If you love roses, but you're fed up with the work and aggravation of tipping them into trenches, or mounding them with soil and mulch every October, just to get them through the winter, there's good news. Rose breeders are making great strides in coming out with attractive, hardy shrub roses for northern climates. The only winter protection they will ever need is having leaves raked over their root area once soil begins to freeze in November.

Though their flowers aren't as large as hybrid tea roses, many hardy shrub roses are wonderfully fragrant and bloom repeatedly over the summer. Smaller flowers often develop in clusters and may be quite showy [1], and bigger blooms may grow singly [2].

Look for roses that are bred in Canada - the Explorer Series - or Parkland Series - along with some of the old fashioned Rugosa Roses. Even if they do suffer some winter die-back, they should sprout vigorously from their roots, which is fine as long as they are not grafted onto a different rootstock.

Avoid choosing any of the Meideland (pronounced May-deh-land) or Floral Carpet roses. Despite the publicity surrounding their introduction, they are not fully hardy here.