Best Climbing Roses

Hi all,

I am new on here and to gardening but I have recently become extremly fascinated with gardening and especially roses. So I have decided to add some climbing roses to my large garden to give it the wow factor and therefore I need a little help in deciding which climbing roses would be best.

My garden is a rectangular shape which is approx 40ft long, 30ft wide, and has a 6ft high fence going the whole way around except for where my house is.

I live in Leeds (north England) but my garden gets the sun all day.

What I want is 3 different roses to go all the way around my fence. So one down the left side, one down te right, and one across the bottom fence.

I have already bought a Graham Thomas which is in a very large tub and looks amazing - but this is not for the fence.

However, I have bought a Penny Lane to go down one side of the fence, but will one be enough for one side or will I require 2/3? As sometimes I read about a rose and it says it will reach 12ft but then you will see a picture of one and it looks like it reached nearly double that, so I am confused!!

Please see the climbing roses below which I think maybe best for my garden because they look good, have a good fragrance, hardy, and I have read some good reviews about them.

Could you please let me know which ones you think are the best/your favourite and would look good in my garden or if there any any other climbing roses you think would be ideal please also include?

Zéphirine Drouhin - bright pink/red, highly scented, 12ft
Lady Hillingdon Climber - yellow/apricot, good scent, 15ft
Sombreuil - white/cream, good scent, 12/13ft
Mme Alfred Carriere - white/cream, highly scented, shade, 20ft
Iceberg Climber - white/cream, little scent, 12ft
Cinderella soft pink, good scent, 10-15ft
Pierre de Ronsard Rose (Eden Rose) - mid pink, little scent, 11ft
New Dawn - fair pink, average scent, 10-15ft
Gardeners Glory - yellow, good scent, 10-12ft
Aloha - pink/purple, highly scented, 7/8ft
Constance Spry - deep pink, very good scent, once flowering, 12-15ft Ivory Castle Rose - White, good scent, 12ft

Thank you in advance and I look forward to reading your comments.:thmb:

Regards,

Chockyice

 

Hi Chockyice

Can I add another to the list? 'Compassion', a climber I used to grow and I think Wiseoldowl still does, is a beautiful rose with coppery-pink flowers which would tone with the roses you've already bought. It has a lovely scent.

If you're planning to cover 40 feet, I'd buy another two 'Penny Lanes' and space the plants equally. Climbing roses vary quite a lot in their vigour and eventually size. Madame Alfred Carriere is a particularly large plant when mature, but as far as I can tell 'Penny Lane' is a bit more restrained in its growth.

 

Unless of course you use the climbing rose I have which quite frankly must have triffid genes because it is growing like the clappers lol. ( Seagull)

There is a rose for every occasion-in fact there are probably ten or so tbh.

What is important to you-scent, colour, repeat flowering etc?

Clara is spot on with regard to bearing in mind that what one rose does in one garden is no real inication of what it will o in yours.

 

Hi Lollipop.

I grew Seagull once and decided it really ought to be called 'Albatross' - a permanent burden a la Ancient Mariner. Never grow it over a shed, unless it needs demolishing.

 

I love roses but certainly do not have the knowledge and experience that Woo and other members have. However that said I have discovered English roses (David Austen) do make lovely climbers. The advantage they don't go daft in that they grow to about 8 -10 feet and have the advantage of flowering always at the bottom so you don't get that legginess you sometimes get with climbers. Just a thought.

 

It should really come with a warning-it is trying to kill me, and it may succeed the beast has just left a gash in my arm around 7 inches long......................the thing is, the scent is probably the perfect rose scent, so gorgeous. It needs room.

I am having a good experience with a rose called "the Generous Gardener", pink with a good strong scent.


There really are too many to choose from.







My current desire is a rose called Precose. If I could just get a cutting I could make it grow.

 

The best climber I ever had was Morning Jewel.
It's pink, beautifully scented and seemed to flower all summer long. The weather never bothered it and it was disease free.
And it covers a lot of space.

 

Thank you all for you comments, much appreciated!!

I have just been to my local garden centre and the two climbers which appealed to me the most were Compassion (suggested by ClaraLou, many thanks) and Arthur Bell.

I thought both their fragrances were absolutely amazing and the only problem was that they were the same colours as my Graham Thomas and Penny Lane. For that reason only I did not buy them as I needed more time to think about it.

WOO - Thank you for narrowing down my long list but could you please give me the reasons as to why you removed the following roses:

Zéphirine Drouhin - bright pink/red, highly scented, 12ft
Lady Hillingdon Climber - yellow/apricot, good scent, 15ft
Sombreuil - white/cream, good scent, 12/13ft

because these were at the top of my list and the ones I was more than likely going to buy.

ps. Fragrance is at the top of my list when deciding on a Rose.

Thanks,

Chockyice

 

Zephrine Drouhin is a lovely rose and it will do well north facing which most roses won't.
It has a lovely scent and as a bonus it's thornless.

 

I have to agree with Woo about Zepherine Drouhin-prone to fungal disease, make sure it gets plenty of good air circulation.

 

Thank you all for sharing your vast knowledge.

I think I shall opt for Mme Alfred Carriere & Compassion to go with the Penny Lane I have already bought.

Just one last question - the garden centre near me only has a limited choice of roses so I was going to order them on-line. Who would you recommend as I have noticed there are quite a few?

Many thanks,

Chockyice

 

Totally agree with Woo and Lollipop - Zephirine Drouhin is disease prone. Disease rarely kills roses but you have to keep spraying to keep susceptible plants looking good. Also, it is a vivid magenta, which can be a little hard on the eye, depending on what you intend to grow near it. As Woo says, Lady Hillingdon is a bit of a cripple. A nice one, but needs lots of TLC to get established.

If you go for Mme Alfred Carriere, which is a beautiful, highly perfumed rose which is not fussy about aspect, be aware that it is a large, vigorous rose which takes up a quite lot of space when fully grown and will need sturdy support.

There are many places which offer roses online. Traditionally they're despatched as bare root plants in the autumn, although container grown roses are also offered by some suppliers.

Try David Austin Roses for a wonderful selection of roses, many of which look like sumptuous old-fashioned varieties, but have the colour, ability to repeat flower and disease resistance of modern plants. www.davidaustinroses.com.

Peter Beales specialises in classic roses:-

http://www.classicroses.co.uk/

Harkness is a long established firm based in Herts, which has developed its own varieties for many years:-

http://www.roses.co.uk/

And then there is Apuldrum Roses:-

http://www.apuldramroses.co.uk/

All these firms will send you a paper catalogue, should you prefer to browse from a booklet rather than online.