Climbing roses

Trained roses

Most climbing roses are actually trained roses. Apart from a couple of exceptions, they do not really climb. This is the rose group of the future. In our increasingly urbanised world gardens are likely to continue getting smaller. Ornamental plants which want to grow upwards will be much in demand. Ideal characteristics include: a long flowering time, the ability to tolerate some shade and a pleasing scent.

Varieties such as ‘Parkdirektor Riggers’ (red), ‘Pink Cloud’ (dark pink) and ‘New Dawn’ (pink) already meet those requirements, ‘Goldstern’ is a very good yellow. One magnificent old climbing rose variety is ‘Zéphirine Drouhin’ with freshly scented pink flowers and no thorns.

Ramblers

Roses which do ‘climb’ do it in a fairly primitive way with curved thorns (like hooks) on the stems. The species which are especially good at this not only grow very tall, but also spread wide. These are the so-called ‘ramblers’ which generally also flower exceptionally lavishly (June-July). They all have long, flexible branches.

Particularly attractive varieties include ‘Constance Spry’ with a beautiful scent, flat double flowers and the old (from 1827) ‘Félicité et Perpétue’ with a sea of scented creamy white flowers. ‘Veilchenblau’ has dark violet flowers which go somewhat grey, and ‘Weddingday’ with its sprays of apricot-coloured sprays can reach a height of ten metres. These varieties also have a strong and delectable scent.