What is your favourite climbing rose? Part 2

Here's a new thread which I hope will continue on. There are so many lovely climbers out there!

Here's The Alchemist from Alnwick garden.

Thank you!

I have a few climbers that are for the most part "cane" hardy here. This is Polstjarnan, aka "The Polar Star" (different from "Polar Star)

It blooms on old wood and is quite tall.

I could cry, my beautiful 9 ft. Cl. Joseph's Coat just dried up over night. I shook the main stem to see if it was floppy, and it seemed strong, but I watered it and there is a gaping hole next to it, so some gopher or something must have took out too much root. I guess I was overdue on my jalapeno mix, with all the watering my h was doing? sighing.

Here's John Davis, Hardy Explorer Series. No winter protection required.

Evil gopher! =(

joannabanana, John Davis is gorgeous. Lovely setting.

That rose looks almost too perfect to be real - beautiful!

This year (today), my favorite is Dorothy Perkins. Mine is only one year old and the photo shows the very first blooms I got. This was the first flush. Subsequent flushes almost covered the canes! Can't wait to see what it does next year. The photo is dark as it was about to rain when I took the picture. Ah, yes! I remember rain....

I took out the rose and cut it down to a nub and there were vertually no roots but a couple of hairs and one big root stump chunk. It came back from this about 3 years ago looking much the same but It does not look good this time. Too hot. I soaked it in my sind for a day with kelp and b1.

oh my !! I think I NEED a John Davis swoonnnnn
Gloria

Georgeous picture of John Davis.Really love the color and shape of the rose.It's on my list to buy again.

It was really a very reliable and hardy rose for me as well several years ago at the old house.New owners cut it down :-((

Same with Dorothy Perkins and circle of 5 David Austin's Heritage...just sick about it.Try not to travel by the house but recently due to a detour I had to.

My goodness - why would anyone in their right mind cut down such wonderful roses. FIVE Heritages? How could they? Are they barbarians or something?

It takes so long to establish one firmly that it is unfathomable to me.

My son recently sold his house and found out that the new owner was not interested in the roses, so he dug them all (well nearly all) up and brought them here. They are still in pots where they are easy to water waiting for it to rain (as if!) before I plant them out. I can't understand people who don't like roses!

Especially the ones that are so ethereally beautiful. My much wealthier neighbors responded to my putting Madame Hardy, Constance Spry, Zephirine Droughin and two Sea Foam on their side of the yard with a bunch of red Knockouts. Which they don't prune or care for. Drives me batty that those types of roses (sorry, I hate them), are pushing roses out of the market place that combine easy care, disease resistance and scent with beauty. My favorite rose purveyor used to have Marchesa Bocchella, Madame Hardy, and a full range of the best Austins (I got Heritage and Glamis Castle there). Now what does he have? Knockouts. What do landscapers put in? Knockouts!

The woman next door, who PAYS people to care for her yard (never lifts a finger) and can afford to put in anything she wants, and built a big stately house, put in about 20 red Knockouts. What imagination! Think of the simple, wonderful things she could have done? A hedge of Mary Rose and Winchester Cathedral, a hedge of Zephirine Drouhin and Martha. There are so many beautiful alternatives.

I'm sorry to vent, but Knockouts are driving other roses off the market. I can only get what I want by mail order, when it used to be possible to drive a few miles. Which means other newbies like me won't find them either. And we will slowly lose them.

I have to say that the occational Knockout does not really bother me. It is a good starter rose and a good confidence builder. But I do agree that I grow tired of seeing them everywhere I turn. I also believe that Meillan (House of?) did it first and did it better. ie. any of the Meidilands, particularly Red Meidiland. Often used along highways and in medians in Europe, receiving no care at all and surviving just fine.

I have some wonderful no maintenance roses: Heidesommer (3) and Sea Foam (2). If you're going to slap in some roses that you don't have to take care of, why not pick some with character and beauty?

Perhaps I seem uncharitable, but I did my research, and my starter rose was Dublin Bay. My second was Morden Blush (two of them). My third was Tess of the D'Ubervilles. My next trio was all old garden reblooming roses. I chose them for hardiness and disease resistance, but I also chose them for beauty and a sense of history.

There must be 100 of those damned red knockouts within a block of my home. They all put those things in after I did. When people tell me they put in roses because of me, and point to those things, I grit my teeth and try to be nice, but it's tough. I consider that an insult.

I'm sorry, Terri. You are trying to be gracious, as always. I just can't seem to manage it when it comes to the loss of beautiful roses because of marketing. (All right, Donna, stop!)

I don't think we're actually losing beautiful roses because of the Knockout monopoly. I think people are now planting them who would otherwise not have tried to grow roses at all. As Terri said, maybe they'll try others next time. (They might have to look beyond Home Depot to find them though.)

I hate those type of flower pedals on a rose, they don't look like roses to me. I want a cabbage or frilly ruffled charmers or buds, not those flat want a be things.

I keep magazines with all the best roses to get. I don't live in a home where I can really get into roses as I would like to and have done in the past because I have horrid water pressure issues and we all know roses love water. I have to have them in large, large pots too now or these danged gophers will devour them. I have my jalapeno mix and it works good, but honestly I have to do it more frequently when we are upping the water for blooms or it eventually disipates. I planted the loveliest rose garden at my old house in a tract where gophers were not an issue. It still looks so good. I want to creap in a steal all my plants back.

I think that those KO's are pushing far more beautiful plants out of garden centers AND causing the really good companies to change their policies. I got a magnificent Madame Hardy from Sam Kedeem, who can no longer manage to ship out of state. I used to be able to go to garden centers in August and pick up 2 1/2 foot containerized Austins in bloom (great way to check for disease resistance) in addition to the roses I got by mail order. If they aren't there, people are less likely to seek them out later. And I think a lot of people are like me and only have room for so many roses. The person next door isn't going to order any more roses. She just gave purveyors a good reason to stock more KO's. My roses were on show right next door for years.

I don't believe that most people will move on to something more worth preserving. After all, the neighbors saw mine and then those eyesore KO's appeared all around me. Maybe I should have stuck with peonies. After I put mine in a bunch of people put in big heavy red ones that they don't stake, so they flop with the first rainfall and stay that way, but at least I only had to look at them for a shorter period of time!

I am also sad that fantastic roses are not readily available in garden centers around where we live.The matter of fact we DO have the largest nursery in Maine less than 1/2 hour away and I make my annual trip extremely early in spring hoping that they will have a better selection in roses but always there are so many KO that I'm disappointed once again..So I bought 2 Tree peonies. Was looking for David Austin's.
Usually I get weird looks when I ask about David Austin or English roses.

Last year I did get 2 double Knock Outs to put close to the road on a hill away from my other garden roses.Only spent $ 2.50 a pot at Lowe's and this year 2 more which I still have to plant.They also will be used for road appeal,same spot.

Honestly they sell what they sell to benefit their interests. I see alllllll the garden magazines are talking about those dumb roses and trying to show what they mix best with in the garden so people listen. All we need to do is write our own article to the magazines about how we hate those roses and why and talk about what real rose lovers want and look for. Have you ever been on Rose Emporim's site. Oh my.

Ah, Antique Rose Emporium! I have ordered over a dozen roses from them. Gruss an Aachen, Enfant de France, Zephirine Drouhin, Marchesa Bocchella - the list goes on. Amazingly, those Texas grown roses do do beautifully in my northern climate. And you are right. What really bites is when magazines you respect, like Garden Gate, start doing articles on those roses. For beauty, disease resistance and low care, why not Sea Foam?

Or Heidesommer?

Or Morden Blush?

I agree, Donna, the antiques are tried and true and lovely as well.

Here are some on my must get list.
Johann Strauss Not a climber
Sally Holmes climber

Colette climbe Old fasioned elegance! Delicate buds open to bi, light pink blooms that ber a strong damask rose scent.
A well-behaved climber, it trains nicely on a decorative arbor or small trellis during summer months. Up to 30 petals per bloom.
Polka cl. Peach of a rose Old fashioned peach hue blooms smothe this 10 to 12 foot cl rose. it is a reliable repeat bloomer during the late sping and Summer motns. very heady fragrance. Makes gorgeous bouquets.

Eden cl

Clotilde Soupert Polyantha shrub
Dieing to get this heavily petaled repeater

Actually, Donna, I was quietly agreeing with you. ;~), without trying to upset any true Knockout fans. I know there are some folks who feel I am crazy for being coocoo for Autins.

Shoot, Razzle Dazzle is one of the polinators for Red Knockout. Razzle Dazzle doesn't have much in the way of fragrance (to me) but not a bad rose at all. Why not crank out more Razzle Dazzles? Or just import and rename some Kordes rose (tough as nails and they have fragrance). Kordes didn't register many of their roses in the US until recently, so one could--in theory--call them anything.

I do think the Meidilands are under rated in the US.

Funny, Morden Blush was my second roses, too. Then Dart's Dash, Linda Campbell, and on to the Austins and Henry Hudson. Stanwell Perpetual was my first, though.

At any rate, I'm not much a fan of monoculture.

Heidesommer is a Kordes rose. I was hesitant about their roses at first but Pickering didn't have it and suggested it when I was seeking Morden Snowbeauty. When you are seeking a rose you cannot find, Pickering is a wonderful source of substitutes. I couldn't find Jeanne la Joie anywhere (can you imagine?) - they suggested High Hopes, a Harkness rose I had never heard of that has Compassion in its bloodlines and has performed gorgeously.

Dear Terri, I knew you were quietly agreeing with me. You were being gracious and diplomatic. I was not. I have never ranted (oh, yes, I ranted) on any of these forums before. I don't believe in it. It's bad form. It should never be done.

See what Knockouts have driven me to? LOL!

The Knockouts are not hardy here, so haven't seen them in any gardens. I bought an awesome book Lois Hole's Favourite Roses, and have slowly started my collection of roses from suggestions in the book. The book has 2 parts: Hardy Roses vs. Tender Roses. Our Zone is 3, so the book was helpful for me.

Climbers in my garden: John Cabot - Explorer; John Davis - Explorer, Quadra, Henry Kesler, The Polar Star (actual name listed in above post). I have quite a few very tall roses that could be tied for climbing as well.

DonnaMack, =).

Today, my favorite climber is Sunrise. Because it is blooming! Unbelievable in this heat and no rain so it is only getting watered once a week, and not fertilized due to the prolonged heat (I'm letting most go dormant).

Bless it's heart!

Bless your little heart too! You are delightful!

Blush! And so are you!

I love that color. I hope I was not ranting. I surely did not mean to rant. I just said I don't care for those types of roses personally but that they get great press now and that affects it's popularity.

Oh, no, my dear, you certainly were not. I, on the other hand...

lol

Oh, if those were rants they were pretty mild! We're all friends here! I personally enjoy learning others opinions on such matters. I live in a very isolated area. I was begining to wonder if I was the only one who was growing a bid concerned about the monoculture of the Knockouts. But I do think that those who have purchased them and love them will soon long for fragrance in particular and make that leap into other varieties.

Thank you, Terri.

Donna

Donna,I didn't mind your "ranting" :-) at all either and value your opinion and most of all everyones suggestion about their favorite climber is so welcome.

Our daughter lives in one of the Boston suburbs and I also have seen fantastic homes in great neighborhoods with ONLY Knock Outs.LOTS of them.I crinche every time I see them and think OMG all the room they have and what great gardens they could have.But probably the house developers put them in ?