Climbing roses are a really useful feature in any garden, they scramble up fences, over sheds, against trellis on walls, their value as a screen to hide or distract from a not so pleasant feature in your garden is priceless. And yet, for a few pounds you will have made a very wise investment, ... Read review
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A review by Lynda04 on Climbing Roses March 28th, 2001
Author's product rating:
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Advantages:
Oh, colour, beauty, scent, hides things like sheds, fences etc
Disadvantages:
None
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Climbing roses are a really useful feature in any garden, they scramble up fences, over sheds, against trellis on walls, their value as a screen to hide or distract from a not so pleasant feature in your garden is priceless. And yet, for a few pounds you will have made a very wise investment, not only will you have purchased a thing of beauty, you will have added another dimension to the garden.
When we design our gardens, we tend to concentrate on the basics, get the borders planted and the lawn sorted, not to mention the patio. Oh and don’t forget the shed! Stand back and take a look, mmm…not bad – but something is missing, we need height! That other dimension which will help to enclose our garden, give us a feeling of privacy.
There are lots of climbing plants you can buy; in fact the variety is quite confusing. If you choose a climbing Rose, you can select from a bewildering array of colours, from pure white through to soft pink, yellows and apricots to vibrant reds! As an added bonus many are very fragrant too.
Climbers and Ramblers are often thought of as the same thing but in fact climbers are more like other garden roses as their flowers are larger than those on ramblers, and climbers very often have a repeat flowering after the main season has passed.
Roses are very versatile and you can buy climbers that will be fine on a North facing wall, be advised by your garden centre on this, as there are some which also require a warm wall to protect from frost. Also bear in mind the height you will want, the height given for each individual rose indicates the height you can expect it to achieve.
When you plant your rose, plant it firmly but do not over compact the soil, plant in soil which has been well dug and incorporate some farmyard manure or compost. Don’t plant where another rose has recently been growing, and ensure the rose does not have any competition from trees or other large plants.
If planting in the spring, keep well watered until the plant has become established, especially important if it is to be grown against a wall.
I have noticed lately the fashion for growing the more vigorous roses up into trees, I must say it looks really effective, but I think the keyword here is vigorous, you really will need a monster, in fact a rambler would be more appropriate. At my old house I had such a rose, named Bobbie James, it was very vigorous and reached 25ft along a fence, the flowers were creamy white and semi double and fragrant, borne on large heavy heads with multiple blooms on each head. When I think of that rose in the summer I still marvel at the thought of it, what a sight it was.
Lastly, pruning, I don’t think you need prune a climber for the first year or two; it depends really on how quickly it gets established. But when it is established, try and remove some old growth, and also any weak looking shoots. Ultimately, you will be able to control the height and spread to suit yourself, that is providing you haven’t got a monster like Bobbie James :-)
As a last word, those infuriating boxes below where I have had to select a hardiness factor - yes, very hardy but some will need a little frost protection in exposed areas.
Advantages: Brilliant flowers and huge plants Disadvantages: Can be a bit expensive
...choice for me - the CLIMBING ROSE, that most delightful of creations...
The dave27 guide to climbing roses
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Climbing roses come in two main varieties, the rambler and the climber.
The ramblers have been common in Britain for a couple of hundred years and sport 'long pliable stems bearing huge trusses of small flowers. Growth is very vigorous and they can be a mass of colour in summer, but there is only one flush ... ...tall.
Iceberg - a climbing floribunda which is another from the bargain bin and is only slightly fragrant, but more than makes up for its lack of scent with its vigour and glossy leaves. The flowers are wonderful and this rose will easily reach 10 foot very quickly. I have to keep this very well pruned to stop it from taking over my whole garden and it sits very well with a clematis.
Rosa Filipes Kiftsgate - a rambler and a real giant. It is reputed ...
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Roses have always played an important part in British gardening but in recent years I have noticed a shift from the formal, high maintenance beds of hybrid teas to a more relaxed cottage garden style using species roses. These vigorous, easy species have graced the rose walks and arches of the major British gardens and are now finding a place in small urban gardens. Given a pergola hybrids such as Rosa ‘Seagull’ and Rosa ‘Wedding ... ...My personal favourites are Rosa brunonii, Rosa filipes ‘Kiftsgate’ and Rosa multiflora. The first two are very vigorous Himalayan species capable of growing more than 10 metres across - just one ‘Kiftsgate’ rose covers the wall of my house. Both are particularly attractive in the early spring when the young shoots are tinged with copper hues – the foliage of R. filipes turns a glossy green while R. brunonii turns a most ...
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Advantages: highly perfumed. Abundant flowers. good burglar deterrent Disadvantages: Rips you to pieces and short flowering season
Rambling Rector: The name in itself is intriguing and inviting and having seen photographs of this rose in Peter Beale's book, I just had to search for it. It certainly looked awe inspiring in the photographs with complete walls, arches and even river banks covered in lush creamy white clusters of small beautifully formed roses.
Peter Beale's written description failed to deter me even though Rambling Rector was described as rampant and vigourous, ... ...wanted to cover in as speedy a time as possible. Armed with my limited information I went off to search garden centres and local nurseries, but to no avail - even rose specialists hadn't heard of this particular rose. This however, egged me on even further and I felt quite impressed with what I vainly considered to be my superior knowledge (only joking).
In fact I actually came across this rose when I wasn't particularly looking for it. It was one ...
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Advantages: variety of colour Disadvantages: attracts bees
...love the Hybrid Tea roses as these have a spectacular vivid colour range and the scent seems to linger around the garden, the miniatures and the other varieties seem to have a more subtle scent, which you have to be sitting near to catch a smell of.
Climbingroses are great for the covering of the fences and can also be grown to add colour to a boring hedgerow around the garden, a climbingrose will grow in most places and will soon make itself a dominant feature to your edges of the garden. I love the pinks and have pink and white varieties around the hedges of my garden, not only does it brighten up the place, it also makes people think twice about climbing over your hedges as these can leave nasty little scratches for any intruder.
I find the best and quick growing climbingroses are :-
Rosa x harisonnii, which is a lovely bright...
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Advantages: Beautiful Looking Flowers, Fragrant, Easy To Grow Disadvantages: Lots of Pests And Diseases
...Roses, ClimbingRoses, Rambling Roses, Wild Roses and Miniature Roses.
These days Roses are planted for many different reasons often simply for their aesthetic or fragrant properties but climbing varieties can also be used to cover garden fences or to add colour to Hedgerows.
All Roses belong to the genus Rosa, but there are well over a hundred species of Wild Roses, these all originate from the Northern Hemisphere and they are mostly from temperate regions. Roses are characteristically prickly shrubs or climbers, but some varieties are also trailing plants, reaching between two and five metres tall.
The leaves are generally fairly short, five to fifteen centimetres long in length and rounded in shape. The undersides of these leaves are usually covered in tiny prickles. The flower that a Rose produces has five Petals with each Petal...
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Advantages: They're pretty and smell nice Disadvantages: They sometimes attack you
...and wanted something to grow up a 15 foot wall and although ivy or virginia creeper would've done the job beautifully, we really wanted something that would flower. Clematis was out, at least as a stand alone, as it just wouldn't reach the necessary heights; honeysuckle could possibly have done the job nicely but we already had one growing on the opposite fence and really wanted something different.
"What about a climbingrose?" a friend suggested.
My immediate response was one of dismissal. I don't do roses, climbing or otherwise. But try as I might, I couldn't find anything else suitable and as Richard, my other half, quite liked the idea of a rose up the wall, I ordered the David Austin catalogue. It arrived within a couple of days and was one of the most beautiful catalogues I've ever seen. I'd ordered several other rose catalogues too...
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Just before Christmas my mother and I were having a discussion about what to buy the boys for presents. My mother then came up with the brilliant idea of buying a climbing that we could add extra things to for their birthdays/Xmas etc. I say brilliant... more