Which of the Earthkind roses are good choices to work with? They have already passed difficult testing, it seems natural to breed with these award winners if they are fertile.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earthkind/roses/cultivars/
We do randomly, but I am not definitively sure which are ER. The last time I checked, new ones were being added. Likewise, it is easy to get them confused with ADR. At any rate, I am sure the majority of us have tried at least one or two.
Ah, here is the list:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earthkind/roses/cultivars/
From this list, I pretty much use the descendants of Carefree Beauty, as well as other Applejack hybrids.
I am amazed that Lullaby is not on that list.
IMO, it is also important to bear in mind that previously untested strains of blackspot can show up and reveal more about the type/degree of BS resistance (horizontal/vertical).
Case in point, here in my climate which is totally remote to the location where these roses on that list were tested to BS infection, the local strain(s) of blackspot continue to affect one of those cv on that list very badly, year after year!
So the BS resistance of that cv might also be good to pre-assess, if you happen to live in a foreign location to that location where these tests were done before diving in.
This is not meant to minimise the EK ideal, it is just an extra dynamic that needs to be factored into the equation when we start to think internationally/globally.
Sea Foam was one of my first 15 or so roses. I had two of them. They were beautiful…and painful. What was worse? They blackspotted yearly without fail 
What always got me was why Meilland chose to use Sea Foam with Eyepaint of all roses! Eyepaint is probably one of the worst ever. I do not know why, but if you sneeze near it, it will defoliate in 3 hours. I tried growing Fire Meidiland, and I was met with identical results of blackspot patterns.
I don’t mean to give anything away (well, actually I do), but our upcoming Newsletter will have an article by Peter Harris on the Earth Kind program. It is specifically intended as a regional program to test roses for a particular area. I don’t think that’s always come across as clearly as it needs to. George is absolutely right about the races and strains of rose diseases lurking in different locations waiting to hit a variety that has a reputation for immunity elsewhere.
From the list most vars I grow/grew fall in the tolerant to very tolerant class in the environment I grow roses. That is able to build up without TLC.
And yes here Sea Foam is among those that are under par.
My growing conditions are more trying than Earthkind trials. First seedlings are selected for three years growing close to many others, some quite bad hit by deseases; 15cm on the row, two paired rows with 30cm between, same pedigree grouped. Not too hard selected ones are set 50cm on the row and 40cm between the two rows that is four plants at more or less 50cm. The big difference is that all plants are touching to entangling foliage of neighbours
Many to most species are better. Stronger and more tolerant.
It is this higher performance-tolerance level with full recurrence I look for.
George, I think it was David Zlesak that mentioned his university was looking into collecting all the major international blackspot races for testing purposes. That should be a valuable tool in the future. For now though, I’d like to see the Earthkind trials at least collect BS races and other diseases from around the USA and test via the Radler method.
As to fertility, Belinda’s Dream, Cecile Brunner, and Knockout are difficult both ways.
Actually, collecting diseased leaves is something we can do ourselves. I don’t think it’s illegal for us to mail blackspotted leaves to one another, at least not within the USA.
Pink Gate, the suspected Cecile Brunner seedling, Kentfield, seems to be more fertile than Cecile is. I never got traditional Cecile Brunner to set seed with anything but her own pollen. Pink Gate will set fertile seed and its pollen will fertilize other roses. White Cecile Brunner accepted a number of different pollens. Its seed are planted, but with 80+ degree periods, things are slow germinating.
Hi Charles!
The black spot races are at the U of MN. Unfortunately, in order to follow the letter of the law the races cannot go across state lines without documentation from APHIS and if it is from outside the state and we got it in, we cannot release the races in the state without paperwork and possibly hearing a no from our understanding. Races are traveling with plant materials all the time… Taking advantage of a diverse race mix in the field is a little more challenging across sites and states due to the governmental rules. The laboratory screens fortunately is a way around these barriers. Of course we can work with races in a state legally. If we have a collection of cultivars that are uniquely susceptible to one versus another race, we can plant those cultivars and see if they get infected and try to infer which races we may have and if we have a good relative mix.