No opinion on Silver Shadows or Prairie Star, except that Buck roses seem to have significant issues in the east.

Sally Holmes might be OK from Pickering. My experience with it as a rooted cutting was that it died quite quickly.

Ophelia is an absolute, positive, no go.

I'm in Chicagoland, and our strong wind makes the wind chill factor dipped below 20 F. When I first researched on hardiness of roses, someone reported Silver Shadows and Prairie Star as not hardy enough, but many from zone 4 reported success with Austin roses (if kept moist in the winter).

While walking in the nearby rose park with over 1,000 bushes in early spring - Austin roses like Abraham Darby were blooming, while non-shrub roses like hybrid tea and grandiflora were tiny and just leafing out. Shrubs are hardier than HT and Grandiflora.

I've had really good luck with Celsiana, Belle de Crecy, Veilchenblau, Fairy Rose, Madame Plantier, Bleu Magenta, Snow Pavement, John Cabot and some hybrid musks...with no winter protection. I don't know if they will do as well in your area (we have cold winters and hot, dry summers).

As for aphids, I have a cottage style garden, with roses mixed in with perennials/annuals and other shrubs, so I leave a few beneficial weeds in the back of the garden, to bring the ladybugs in...and no more aphids. They're here one, maybe two days...and then gone! I also have lots of daisies, coneflowers, Hidcote lavender and salvias (to keep the deer out)...and alyssum seems to help too, since it brings in other 'good' bugs that eat aphids :)

I am in Texas with a totally different zone from yours, but I tried Silver Shadows twice and found the color to be washed out and blah and the bush didnt grow well so got rid of it. I think there are other Buck roses that are better - I adore Honeysweet, beautiful color and its grown very well for me, just added another. So many good Bucks to choose from and they were bred for cold weather. Someone in your zone could suggest better than I.

I grow Ophelia, and the sports Mme Butterfly and Lady Sylvia.

Survival is not a certainty with tender Hybrid Teas such as these, but one can take steps to help them get established.

In my organic garden I use no sprays, and give plenty of organic fertilizers with alfalfa, also I use a soil drench with a fish/ seaweed. (Sounds like you do similar things...)

I mulch heavily in winter, and wrap these Hybrid Teas in burlap.

I grow Ophelia as a bedding rose, and I think its best to plant it away from shrub roses where it might have to compete. Allow Ophelia room, don't crowd it too close to other Hybrid Teas.

It's best to plant in all day sun, no shade at all.

If you're interested in Hybrid Teas, Marchioness of Londonderry is a great rose in my garden setting. It's classed as a Hybrid Perpetual, but the blooms resemble a Hybrid Tea. It's a wonderful rose, repeat bloom is very good. It's about 4 1/2 feet tall here. It tolerates winter very well.

Thanks Lavender_Lass for info. on alyssum, and question for Krista: I always admire the tons-of-blooms look on your roses, what is a soil drench with fish/seaweed? Can I buy that stuff at stores like Lowe's, Menards, or Home Depo? Thanks.

I'll report on what's hardy at the zone 5a Cantigny Rose Park: Frederic Mistral (almost thornless) stand up to the rain really well.

Chicago Peace is gorgeous. Midas Touch is hardy. Bewitched HT is hardy to zone 4b (no need for winter protection). Many of the floribundas are hardy: Carefree series, Singing-in-the-rain (very disease resistant, RRR, and low in thorns), Julia Child, Gene Boerger (?).

Austin roses are impressive, the diameter of these shrubs are much bigger than hybrid teas. What I like about shrubs is that they are much taller than HTs' in the spring, and I don't have to crawl to sniff them.

Thank you, Strawberryhill. I use Bill's Perfect Fertilizer, which I get from the Spray -N -Grow website.

I've also used Monty's Joy Juice, which is a liquid humus concentrate.