Roses need six hours of full sun daily to ensure hardy growth and prolific blooms. This does not mean that you cannot grow roses in a location that gets less than six hours of full sun. Indeed, many roses have been bred to withstand some shade. However, for the best results, plant your roses where they can receive at least six hours of full sun.
New varieties are being developed all the time
At the Peninsula Park Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon, we have a number of beds along the slopes of the garden (it’s a sunken rose garden surrounded by big trees) that are in partial or nearly full shade. We continue to experiment with different varieties. We have found several roses that are strong, shade-tolerant workhorses. Even if not as magnificent as they might be in more hours of full sunlight, they provide substantial masses of color during the bloom season.
The American Rose Society can help
In this post called “Growing Roses in Partial Shade” on the American Rose Society website, you can find mention of several shade-tolerant roses. They have experimented and done a much better job of describing the results than I can.