Graham Thomas and Crown Princess Margareta

James Galway is my tallest Austin, it's about 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide. It's a vigorous rose. I love the petal packed blooms and sweet fragrance.

Mortimer Sackler is another taller growing Austin that does well in a cold zone. Mine is about 5 feet tall. The repeat bloom is good. It has a lovely fragrance.

Check the DA site to see what is going to be hardy for you. It's not going to climb unless it can hold on to its canes...

So is loss of canes due to cold the biggest obstacle? According to DA, several varieties are hardy to zone 5.

The pink, red and apricot Austins are hardy for me. They have a little dieback, but rebound nicely in spring.

They are appropriate for a cold zone, but don't grow very tall here.

I'm not the same climate as you... but I'll second James Galway.

James Galway cl has grown a LOT for me and bloomed a lot... it's really lovely. Mine is about 3 years old right now and it's grown possibly more than any other rose I planted about the same time (other than MAC. haha...)
I bought mine as a bareroot from Austin.

Aimee, I really want to love the James Galway, but it just doesn't inspire me for some reason.

Olga, I totally agree about Constance Spry except I (greedily) want more than one set of blooms.

Right now I'm thinking Graham Thomas and Abraham Darby. It sounds like they do sometimes work out as climbers in my zone so I may just take the risk.

My Mortimer Sackler grows as a shrub next to the house--gets about 5-6 ft tall, but wants to grow taller--I keep trimming it back to be a shrub. It is hardy to Zone 5.

I should be receiving any day now my two new Austin climbers--The Pilgrim (yellow/white blend) and St. Swithun (light pink/white blend). I'm quite excited about them. They are both hardy to Zone 5, and both are supposedly disease-resistant and floriferous. I'll be growing them on pillars, but I think they would look great at the fence corners.

Kate