They are wonderful roses. You can't go wrong with them. Paul Transon has a bit of rebloom too.

Great!, thanks for the responses, this is what I wanted to hear.
Robert, I have been eyeing Alberic Barbier pretty hard. And Pam, I didn't know any of these ramblers rebloomed, will look hard at PT.
Since my 8'x6'x3' arch isn't huge, which one of the ramblers in the Barbier style would be most appropriate in terms of cane pliability and manageable mature size? I am not afraid of pruning, but I want to still be able to get down the underlying path in a couple of years. And on these larger roses, would it be best to plant one on wither side to grow together in the center, or just one to train all the way down the other side?
Is the growth rate vigorous?

I wonder if that the rebloom might not be a climate related thing. It would be interesting to learn if Paul Transom reblooms in other areas. A small number of once bloomers have a bit of rebloom in parts of California on a fortunate year. Even a few albas rebloom once in a while in San Francisco, according to an article Ray Reddell wrote a few years back. I see scattered rebloom on Chevy Chase and Baltimore Belle some years, though never on my albas here in the South Bay area. A bit north of me where Mendocino Rose lives and Vintage Gardens is located, it is an even nicer rose area, because they get just a touch of winter chill but without real winter harshness most years; more rainfall that I get here, but still with nice dry summers. I consider that area to be the finest rose growing country around.

I am fortunate to live near Anne Belovich who has the largest collection of Barbiers in the country. They are as a group wonderful roses. I have spent some time pruning them in past years...very flexible as a whole which you can increase by cutting them back to the previous years new growth as they do at Sangerhausen every year. I was surprised that they are not quite as cold hardy as I would have expected. There was significant freeze damage in the extreemly cold 08/09 winter-temps down to 5 degrees which is well within a zone 7 designation. They did all recover just fine though. Rogue Valley and Vintage both have stock from some her more rare varieties but I do have to say that nothing beats Alberic Barbier for me-deservedly popular.

patricia

greybird, I have a baby Francois Juranville that I've read reblooms in Florida. John Stark has a article on HMF on the subject of reblooming ramblers. In doing research I noticed the ones that he says rebloom are Wichuriana x Noisette. There are really quite a few of them. I greatly admired Paul Transon on the Ashdown site but didn't buy it. I need to move mine since I realized I have a vacant arbor. Don't ask how I could have overlooked that. (A mind is a terrible thing to waste.) My arbor is 8x8x3. Hopefully, that's big enough plus it's right under two oak trees in case it wants to go higher.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: Which Wichurana? by John Stark

I also collect Barbier ramblers ... though mine are grown on wire on a fence, not on arches like Robert's.

The stringiest, most flexible ramblers I have are Alberic Barbier, Leontine Gervais, Paul Transon, Francois Juranville, and Jean Guichard. Albertine is beautiful, but I think it's too stiff to train to an arch ... you could do it, but it wouldn't be much fun. The others are so flexible, all you have to do is throw the canes over the top of the arch and tie them down. You'd have to wrestle with Albertine. Aviateur Bleriot (not a Barbier, but it fits in perfectly style-wise) is stiffer than Alberic Barbier but will still train to an arch fairly easily.

My Alberic Barbier has sprouted a few flowers in late summer for the past two years, but I won't go so far as to say that it reblooms. I prefer to think of it as a gift to ease the summer doldrums.

Here's a photo for you, of Robert's Paul Transon last May:
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I think the first rose on the arch behind the chicken is Alberic Barbier, and Leontine Gervais beyond it.
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Hope this helps,
Connie

P.S. I did a blog post last year on Barbier ramblers. It's mostly close-up photos, but there are a couple of distance shots so you can see their habit. IMO, there's no way to go wrong by growing these roses ... they're THAT good.

Here is a link that might be useful: Barbier Rambler blog post

Patricia and Sherry, thank you for the information.

Thank you Connie, for the pictures and information. I think one of these Barbier varieties will be perfect. AB, PT and LG will likely be my choices. I hope they fair as well here in the southern plains as they do on the coasts.

Robert has a gorgeous garden, love that fat chicken! I can't really figure exactly how the arches work...what does he tie the roses to?

Beautiful photos Connie!

Wow...my roses on the web. I can't wait for spring. The first rose beyond the chicken is Awakening. Then there's Gardenia (perhaps a bit too aggressive for this spot, but otherwise perfect), and then Paul Transon in the third position. Alberic Barbier is at the other end of the tunnel.

Thanks for posting the pics, Connie. I'm still on dial up, so it's about an hour's wait for me to get a picture onto this site.

Robert

Robert, I believe it was you who posted gorgeous photos of your garden last spring which included a lot of your beautiful ramblers. Would it be possible for you to post these pictures again? I meant to save them to my permanent file but regretfully didn't. I think all of us would enjoy seeing them again and this time I won't forget to save them. I hope it's okay with you for me to have a copy.

Ingrid

I have an arbor 8'T x 10'W x 5'D at the entrance to my potager and my two Francois d'Juranville roses covered it in their second year from bands. My favorite rose ever. It has very mild thorns. May qualify as thornless. Built another arbor just like it at the other end of the garden and will be planting Awakening on it this year, but of course, its thorns are definitely there.

Has anyone grown any of these ramblers on the ground and/or pegged them? Thanks for any info.

I grew Alberic Barbier in Cornwall, England which is about a zone 8/9. It very quickly grew to twenty feet vertically and horizontally. It was very flexible and easy to train, except for the many thorns!
It only had a few hours of sun each day, but bloomed profusely in summer, with a fair sprinkling of blooms later.

I have never grown Albertine, because in England with it's summer rainfall, the flowers would always be ruined. They always reminded me of soggy, wet, crumpled, brown paper bags all over the plant. If you live in an area without summer rainfall, it is beautiful.
Daisy

To all who responded, thanks for the help!

I ended up ordering Alberic Barbier, Francois Juranville, and Paul Transon from Rogue Valley. I passed on Albertine due to reports of stiff growth. Also, I ordered Wichmoss to make four, so I could have a free split stem, Papa Gontier.

Again, I appreciate all the input, GW rocks!!!

Late to the party as usual, but which of your favorite ramblers is the most fragrant? I need to replace an Awakening that died this year.

My choice, if you want to stay with pink to replace Awakening, would be either Francois Juranville, for a fuller flower, or Leontine Gervais, because I love her stamens. Both have a light fragrance to my nose ... and I don't smell roses very well. For white, go with Alberic Barbier.

Connie

For fragrance, I would suggest Paul Transon. It may seem the strongest fragrance because it is the most mature with the most flowers in my group. I can usually smell it from a distance, and I do like its smell.