What Is A Disease Resistant Rose Bush?

Orange Rose
honey bouqueet rose
(Image credit: Michael Arrighi)

Disease resistant roses have been getting a lot of attention lately. What is a disease resistant rose and how can a disease resistant rose help you in your garden? Read on to find out.

What are Disease Resistant Roses?

This term "disease resistant" means exactly what it states -- the rose bush is resistant to disease. A disease resistant rose bush is a hardy variety of rose that by its breeding can resist many attacks of disease. This does not mean that given just the right conditions a disease resistant rose will not be attacked by and contract some disease. But disease resistant rose bushes should perform better in your rose beds without the need to spray as often or perhaps not at all. Not spraying your rose bushes with a fungicide means that you need to keep the bushes well trimmed and thinned out to keep good air flow through and around the rose bush. The good air movement will help keep the humidity level down, thus not creating the climatic condition within the rose bush that fungi can thrive in. Keeping drooping canes up off the ground also helps stop diseases from attacking your rose bushes. Probably one of the most popular disease resistant rose bushes on the current market is Knock Out, a shrub rose with red blooms and a very hardy rose bush in many ways.

List of Disease Resistant Roses

Here are a few disease resistant rose bushes you may want to include in your rose beds:

Disease Resistant Floribunda Roses

  • Europeana Rose
  • Honey Bouquet Rose
  • Playboy Rose
  • Scentimental Rose
  • Sexy Rexy Rose
  • Showbiz Rose

Disease Resistant Hybrid Tea Roses

  • Electron Rose
  • Just Joey Rose
  • Keepsake Rose
  • Veterans' Honor Rose
  • Voo Doo Rose

Disease Resistant Grandiflora Roses

  • Love Rose
  • Tournament of Roses Rose
  • Gold Medal Rose

Disease Resistant Miniature Roses/Mini-Flora Roses

  • Amy Grant Rose
  • Autumn Splendor Rose
  • Butter Cream Rose
  • Coffee Bean Rose
  • Gourmet Popcorn Rose
  • Winter Magic Rose

Disease Resistant Climbing Roses

  • Altissimo Rose
  • Iceberg Rose
  • New Dawn Rose
  • Sally Holmes Rose
  • Cancan Rose
  • The Charlatan Rose
Stan V. Griep
Writer

Stan V. Griep contributed to Gardening Know How for many years, and has been a Colorado Native Rosarian for over four decades. He is an American Rose Society Certified Consulting Master Rosarian in the Rocky Mountain District, and a member of the Denver Rose Society, the Loveland Rose Society, and the American Rose Society. He is Gardening Know How's in-house expert on all things roses.