I am completely new to gardening and to this blog, so please gear your advice towards a novice. I would like to plant 3 climbing roses in a yard that gets partial sun. Berkeley has so many beautiful varieties of roses that I look at and enjoy (especially in May and June) but I don't know which ones would do best for me. I want a pink rose, a white rose, and I'm open to suggestions about the third one.I'd love to hear of suggestions for varieties that have small to medium size blooms, are vigorous growers even without great quantities of sun,and do not require a great deal of expertise to maintain. Please describe your favorite varieties for this area.
Maybe see some locally successful kinds demonstrated at this location. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Rose_Garden
David Austin roses generally are very vigorous and easy to grow,constant bloomers and most are desease resitant. For first time rose gardeners its a good choice to have at least one David Austin rose bush. Old Garden Roses also are proven hardy one thats very vigorus and will toleratat some shade is Cecile Brunner, 20-30 ft.,once blooming,and has a clasic rose fragrance. Most nursuries should have this rose in stock. Here are two links that should prove helpful, good luck there are tens of thousands of roses and hundreds added each year. http://www.davidaustinroses.com
'Climbing Cecile Brunner' is easy and common (here) but definitely vigorous, one near me is above the height of a telephone pole and looks like it has been cut back below that point perhaps multiple times - indicating it would otherwise now be well above the height of the pole. 'Cecile Brunner' was introduced 1881, making it and its variants technically modern roses.
Are you in Berkeley, as in California? If so, you have a wonderful rose garden right in your area, the Municipal Rose Garden. You can't go wrong by visiting the rose garden, perhaps several times during the year, to see which roses do well there, and which ones you like to have in your garden. As a public rose garden, the roses should be clearly labelled. If not, I am sure you can get the necessary information from the gardeners who maintain the garden. It's difficult for those of us here in the sodden North West Coast to make suggestions that may work from you. Your best source of information is from people who grow roses locally. A rose society may be a good start, if there is one in your area. And if you come across a residential garden with nice roses, don't be afraid to knock on the door and ask the owners some questions. Most gardeners would jump at the opportunity of sharing their gardens with visitors. You said you want roses which are "vigorous growers". However, that does not always equate to the actual size or height of the rose. In our garden, A Shropshire lad is a vigorous grower - side ways. Our ASL is a shrub with a diameter of 8 feet (and tha's with pruning). Treasure Trove is also a vigorous grower - upwards. Our Treasure Trove is reaching beyond the top of our 15 foot pear tree. And New Dawn can get up to 10 feet wide and 20 feet long if left unpruned. Other gardeners may use the term to indicate roses which grow well in less than ideal conditions. It is best to talk in terms of the maximal height and width of a rose grown under optimal conditions. Then, perhaps the rest of us can narrow our suggestions down a bit.
Thank you, all who suggested I check out the Berkeley Rose Garden. If you hadn't suspected it by now, I thought I was joining the University of California, Berkeley Botanical Garden Forum, mixing up UBC for UCB. But I decided to lurk on this forum since I think we are almost as sodden as you are and this looked like a terrific site. I thank you all for answering what must have seemed like a silly question. I have since gone to a local nursery and with their advice purchased a Joseph's Coat, an orange rose named Polka, and a multi-colored one called Royal Sunset. My fingers are crossed that in my relatively shady backyard dominated by a great tall oak tree they will manage to climb high enough to give me some privacy from the building next door. I will be happy if I see a bloom from any of these climbers. I know that Cecil Bruners do well in a different part of the yard, because we have one growing in the front.
Good luck with your roses! Polka is a nice apricot coloured climber from the House of Meilland. It can get up to 12 feet. It blooms in intermittent flushes throughout the season, rather than continuously. I am not familiar with Royal Sunset, but my understanding is that it is not "multicolored". It is apricot, not unlike Polka. Of your three, it's Joseph's Coat which is multicolored. It's flowers come in many shades between yellow to pink. I don't grow it myself but have seen a few examples of it, and they all are very impressive when in bloom. I grow climbers out of shady spots in my garden too. I try and help the roses establish themselves by growing them in the first 1-2 years in a container, in a sunny spot, until the canes can reach high enough to catch the sun before I plant them in their allocated spots. A young rose bush will have a hard time thriving with anything less than 5-6 hours of sunlight. The trick is to get the rose's root system to a size which is able to support canes long enough to reach up into the sunlight in it's first year in their intended location.
Hi try this website. It's English (similar climate to Lower Mainland BC) I like this website because it rates fragrance. If anyone else knows one that does that, please let me know as I am on the prowl for a continous blooming strong, fragrant climber. I have planted a Westerland and like it. Do a search for it on the Internet and see if you like the colour. Regards Steph. http://www.rosesuk.com/
