Roses have a reputation for being difficult to grow. I believe that reputation is undeserved. Yes, there are a few roses that have very special needs, but most roses are easy to grow. They need pruning, but you can do a snip here and there every time you cut a flower. Other than that, you need only prune once a year. They might need spraying, but, your entire garden could use a good spraying with Neem which, by the way, does not harm the environment.
I could go on and on, but I won’t. This article will simply cover four climbing roses that I believe are very easy to grow. These are roses which are good for the beginner. If you’ve wanted to grow roses, this is a great place to start.
You need to remember that roses aren’t really climbers. What climbing roses do is throw off long canes which you then either tie off or weave through something for support. But the great thing about them is that they can play host to other climbers. Most rosarians will plant clematis in with their roses. Clematis are climbers, and they love to climb up the rose canes. They look lovely together.
The first rose you should consider is “Climbing Pinkie”. Pinky is throws off really long canes. I was given this rose and didn’t do my research about it. All I did was just throw her in a rather cramped spot. I wish I’d given it more thought because she deserved a better location. Mine has only been bloom once a year – in spring – because she doesn’t get enough sun, but she’s supposed to bloom more often than that.
Lesson on roses: Plant them in full sun.
If you want to see a really good picture of Climbing Pinkie, that is growing in full sun and has probably been there for many years, go to Antique Rose Emporium’s web site. I think their picture shows the flower darker than it really is, but the amount of bloom you get is accurate as well as the description they give the rose.
Since they have a better picture of the shrub, I won’t show mine. I will, instead, show a close up of Climbing Pinkie’s bloom:
The second rose I recommend is “New Dawn”. You will see this rose recommended over and over again if you get into roses. It is a wonderful rose. It blooms a big flush in the spring and then gives continuous blooms throughout the season. Never a big bang again, but lots of here and there blooms. And the individual blooms are so pretty – they could be mistaken for hybrid tea roses except the stems aren’t strong enough. I often cut the blossoms and bring them in the house to put in a vase.
I do have a good picture of New Dawn. This picture is on our arbor. There are two roses with one on each side. They were planted about six years ago. The left side is in full sun while the right side isn’t which is why we get that swoop to the left. I kind of like it that way.
The next rose is called “Lady Banks” rose. We only got this rose last year, so you will see it hasn’t filled in against the wall all the way. Yet it sure put on a show for us this year! The Lady Banks rose only blooms once a year, in springtime, but she blooms for a very long time and the way she blooms is so very interesting. There aren’t just a couple of blossoms on a cane, oh no, there are dozens of small blossoms all the way down each cane.
No picture can capture this rose’s beauty. It was stunning. I took a dozen pictures of it, and not one pleases me. You would have had to have been here.
You don’t prune this rose at all unless you want it smaller. Speaking of which, this rose will get very large if you let it, so be careful where you plant it. You might want to do an internet search for “Lady Banks Rose” so you see pictures of how big it can be. After you’ve picked your jaw up off the floor, you can decide if you want this monster or not. I say get it. The pruning you do doesn’t have to be meticulous. Hack the sucker back.
I will have to keep hacking this rose back because I also have some honeysuckle and a clematis growing back there. You don’t see it in these pictures, but about a month later both the honeysuckle and the clematis really took off and filled in the whole area quite nicely. I went from having yellow blossoms to red Alabama Crimson honeysuckle and blue clematis.
The last rose I will show you has been the easiest of all to grow. In fact, the only thing difficult about this rose is it’s name, “Zephrine Droughin.” Zephy, as I like to call her, has taken more abuse than any rose should be expected to bear, yet she’s come through it like a trouper. I didn’t know what I was doing, so I moved Zephy around a couple of times and then ended up planting her in a very undesirable spot – a north facing wall up surround by a stone path. It’s a wonder that rose didn’t give up the ghost. But Zephy is well known to be a tough rose.
Some will say that Zephy will tolerate shade. To a certain extent that is true. She will accept more shade than other roses; however, I noticed Zephy bloomed a lot more once we cut down a tree that was blocking some sunlight. So I’d say give her sun if you can. And if you’re going to plant her next to the house like I did, give her a bit of fertilizer. All roses, just like most other garden plants, like a bit of fertilizer now and then. The soil up against the house is usually some of the worst soil in a yard, and it is also usually alkaline which roses don’t like. Zephy will take it, but don’t punish her too much.
There is one last thing about Zephy that makes her stand about from the rest: her scent. Zephy is a bourbon rose which means she smells good. No, she doesn’t smell like bourbon! She smells like roses are supposed to smell like. She smells wonderful.
There you have it. If you’ve been wanting a climbing rose but didn’t know which one to get, these are some good ones for beginners. You could also contact Antique Rose Emporium or Chamblee Roses for ideas. They are both fine mail order companies. The best time to plant roses is spring for most areas but fall for the deep south.
Winter and summer can be those times when you have your dream garden….
