Climbing roses: everything you need to know
You can never have enough roses in a garden, and the easiest way to squeeze more in is to send them skyward. Climbing roses will scale walls, façades, pergolas, arches, gazebos, pillars, and many other structures, allowing you to have a heavenly quantity of them scenting the air all summer long.
Climbing roses for wildlife
All climbing roses are excellent at providing shelter and habitat for birds, especially if they are well barbed, since this shields smaller birds from predators. Shropshire Lass is a modern summer-flowering climber, bred by David Austin, with myrrh-scented powder-pink blooms that feed bees, followed by autumn hips for birds. Two older repeat-flowering gems for bees are 'Mermaid' (1917), which has gorgeous, wide primrose flowers and enjoys a north or east-facing wall, and 'Allen Chandler' (1923), which is an incredible shade of raspberry-crimson red and produces autumn hips; both take pride of place on the stonework of Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent, which is famous for its roses. But to really provide a treat for bees, grow species roses, such as glorious Rosa bracteata, which is at its best when trained as a climber and produces lemon-scented white blooms over a long period from midsummer, above the thorny, healthy almost-evergreen foliage. If you want a continuous display, grow it alongside the early-flowering Rosa cymosa, which is a mass of single fragrant cream-white blooms in May and June; both these wild Chinese roses bear hips and perform best on a sunny, sheltered wall.
Climbing roses for scent
As well as offering history and romance, it is (mostly) the older roses that offer the strongest, most spellbinding scents. The decadent, large velvet-crimson blooms of the healthy repeat-flowering Hybrid Tea 'Climbing Étoile de Hollande' (1931) are well worth burying your nose in, as are the yolk-apricot flowers of the graceful 'Climbing Lady Hillingdon' (1917), which repeat flowers, even on poor soil. 'Paul's Lemon Pillar' (1875) is only summer-flowering, but essential in a large garden for its gorgeous ivory flowers, which are sweetly fragrant and huge, like scoops of vanilla ice-cream; the late rosarian Graham Stuart Thomas remarked, 'there is nothing like it.'
Climbing roses for colour
Where bold colour is more important than perfume – for instance on a façade – you can't go far wrong with 'Parkdirektor Riggers', which is breathtaking on the old garden walls of Hever Castle in Kent, producing a succession of vivid-crimson blooms. For a smaller wall or porch, the flame-orange flowers of Warm Welcome are borne non-stop through summer and autumn. Both have bee-friendly semi-double blooms. The free-flowering peach-coloured David Austin rose Lady of Shalott has a more voluptuous shape, a spiced apple scent, and can be grown as a short climber. But, for those of us that love old roses, the winner for both fragrance and colour is the rarely grown 'Crépuscule' (1864); the name means twilight, reflecting the tea-scented flowers' copper sunset tones.
Climbing roses for a north-facing wall
Although most roses are sun-worshippers, there is a sizeable gang that will grow on a north or east-facing structure. 'Madame Alfred Carrière' (1879) is one of the best all-round climbers, the almost-thornless stems carrying a profusion of deliciously scented blush-white double blooms for months. 'Zéphirine Drouhin' (1868), which adorns the north-facing wall of Hever Castle's Rose Garden, is equally loved by rosarians for its long display of generous shocking-pink flowers that smell of lemon sherbet and its thornless stems; however, this old dame requires a lot of liquid food to keep her healthy. Much more reliable, in terms of health, on a north-facing wall is the modern shell-pink David Austin rose The Generous Gardener, which has a beautiful perfume and feeds bees.
Disease-resistant climbing roses
Many gardeners are wary of rose sickness, but there is a huge range of roses that don't succumb to black spot and rust as much as some of the roses bred in the last century. These robust varieties include several old roses that have stood the test of time, as well as recently introduced cultivars that have been bred to be healthy. With the exception of 'Zéphirine Drouhin', all the roses mentioned in this article resist disease well, and David Austin's roses are usually a very safe bet, especially flaxen-white Claire Austin, which smells of meadowsweet and vanilla.
Short climbing roses
Less ambitious climbers that only scale 2 to 3 metres are ideal for low walls, arches, pillars, tree stumps, and obelisks. Altissimo produces superb Ferrari-red flowers with golden stamens that lure bees for months. 'Blush Noisette' (1817) is a charming old cottage garden rose, which is hung with armfuls of small double ballet-pink flowers in summer and autumn. For larger, voluptuous flowers, both the repeat-flowering David Austin roses Gertrude Jekyll (lipstick-pink flowers with a knockout scent) and Strawberry Hill (salmon-pink rosettes that smell of honey) are excellent, as is 'Aloha', which gives a succession of apple-scented coral-pink blooms, each a handful in size.
How to plant and grow a climbing rose
SITE - Most climbing roses require a position in full sun, in retentive, fertile, well-drained soil; a sheltered position will help to conserve the scent. To prevent disease, choose ground that hasn't had roses in it for a few years.
SUPPORT - Wooden trellis can rot over time, so wires are often best. The S3i systems are excellent, since they can be tightened as required.
WHEN TO PLANT - Bare root roses should be planted between November and March; potted roses can go in the ground at any time.
PLANTING - If planting bare root, soak the rose for at least an hour; give potted roses a good drink. Dig a hole – around 30 to 50 centimetres from the structure your rose is going to climb – that is wider and deeper than the plant's roots. Add friable manure or compost and mycorrhizal fungi. Plant at a slight angle, leaning the plant's stems towards the wall or structure it's going to climb; ensure that the graft (the bulbous union between roots and stems) is 5 centimetres below the surface, then backfill with soil. Firm in to prevent air pockets, then water.
STORM-READINESS - Tie in new main shoots in the autumn to prevent wind damage.
PRUNING - Unlike most rambling roses, climbers require annual pruning in February. Take out dead, diseased, crossing, or damaged stems. Trim the side shoots of the main stems you are keeping, by two-thirds to a bud. Without overly forcing, try to tie these main shoots horizontally, which encourages more flowers and guards against gales.
FEEDING - Mulch with well-rotted manure or organic compost in March. Feed with liquid tomato food fortnightly during the growing season.
