Thanks for the advice, soo they will grow with cutback after flowering? Sorry trying to understand. We get down to 30 degrees on a usual winter, sometimes colder, every once in a while it will snow, we do have hot 100 degree summers, souvenir du dr jamin I knew had to have afternoon shade, so thats not a problem. I just wanted to make sure they would grow and flower or not do anything at allbut die. I know alot of it has to do with location, but I'm still learning :) if anyone else has anything to add I would apprciate any helpful comments to help them live happy, and not waste they money on them if I can't make them happy :)

This is from vintage Gardens Hardiness guide.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vintage Garden Hardness guide

"Damask crud" is probably blackspot as expressed on damask and Portland roses--the leaves are covered with brown spots but do not yellow or drop. Niels is suggesting summer pruning partly as a way to keep the foliage fresher, if I understand correctly.

HPs and Portlands should be fine in South Carolina if sprayed with fungicide. They should survive and bloom without spray but may look ratty in summer and fall.

OK Michaelg, thanks for letting me know that appreciate all the help I can get

What would be best to spray them with? I don't spray nothing I have so far and would prefer no chemicals. Thanks

FWIW, Alana -- We don't spray, either.

Some classes of roses are pretty much disease-free here, and we concentrate on those.

But there are a handful of Hybrid Perpetuals which we keep for reasons relating to history, preservation, or sentiment, and we do so, knowing that they may have some problems.
They do rust toward fall, and we just remove those old leaves.
Patches of transient rust in season, we also remove. And very occasionally, we resort to something like Eco-Erase, or Serenade.

Aside from that, we acknowledge that those special roses may not look perfect through the year, and we just don't worry about it.

Surrounded by their disease-free neighbors, and other sorts of plants -- their imperfections just aren't that noticeable.

Jeri

I posted the following on the Roses Forum before I saw your similar post here. I'm repeating it in case the OGR cognoscenti care to elaborate or take issue . . .

Alana: I was hoping a Southern gardener who has more knowledge than I do about Portlands/HPs/ Damasks would respond to your question. Gardening in coastal NC, it's been my (limited) experience that members of those interrelated classes tend to struggle in the heat of our prolonged summer season. Symptomatic of their southern discomfort are foliage "issues" that gardeners in milder climates apparently never experience.
Should you decide to learn how roses from those classes fare in your garden, I suggest that you plant them where they get good air circulation and, ideally, full sun only during morning hours. Even when they're not in full sun all day, they still require more water than do most roses in my garden. Also, I've found that they're comparatively heavy feeders. They seem to do best in a rich soil, and they definitely respond quickly to fertilizer, which I apply in very early spring and again in early autumn.

I no longer grow any HPs, but still have a few Portlands -- 'Rose de Rescht', 'Marchesa Boccella', 'Comte de Chambord' (all of which I've had for a number of years), and 'Portland from Glendora' (given to me as a rooted cutting a few months ago). IMO, these roses are quite sensitive to soil pH (especially 'Marchesa Boccella'). If your soil is even slightly alkaline, do what you can to lower the pH, even if it's only to use MirAcid or a similar acidifying fertilizer. That was a lesson I learned over time after installing raised beds using "imported" soil.

My final observation is to say that in the spring of 2011, my Portlands performed better than ever before. I'm attributing that to the fact that the 2011 season followed a prolonged winter chill. The winter of 2010-2011 was the coldest, by far, that I've experienced since I began gardening here. If their spring awakening was any indication, the Portlands luxuriated in it.

Thanks everyone who responded and let me know all of their experiences, I believe I will give some if not all :) a try and see how they do for me. The only thing I'm concerned with is the heat. When heirloom had their buy early sales on I bought like 22 bands and all of them flourished untill we got that bad heat wave where we were over 105+ degrees (including humidity) for 3-4 days . Since that heat wave one died and two or three more look like they are gonna kick the bucket, even tho I'm trying to give them more water because of heat. they sent a replacement which I potted because of heat and put in part shade and the three stuggling I dug up and potted to try and save them, two of those three doesn't look like it's gonna make it :(. The roses that are doing the best came from high country roses apothecary, rosa mundi, darlow's enigma, but then even rosa glauca got a little heat strain, but I think thats because she gets afternoon sun. I have a rugosa rubra that was doing great untill that heat wave and then most of her leaves got burnt:( but shes tough.I thought about building something to just shade from afternoon sun untill it cools off but I don't know.. what you guys think? The reason I was wanting most of the older roses is because I thought they would be hardier, once established, and for historical value, and I just love their color :) I will be ordering all these thru rogue valley roses, which I've never ordered from so if anyone has any experience that would be great :) I will also be ordering dragon's blood and dolly's forever rose :) thank you everyone for all of the advice again.

R. glauca may just be going dormant. It seems to have a certain growing season length that is much shorter than normal North American seasons. Here, it often goes dormant at the end of August.

Hardier is a relative term. HPs and Portlands are cold hardier than HT, but that isn't something relevant to your conditions.

lori_elf is one of us who grows blackspot-susceptible OGR without spraying in eastern zone 7. They look good in the spring flush and have bad foliage (or no foliage) the rest of the season. This can be OK if you have a large garden with other things to look at, and if the varieties are fully winter-hardy in your climate, as Portlands and HP would be in the SC Piedmont.

Yes, I don't spray my roses and grow some susceptible varieties. The Portlands that are the most healthy I grow are Marchessa Boccella and Indigo. Right now Japanese Beetles are making lace out of their foliage, but BS isn't an issue. Therese Bugnet (a rugosa) is healthy too, as is Rosarie de l'Hay. Next down in health are Leda, Rose de Rescht, and Quatre Saesons who keep their leaves but get a little crud (also JB attacks). Further down on the health scale is Souvenir de Dr Jamain who is almost bare with some yellowing canes. I've removed most of my other HPs including Reine des Violettes. Rose de Roi was weak and didn't survive a winter.

Lori so from what your sayin is HP's just don't like our climate? surprised rose de roi didn't make it your colder than I am, and I thought they liked that, maybe I got my information mixed up? What type of conditions do they like? Some have commented SDDJ is a very slow grower does everyone experience this? I didn't know rosa glauca went dormant, she still looks well, looks like one can may have died but I can't tell her canes are kinda purplish anyway? so I'm just doing my regular mulching and watering with almost monthly(as soon as I remember it's time)feeding with rose tone and sometimes I'll add fish emulsion and stuff but their basic is rose tone.

Mad_gallica by hardier in my zone I guess I should have said ease of growth, like you know ogr suppossed to have survived all this time because they can basically fend for their selves once established and I'm guessing these that I like are not that kind lol

OGR adapted to your area are old teas, chinas, and noisettes, along with Souvenir de la Malmaison and its sports (Mystic Beauty, Mme. Cornelissen, Kronprizessin Viktoria).

Thanks Michael, that what I hear, but then it's only certain ones, I do have dragon's blood and blush noisette on my list but the others were my favs

Could anyone recommend a ogr the color of sddj thats for my climate? and besides the HP's is the rest good to grow here?

Sorry to bother again with another question but has anyone ordered roses from RVR before? thats where I planned on getting these and I've never ordered from them before. Are their bands decent size? I would order the gallon but I think the shipping would be to expensive.

Alana, you should take a jaunt to Roses Unlimited in Laurens, SC, which is pretty much next door to you, and discuss all this with them. They are the most knowledgeable people around. That they don't carry much in the way of HPs and Portlands should clue you in. Bill does have a great selection of Teas and Noisettes. They also sell in very reasonably priced gallons. RVR is fine, but I would start off closer to home.

When an HP is weakened by defoliation from BS, it still can die, doesn't matter how hardy it is. Bands are harder to get established than grafted. I've lost several that way.

Thanks Lori, think I'm gonna look at some different roses trying to find some that were recommended for area, but in the colors that I want, all the noisettes seen to get so big, but I still think I might try one.

I'm not in your zone, so I don't know how large these roses would grow in your area, or if they would bloom in your summer heat.

In my no-spray garden the Hybrid Perpetuals get blackspot and drop their leaves. This does not diminish their hardiness. They are slow to mature, but they produce beautiful blooms and make garden worthy roses. Mrs. John Laing is the best repeater amongst my HPs.

They don't repeat as well in summer as the Bourbons, (Bourbons are almost continuous here...), so the Hybrid Perpetuls rest a bit in summer. The HPs have lovely fall blooms, but not as full and sumptuous as in spring.

The HPs enjoy organic fertilizer and all day sun here, don't know in a warmer zone what their sun requirements would be.

The Damask roses form lovely shrubs here and have reliable repeat bloom on the Perpetual varieties. They too get blackspot, however they thrive on organic fertilizers. As with the HPs, I'm not familiar with how these grow in a warm zone.

Yes you should go to RU and look at their OGR in bloom. Their 1-gal. plants are larger and cheaper than bands shipped from the West. Also roses shipped in August will usually defoliate from heat stress.

Thanks Michael and Krista for your help. I'm gonna try a trip to RU but it's still a ways from my house, I wasn't gonna get any roses shipped in august though, I was making my spring order for next year :) I think I still may at least try rose de recht and sddj even with their negatives for my climate.

I have an HP called Buffalo Bill who does very well foliage-wise. Really well! But I have him in a fair amount of shade and he doesn't have much repeat bloom at all. He's great in the spring (but his foliage is nice all the time).

One I recommend even for frequency of bloom is Georgetown HP. She gets cruddy spots, but her leaves don't change color and she doesn't lose them. I have her in morning sun only. She isn't impressive until she matures a bit and her flowers get bigger and better formed. She's really lovely!

She's still not a workhorse or anything. But other than bloom frequency, she compares to many OGRs and moderns I usually grow. She doesn't really bloom much in the hot summer compared to other classes. I have JBs anyway, so her summer stinginess doesn't bother me because that's exactly when she doesn't like to bloom. She blooms very often otherwise, if that makes sense :)

I can easily send you a Blush Noisette, btw. I have one handy :D

Thanks Meredith I'll have to look up those two HP's and I would love to have the blush noisette,what do we need to do so I can get her?

I found those roses at vintage 45$ each- expensive, can't afford those right now lol

Meredith e how would I be able to get Blush Noisette, sorry for some reason what you and I wrote got delited or was missing for a while, it was weird.

Ah! Sorry about the availability; I got those at Ashdown's when they were around :(

Send me an email through Gardenweb and I'll get your address for BN! If it doesn't come through for me, I'll post back here.

hey Meredith sent my address through email hope you got it thanks