As Master Gardeners we often design and execute gardens that will be enjoyed by the public. We're reluctant to include roses into these plans because of their need for spraying and the time-consuming fall rituals needed to insure winter survival. Also as Master Gardeners, we're called upon to provide advice to people who wonder why roses seem to behave as annuals for them. Actually, selection practices and not cultivation principles are the reasons that many gardeners fail to enjoy roses in the Great Lakes region. However, unlike the old garden roses, the modern Canadian roses are repeat bloomers.
Canadian roses are available either on their own roots or grafted onto rootstock.
The grafted roses cannot survive winters without protection of the graft and stems above the graft in cold regions like the Great Lakes, which is climate zone 5 and colder. The Morden roses are also known as Parkland roses. They're based on Rosa Arkansana, the Prairie Rose, which blooms on new wood. They're especially suited for the climatic extreme of grassland prairies, where winter-kill down to the snowline is common. While they're more disease-resistant than the average hybrid tea rose, the humid Great Lakes climate can cause fungal diseases such as blackspot.