Once, when searching for cedar planters, I came across a place that was pushing cedar hot tubs as very large planters. Those would probably work.

Mine is still a baby, too, gotten last year from Heirloom Roses. The thing is, I have been told this rose is capable of extremely large things, lol! I guess that means I agree with mad gallica...if a pot, a very big one.

They are right.

Nevertheless, I have mine in a five gallon pot on my patio and it is a year or two old and doing just fine. It probably will not get as big there, but I don't mind. Mine has grown up into a hanging pot that I put directly above the pot it is planted in, which is on the ground, and for now at least, it seems fine. The canes are very pliable and can be trained to go whereever you want them to go, which is also good for a patio rose. I do feed it ALOT of all natural stuff (alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, etc.). It also is almost always in the shade and it doesn't seem to mind that either.

So . . . for a year or two anyway, I say go for it.

It actually doesn't smell much on the plant here, but oh when I cut a spray and bring it in, everyone goes "what's that smell -- yum."

Kathy.

I had Darlow's Engima once - grew it from a tiny own-root from Heirloom Roses. The thing grew like crazy! Got to be 12 feet+ tall in no time & was very full & very green & healthy. But it hardly put out any flowers for me at all. I finally gave up & shovel pruned it.

I have a baby Darlow too--two-cane wonder. I don't know if it's a climber in my zone--long spindly canes that I'm staking up. Going to have to come up with some kind of permanent support for it, I guess. I would think it would be fine up against your fence in a pot, at least for a couple years. Mine is also in a part-shade corner of my patio (the rest gets full sun), and it's blooming, so the shade-tolerant rep of this rose is holding up so far.

I have a Darlow I got from Heirloom about 7 years ago. It's about 8 feet tall, growing next to a chain-link fence, in mostly shade. It does pretty well, very healthy, but it's not really impressive in any way. The flowers are just Ok in looks. They are fragrant, but unfortunately too far away to appreciate most of the time.
I think growing it in a (large) pot, close by, could be a very good idea. I might try it myself. It might get too big quickly, but maybe the growth would be restrained by a pot.

Prairie-rose,
It's a climber in zone 5. Mine is three years old and gets bigger every year. It grows on the west side of my house so only gets afternoon sun but it gets at least 6 hours of it. After spring dieback was pruned off it's now about 4 feet tall but I expect it to get quite a bit taller as the season progresses.Don't be in a hurry with those small bands. Remember the three year sleep, creep, leap rule especially with the bands which have to make a decent root system to support the top growth. It takes at least three years for a band to mature enough to determine if it's a keeper in our zone.
I had to interrupt this post to talk to a lady who stopped to admire my roses, many of which are now just three years old and finally blooming a lot.
My Darlow's in the ground. I grow just three roses in pots, Crystal Fairy, Marie Pave, and Polar Joy. They're all in very large pots, minimum 25 gallons.

Thanks, Karl--definitely going to have to rig up some sort of pillar or something, then, for the future. I will keep the little canes staked for now, until they grow more--I should have planned better, it's not really in a "climber" spot. I didn't trim off the flower buds, either, which I've read you're supposed to do with bands so that they concentrate their energy on building roots instead of flowering...I have no discipline, LOL! My Darlow has been in the ground about five weeks, it's doing well so far--so now my big challenge is just keeping it from being eaten or stepped on or having wayward footballs/basketballs crushing it (teenage boys).

Hey zyperiris:

This thing wants to get real big in our climate. I was amazed at how huge it was at a rose society member's house last summer in Auburn.
Darlow's Enigma was the size of a small house lot taking and climbing over a huge barn.

I have two that are very big already just one year old. Just warning you! :o)

It get's huge. Mine is about 8 feet wide at the moment. Here it is a year or so ago:
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Oh my, that is REALY huge!!! I thought maybe it would be somewhat controlled in zone 5. That doesn't look very controlled, lol!

It was sold to me as a climber but I like it's appearance as a self standing bush better.

cnetter, did the bush just grow that way or have you pruned it to get that effect?
Being in zone 5a as you are, it should get like that here too.
Another one I'll have to mark for spring 2010 transplanting

I just cut out any dead wood I find and trim it back on the side you can't see to keep it from eating the other rose bushes. The side you see is pretty much untrimmed.

The darn thing tosses out seedlings too. I have a nice double growing about 10 feet away.

zyperiris,

I'm a couple of years into my grand experiment to frame my front yard and screen the neighbors unsightly house and yard. It started by designing a fence/trellis of cedar, copper, and amber glass post caps. Then I had to come up with a way to raise the roses above my shallow buried roof drain. I used 18" corrugated PVC wrapped with brown vinyl lawn edging. The plan was to alternate climbers and shrubs that could be pinned to the fence in such a way as to make it a mute point if you could see through it, to sort of give your eyes a reason not to look past it.

Anyways, I started on one end with a baby own root Darlow's from Heirloom 3-4 years ago. Then last year I planted a WS2000, then a Gertrude Jekyl, then The Prince, and then another climber Eden. Next a Hot Cocoa, a Tamora, then another climber Blaze of Glory, a Betty Boop, then the climber Scent from Above, then the fence makes a 90 and I planted a Stairway to Heaven and then a Lyda Rose. There are like 8-9 of these fence sections and I'm discovering through this process exactly why patience is such a virtue. To speed up the screening process, this year I added a different clematis between each rose. This is either going to end up being the coolest living fence ever or a colossal wart on an otherwise gorgeous pig :-)

Here are a couple of pics of the first few sections. The Darlow's and the Eden are now coming together to form somewhat of a canopy over the others.

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Beautiful

boxofrox, I especially like your notion of not needing to completely block the view of your neighbors, only to stop the eye. I personally HATE solid privacy fences except in truly necessary conditions. (Like to hide a car graveyard, lol!) Your roses are gorgeous, and I wish I could grow climbers like that. I am getting to the place of there is only one more place to go...up....

greenhaven,

I agree, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out just what I wanted to do there. It works a couple of other ways too. I have the same fence separating the front from the pond area which is side/rear. I wanted to be able to play peek-a-boo if you will looking through to see the waterfalls but not everything as well as looking out to the front when I'm sitting by the pond. Here's a pic of each way...Looking out that other fence is to the right. The rose right behind the chair is a Sunset Celebration.

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Wow, that second pic is incredible!!! Did you build the gate yourself? I love how your wisteria is doing exactly what it was designed to do...just beautiful.

My biggest concern with doing so much work here is the possibility of moving in a couple years. Then all that work will have for naught.

Thanks, yeah I built the gate out of 1" copper before the price skyrocketed.