Rambling roses
By Margaret Griffin
There’s practically no other plant that takes up so little groundspace yet grows such wonderful, abundant flowers as the climbing rose.
Climbing roses will soon cover a wall or fence, or give rose arches or pergolas a lovely romantic look. They come in all shades, often delightfully scented and as most of them have a long flowering period, you get to enjoy them for longer!
Here are some of the best performers in rambling and climbing roses.
Dublin Bay
Looking for a romantic red rose that will climb an arch or a wall? Then there is only one true winner - the Dublin Bay. This is an old favourite climbing rose with clusters of crimson cup shaped flowers. It succeeds better than most roses on a north wall.
Paul’s Scarlet
Cloak your summer garden’s walls, arbors and trellises with the dramatic masses of glossy, medium-green leaves and honey-scented, double scarlet blooms of Paul’s Scarlet roses. This is a vibrant summer flowering rose has a long flowering season. It is a very strong climbing rose with dense flower heads in deep red. It blooms abundantly and has a high resistance against various fungi which quite often destroys other roses. Paul’s Scarlet is an old favourite but still a very reliable.
New Dawn
This is the forerunner of the modern perpetual flowering climbers. It produces clusters of sweetly fragrant, medium-sized, silvery soft pink flowers, which deepen in colour towards the centre. There is plentiful glossy foliage. Considered by many as one of the best repeating climbers, New Dawn enjoys an unusually long flowering period, from early summer to autumn.
Starlight Symphony
This is a new climbing rose showing exceptional health and outstanding disease resistance. It has pure white flowers with a subtle spicy perfume, open to reveal yellow-tinged stamens and is adored by bees.
Tips
If you are creating an arch of roses, I would recommend planting to same rose on either side of the arch. Also take time through the season to secure the new growth evenly up the arch.
Camouflage an eye sore with beauty and fragrance. Grow a climbing rose up an ugly pole or dead tree or even in front of a container.
Feed regularly with Uncle Tom’s Rose Tonic. I would feed a little regularly from the moment you see new growth on your rose. This is also the time to plant four cloves of garlic around each your rose. This will help reduce the risk of pests and black spot.