Hey all,
I’m looking at ordering several climbing roses online for the first time. I’ve narrowed down the vendors to Chamblee Roses or High Country Roses. Both have very good ratings on GW.
Has anyone ordered from either of these companies? Any recommendations for good climbers for a fence? I’d like to get good rebloomers, and good fragrance, if possible.
Thanks!
Scent From Above.
Don Juan have done very well for me.
My wife is the one who buys the roses and she says she likes Chamblee.
Cecile Bruner, Joseph’s Coat, and Old Blush have done
well for me. Chamblee’s is very good.
My wife likes “Morden Blush” shrub rose. . It’s hardy and manages our temperature swings well, has a beautiful bloom, and will continue blooming all season if deadheaded. Ours has done well for years with no special attention.
Morden Blush Rose - Hardy - Lightly Fragrant (not an endorsement of the company- just liked their picture!)
My wife took this photo of ours:
Beautiful roses!
Rob I don’t know how well they’d do in your climate- guess I shoulda looked at your post a little closer- and they’re not climbers either. So I’ve struck out on paying attention tonight!
We do have a couple of climbers, not sure you’d want them. They’re terrible suckers and hard to manage, single blooms, and only good for a short time. Impressive enough in their time, though.
Want to bump this thread. I’m looking for a climbing rose to climb up/around a concrete wall (I can trellis up against the wall). I’m in 5b. Any (updated) suggestions for providers or cultivars?
I’m not going to be a whole lot of help, but am in a similar zone to you (5a) and have gotten advice to get own-root roses about a zone hardier if you don’t want to have to coddle them through the winter. My own experience bears this out - I never planted any of my own roses, but I inherited four climbing roses from a previous owner of our house. Three were unknown grafted varieties, and one is to my best guess a Canadian Explorer (probably William Baffin). The grafted varieties produced nice flowers, but they all had problems and were generally one cane wonders.
I’ve since lost every single grafted one to Japanese beetles and winterkill except good old Will, who is an absolute beast and doesn’t seem to die no matter what I do to him. He’s incredibly thorny and way too close to our driveway so I hacked him all the way down to about two feet tall and ungently moved him elsewhere and he seems to be coming back strong. He’s unkillable.
Petey, I’m in southern Tennessee which is a significant difference in climate. I have a Don Juan beside my front steps which blows my mind with how vigorous and care free it is. It is an aggressive climber which produces a huge load of large red blooms each year.
I also have a Westerland which is less vigorous but with appropriate care blooms freely. I would not consider it as fast growing or vigorous as Don Juan but it is still a beautiful rose.
In other matters, Westerland freely produces seed. Some of them appear to be crossed with Don Juan. I now have some Westerland seedlings that look like they may exceed both parents. Give me a few more years to trial them and we will see.
I had some climbers once. They about took over, grew 20 feet, and then I could hardly kill the roots to get rid of them.
I ended up getting a climbing english rose from David Austin’s site, one zone hardier than mine (thx @frostcrystal), and going to be planted in a large wooden planter to minimize spreading (per @Masbustelo)
These are my two best performers. The violet one is Quicksilver, the yellow one is a David Austin called Teasing Georgia.
I have about 120 different rose cultivars and those are my two favorites.
I don’t think you need to worry about ‘spreading’.
Most modern roses are not prone to suckering and are generally grafted. I would advise you to not plant them in a container, especially climbers. You will be disappointed in the vigor and longevity of the plants.
The only rose I have that actually sucker’s and spreads is a Rugosa called Therese Bugnet. An heirloom from the 1800s on its own roots. It performs fabulously and I encourage it to spread out. 
Depending on the harshness of your winter, the Canadian bred ‘Explorer’ roses do quite well in my Ohio winter and have very little die back. I only have one now, but have trialed several. The one I like is John Davis. A similar rose, but bred by Christian Bedard I think, is Cape Diamond. Zero winter kill and reliable flowers every year. And NOTHING bothers them as far as the typical fungal issues roses are plagued with.
@Petey what Austin did you settle on? There are so many fabulous ones to choose from. I think I’ve got about ten or twelve different Austin’s. They are absolutely my favorite and do quite well in a temperate climate.
I ordered this for my parent’s place in 5b (where my only option to plant it is either in a container or in very poor sand fill soil at the edge of the driveway): Lady of Shalott | English Climbing Rose | David Austin Roses
And this to plant at my house in 6b in a small patch of dirt near the front steps with a wooden pillar to the second level porch: Gertrude Jekyll | English Climbing Rose | David Austin Roses
Your roses are beautiful!
Thank you. Lady of Shalott will not disappoint. Gertrude Jekyll sure is beautiful and smells divine, but I don’t grow it as it is a challenge in my no spray garden to keep it healthy. But then again, I have many many roses and trees to care for. A single rose is much easier than an acre of them. Haha.
… I may have a problem with collecting plants…
Tried about 20 varieties of roses in 1991 and a few more later in early 2000s. Most turned into some other junky rose. Gave up on them. I only grow food now. Not much gardening, I’m all fruit trees. And would like some nuts if I had the room.
Note that containers are typically considered two zones colder than the zone they’re in, since they don’t have the benefit of being in the ground! Could you sink the planter or amend the soil instead? Amending would probably be preferable as climbers have huge roots.
