Sarah,

I would not be without Don Juan, but I live in a dry climate without a lot of disease issues but very hot summers. I know that rose growers in some zone 6-7 areas prefer Dublin Bay. Maybe they will chime in and make suggestions for a nice red that will be best in your climate; maybe Don Juan is great.

There are also climbers that have a red/white stripe⦠could be niceâ¦.

Is lavender off the list in terms of colors?

Lynn

Hi Lynn!

Thanks for the suggestions - I will look into Dublin Bay. I think Lavender would be okay - he didn't rule it out, so there's the loophole ;)

I'm currently captured by the Hybrid Musk class after watching 'Cornelia' just go gangbusters from a tiny band to a nice 2.5'-3'shrub with several new basals in only 3 months. And the first flush was just beautiful. But since true pinks are out, perhaps the mostly white 'Moonlight', 'Prosperity', 'Penelope', or one of the reds like 'Nur Mahal' might work. Those whites have the potential to shade a bit pink or apricot, but generally appear as white en masse if I'm not mistaken. 'Darlow's Enigma' might be a good pure white.

I love 'Sombreuil', but I don't know how it would do in 7b. It's done very well in coastal 10. A very beautiful, but thorny white climber.

While I can't speak to the scent of the climber, regular 'Iceberg' is one of the more variably scented roses to my nose. It is sometimes mildly fruity, sometimes very myrrh-like in the Austin rose sense, faintly lemony, sometimes just broadly floral and pleasant, or not fragrant at all. One of the most ubiquitous and floriferous roses in Southern California, though I assume the climber is less generous with flowers.

Since moving the plant, 'Don Juan' has done very well. However, we moved it to full sun from part shade because it just wasn't flowering much despite getting full morning sun and light afternoon shade.

You should certainly take the advice of those in the same zone or that share a similar disease pressure over my own, but I hope you have fun picking!

Jay

Madame Alfred! Wonderful scent, always some blooms, and nearly thornless, which is important since she will be in a populated spot. New Dawn isn't nearly as fragrant, has killer thorns, and doesn't bloom as steadily.

Jay: Thanks for the suggestions - I will def. look into Sombreuil and the hybrid musks :)

Catsrose: MC is where I am leaning too - my only concern is that she might be to freespirited for the area, since the total trellis for each side will be about 6' wide and 6' tall. I have heard she can be quite large, thought I would think this will be mitigated somewhat by the northern exposure. Of course, if she wants to sprawl down the wooden fence I have no problems with that either, lol.

This post was edited by snidergarden on Sat, Mar 15, 14 at 12:56

MAC definitely does well in partial shade - I have three which are doing that. It is not difficult to prune. Hopefully in your climate it will not jump off your fence and into the trees when you are not looking, but wait until you are looking, so you can deal with it.

Here in sunny CA I have one that grew its first 8 feet vertically growing in total darkness in a 2 ft wide bit of ground between the North side of our garage and a 8 ft tall fence on the other side. Now, I will say that I was encouraging it to climb. Once it got up to the top of the garage, it spread out and covered half of the roof. Then it discovered the tall pine tree next door. It has grown at least 20 feet up the pine tree (about 30 feet total from where it is rooted in the ground). You can see the highest bloom at the top of the picture. The blooms at the bottom of the picture are on the garage roof. No care, no diseases - I love it.

Jackie

My Dublin Bay was lovely but it was pretty stiff and didn't lend itself to much spreading out. It wanted to go straight UP and it did to a good 12 feet high. You might take a look at Fourth of July which is a very popular red and white striped climber. The canes on that seem to be more flexible and would spread out on the fence.

Jackie, that mac is a monster. Very cool.

Good luck with picking the right rose. I am trying to pick some DA climbers for my arbor and my hubbie has requested yellow so I feel your plight of being restricted by color. It's nice when they take a interest :).

I think you have to try Baltimore Belle! It is a lovely rambler with fragrant white (occasionally pale pink) flowers with a nice fragrance. It is shade-tolerant and disease resistant. No repeat bloom, but it blooms later than most roses for several long weeks.

MAC is very blackspot prone here. You'd have to spray it to keep it from being naked and it blooms less in shade. Don Juan is also very blackspot prone.

Field of the Woods is a moderately fragrant red that is relatively healthy here. It repeat blooms.

Look at 'Orfeo' for a red climber. I planted mine only last year, and it hasn't bloomed yet, instead focusing on growing. But I picked it based on the praise given by the few who have grown it. Search for it on the forums here, as well as looking at its page on HelpMeFind, linked below.

:-)

~Christopher

Here is a link that might be useful: 'Orfeo' at HelpMeFind

So we've narrowed it down to a few after a bunch of research and shopping around to see what all is available - here are the final contenders:

Red
Tess of the d'urbervilles from DA
Fields of the Wood/Rhode Island Red

White
MAC (though I am concerned about blackspot)
Prosperity

All this looking at roses has gotten me in trouble though - there are so many I want to grow now that I think I am going to have to put an arbor at the entrance to our walkway just so I can train roses over it - most likely Iceberg Climber since it is supposed to be thornless and people will be walking under it frequently :)

This post was edited by snidergarden on Tue, Mar 18, 14 at 2:53