go for it!

More than some of the antiques. I'd try both. Try some sturdy floribundas and some good sturdy antique roses that are shorter and will be good for zone 5

There's a tremendous range of floribundas available. I don't know much about Toronto specifically in terms of what does well there, but in general try to go for newer varieties- these tend to be much more disease-resistant. I am a huge fan of the Kordes roses, particularly the Fairy Tale series, as these have been bred and selected in a no-spray setting. They are very successful in our humid environment- if you want something with a lot of dazzle, look at Garden Delight. More subtle is, say, Golden Fairy Tale or Floral Fairy Tale.
Also very low-maintenance are the Noack roses- say, Lady Elsie May and the flower carpets. They are a bit rangy and unkempt for a walkway, though.
A very healthy and compact orange is Easy Does It. If you want a very healthy and cold-hardy rose in an unusual colour, look for Navy Lady. It's nearly black when opening up, then shows a deep red. Very unusual.

I would suggest Austin's 'Queen of Sweden' rose. From what I hear it has great disease resistance, an upright habit, great fragrance, and is quite cold hardy.

While I understand that rebloom is important to you, I would also suggest the once a year bloomer "Konigin Von Danemark." It is an antique Alba that is a great rose. Nearly bullet-proof. And even though it only blooms once a year, it will knock your socks off when it does. The rest of the year it is a lovely, graceful shrub.

I would also look into Buck roses, which are notoriously cold hardy down to -20 to -30 degrees Fahrenheit.

Josh

My opinion of floribundas are that they provide big rewards for little care. Most bloom abundantly, they're are available in a myriad of colors and a variety of bloom forms, and are usually attractive garden shrubs. I don't mind deadheading my floris, they all seem to snap off easily unlike smaller blossomed landscape varieties. I do spray because blackspot is a big problem in my climate. It's not a hassle once you're set up for it. But as noted above if you'd prefer to avoid spraying, many floribundas are disease resistant, Kordes in particular.

Moondance (white) is my favorite floribunda; it's all around wonderful and is about the size you'd like. For dark reds, Black Cherry is a good large healthy plant for me. This year I also planted Oh My! which is a larger shrub with large flowers, similar to Black Cherry, and Lavaglut which has smaller flowers of intense dark crimson. All have excellent repeat bloom.

I have seen some very nice Explorer roses and some are smaller shrubs similar to floribundas. Champlain (red) comes to mind.

Thank folks. For next spring I'll be hunting for some of the newer breeds then. I mean, worst case they struggle/die and I plant annuals while looking for something better.

Fortunately, you have three, large sources for roses there in Canada, Pickering, Palatine and Hortico. Pickering and Palatine have well earned, well deserved, excellent reputations. Hortico's performance, particularly to US customers, has been, shall we say, more "spotty". Pickering actually states on their web site all of their roses have been tested and/or cleaned or RMV, rose mosaic virus, which is a great thing. Virus infection can be more damaging in harsher, colder climates, so plants purchased from Pickering, particularly of older varieties which have had a greater opportunity to have been infected with RMV through careless propagation, should be more durable, better performers and longer-lived in your climate. Those three sources should also be best able to direct you to the sizes, colors and cold hardiness ratings you desire. Good luck! Kim

Ditto on recommending the Kordes Fairy Tale series. These are actually shrub roses rather than classic floribundas, and some of them will make a bushy 5 x 4' plant. 'Caramela Fairy Tale' is one such, and it is very disease resistant. The flowers are sumptuous.

If you want easy-care roses in Toronto, the main concern is resistance to blackspot disease. Despite claims you may find in garden books, most floribundas are no more resistant than typical hybrid tea roses. Their genetic background is mostly hybrid tea, and they differ mainly in having smaller flowers in clusters. A few of the very early Poulsen floribundas from the 1930s are more resistant, but most floribundas from the 1950s-90s are not resistant. I can recommend the old red Kordes rose 'Eutin', but otherwise you need to look for quite recent roses bred by breeders that are prioritizing disease resistance, such as Kordes, Radler, and Lim. 'Home Run' is a true red one by Radler.

In other words, the classification "floribunda" is not at all a reliable guide to choosing easy-care roses.

This post was edited by michaelg on Thu, Sep 5, 13 at 16:29

Great info guys! Pickering Roses is actually close enough that I could drive there and pick them up. I will definitely look more into this.

Thanks!

Home Run is actually a Tom Carruth rose.
Home Run has knockout in its bloodline though...

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Run Rose Info:

This post was edited by jim1961 on Thu, Sep 5, 13 at 20:50