I have Hot Cocoa in part shade and while it does grow it doesn't bloom very much. I get maybe two flushes a season.

My HOT COCOA is in pretty much direct full sun and it blooms almost constantly. So I don't think I'd try it in a shady spot. CINCO DE MAYO is in a sorta half-and-half area and it rarely blooms. Altho that particular bed mostly just needs some amending to get it going, so can't say for sure on that one. I do have DRAGON'S BLOOD in a fairly shady spot. It's in a big ceramic pot and doesn't get much full sun. It gets "light" but it's mostly shaded. It does great. Repeats very well. grows well too. The only drawback is the coloring isn't quite what I see in other people's pics. It's more red-orange than that smoky red-russet color.

My Cinco gets full morning sun and is in shade by early afternoon. Bloom quantity and repeat are excellent but it gets terrible black spot and I wonder if the shade plays a part in that (that bed stays damp ).

Thanks so much for the insights! Sounds so far like I should stick to sunny spots for the smoky reds.

How about Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale? It's described as shade tolerant.. Does that imply it will be happier in the shade? Based on colours, I was thinking of planting it near my Julia Child and About Face - which are squarely in the sun.

Thanks so much for the insights! Sounds so far like I should stick to sunny spots for the smoky reds.

How about Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale? It's described as shade tolerant.. Does that imply it will be happier in the shade? Based on colours, I was thinking of planting it near my Julia Child and About Face - which are squarely in the sun.

I think I'm going to try these in a part shade foundation planting and hope for the best.

Cindo de Mayo

Hot Cocoa

Dragon's Blood

Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale

I'll have 2-3 of each and see which ones perform best.

Are these for the front of your new house? Let us know how they do. My CdM is in full sun and blooms constantly in very quick flushes. It did BS near the end of the season, but was rock-solid until then.

That’s right vapor.

CdM was my wife’s favorite and it bloomed like crazy in 10-12 hours of sun so I’m hesitant to order 10 or 15 of the same plant if it does poorly in say only 6 hours of sun.

I’m hoping these 4 will have a similar affect from 10+ feet away.

I think that JC in Tennessee can do these roses in part shade but in zone 5 I'd opt for as much sun as we can get to optimize the bloom time. I've found that Cinco de Mayo, Hot Cocoa, and Brother's Grimm Fairy Tale are pretty reliably hardy for me in zone 5 but they have more surviving cane over the winter and better bloom repeat in as much sun as I can give them. I don't find that our summer sun fades most of the vivid roses in the way that sun does in warmer zones. Very sadly I haven't found Dragon's Blood to be hardy even in my most protected zone 6 pocket - Paul Barden breeds roses with tea influence which may reduce hardiness, though it makes for a beautiful rose. You might be luckier with snow cover for hardiness than I am, since I'm now quite convinced the snow makes up for any amount of winter cold and is the deciding factor in a good rose year (we rarely have reliable snow cover though). It's worth a try, but I might not try three of that rose till you see how the others do.

Koko Loko is actually more hardy than it looks in a protected spot and it's a similar height to HC and CdM. BGFT is a droopy sprawly octopus that absolutely refuses to hold its blooms up with any encouragement so it needs staking or caging to be visible above 6" off the ground, and its growth habit differs a lot from the others. Julia Child is surprisingly not hardy for me but its growth habit is similar. For me About Face is the same color scheme but a typical tall narrow HT growth with a few blooms at the end of a narrow set of canes now and then. Stunning, but not the flori bushy growth.

Cynthia

Cynthia, you always provide such great input.

I'll post a picture of what I'm working with after this. I think* I'd prefer this foundation bed to have more of a hedge-like appearance.

I definitely don't have a garden in the traditional sense, I just like using roses instead of other flowering shrubs.

I'm removing everything except the spider grass that lines the very edge.

Then I'll plant a short and narrow evergreen hedge will rise up directly behind it.

And behind THAT, is where I'd like to plant these.

If Brother's Grimm is no good for that strategy, I'll opt for something else. I'm not endeared to it, just thought the blooms were similar to, yet different enough from CdM and HC?

Dragon's Blood, I have only been able to locate at 1 nursery. And again, I'm not endeared to that one either.

I think I prefer your suggestion of keeping the same bush shape in this bed.

I might put Surreal from J&P on the list for possible replacements for Brother's Grimm and/or Dragon's Blood. It seems to have a similar growth habit and bloom structure to the other 2.

Maybe Sierra Lady also, but I see nothing on HMF about it.

Honey Bee Haven looks similar in structure as well.

Here’s the bed. It’s 10ft deep.

I love Julia Child against the black metal fencing. Beautiful!

Oh, and the 3 rd bush is in a lot of shade from the blue spruce.

That looks incredible!

I love the blue spruce too!

Thank you

I think that blue spruce is almost 60 years old. I think it is original to this house.

Great hedge of Julia Child, Kristine! Yours totally puts mine to shame since I can't get mine above knee high. I think it's one of those roses where zone 6 is substantially better than zone 5.

Along those lines JC, you might consider how tall the roses you are looking for get in your zone. HC, CdM, DB, and BGFT all hover around 3' in my zone and would be dwarfed by even a small evergreen hedge. I have all the roses against the front of my house with the yew evergreen hedge BEHIND the roses, and I can keep all of them trimmed to 3-4' even if some like Music Box and Sweet Fragrance really want to get bigger than that. I can't imagine an evergreen hedge other than the ground cover type under 1' that I could plant in front of roses. In your zone that might be different, but you should check with folks like Lilyfinch in your zone to see relative heights of the plants. I suspect you'd want more of the HT bush shape than floribundas to rise above the hedge, and About Face and Surreal both fit that style.

I think the color schemes you've picked will look great in front of those russet colors in your house. Other roses that might pick up that color scheme could be Honeysweet (a Buck rose), Koko Loko (that tan-lavender), Foxy Lady (a great russet Jalbert rose from Palatine), or perhaps Pat Austin (though I think Austins are blackspot prone in your zone). Having an evergreen in front of your roses might help hide some bare canes if they do blackspot, but the heights would have to work.

All in all, what you've described sounds lovely but it's a different configuration than would work in my zone. I'm not your best advice about what would work for you except as far as colors go.
Cynthia