I have both of them on the cold sides of my house (zone 4 pocket) and they survive and thrive equally well. It perhaps isn't a fair comparison, as Ramblin Red doesn't get as much sun, but in my yard Quadra is the hands-down winner. It blooms most of the summer, is a dark crimson-pink color with semi-double blooms, establishes quickly, and LAUGHS off the cold. Everything else in my yard was pruned down to nubbins after this past winter, even Illusion on the warmer side of the house, but Quadra only had vanity pruning to keep him in check and he's leafing out way over my head already.

Both Quadra and Ramblin Red are pretty thorny with stiff canes, so train them early to grow horizontally on your support. I had Quadra as a freestanding bush for years, but it is a monster in that form. It's much happier climbing. It gets easily to 12' tall (taller if I don't do its vanity pruning in the spring) and mine is bushed out to maybe 5' wide. Both roses are bullet-proof for me as far as BS, and they can handle less than ideal situations. Ramblin Red is in its fourth year and still hasn't taken off with many blooms at all, but that may be the location it's in. It has two long central canes that are reasonably flexible, but it doesn't seem to grow the laterals nearly as enthusiastically as Quadra, which might explain the blooming difference.

I have a nice photo of Quadra in bloom at home - I'll see if I can post that soon.

Cynthia

Thanks Cynthia. How many less hours of sun does Ramblin Red get compared to your Quadra?

Hmm, it's a bit hard to say. Quadra is on the north side of my house and Ramblin Red is on the east, so neither get a ton of direct sun in either location since both are shaded by the house for parts of the day. I'm going to guess that Quadra gets 8 hours of direct sun with some filtered sun and Ramblin Red gets maybe 6 hours of direct sun with filtered sun and shade alternating at the ends of the day. I've never checked it that closely, but plenty of other roses on the same side with Ramblin Red bloom fairly constantly, so it isn't entirely a sun issue.

Cynthia