Nice fence. I have a picket fence too with roses along most of the length. I have some clems planted in there that are starting to reach the tops of the roses. I have another spot with no roses and I just stuck birch branches around. The birch branches stick out some at the top of the fence and kind of arch over. The clems are clinging to those and I am training them sideways , weaving them through the pickets. Or you could use some wires or strings to get them to go up.

I noticed today I have a string tied at the top of an arbor with an end dangling down and a clem has wrapped itself around that dangling part. After awhile it'll reach a more anchored part of the string.

Thank you, I'm very happy with the new fence. The old one was falling apart. Birch branches, huh? I had so many branches down over the winter, I should be able to find something. I have rolls of wire fencing, too.

I used to have a lot on that fence and it took a long time to do it. I don’t remember having to make much effort to get it going. I had New Dawn rose and that grew so fast and vigorous that everything else was attaching itself to that. I really miss the combination I had going there. This is what it used to look like....

Would love to see your roses on your fence...

That's just gorgeous, Prairiemoon. It would have been hard to have to dig that up. It just has a graceful , soothing quality to it.

I like the birch branches because they're mostly thin enough for clems . The tree just sheds them in spring. I find that bamboo is a good diameter for clems too.

I'll post a pic from this year of my roses on the fence...it probably looks a bit unkempt.

Clems aren't yet a big part of it. You can see Snow Queen on the other side of it, and there's a Polish Spirit and Margaret Hunt and Rooguchi. Lower down there's another Polish Spirit and Emilia Plater.

From the left there's Blush Noisette, a big long Gertrude Jekyll, Parade, and one on the other side of Parade you can't see, The Generous Gardener.

Gertrude last year

Parade

Blush Noisette further down on the fence

and Paul Transon at the bottom

Thanks, Erasmus, it was hard to take them out because it was Fall and not a time I normally would move things. And to make matters worse, the Penelope Rose was missing the bottom 3 ft of foliage due to rabbits in the spring. So I had to leave all the canes as long as I could just so it would have some foliage.

I Lost the New Dawn, which I’m still sad about, because I realized later, that I could have saved it even though I had to cut off a lot of the roots, if I had just tried to plant it in a pot. I don’t know what I was thinking, I just threw it out and they had already collected it by the time I realized that. I’m sure I can get a replacement, but, that particular one was from Pickering who is now out of business and I just had such good luck with everything they sold me.

But this spring, at first the Honeysuckle and Clematis looked bare, but little by little they started throwing out some leaves and new branches. I wasn’t worried about Penelope Rose because I cut it to the ground twice in the past and it came back from bare ground. And sure enough it is growing well already. I do have that Blue Angel Clematis, already planted where it was originally. So possibly I could recreate what was there. It will just take some time. In the meantime, I want to put about 3 clematis on the fence to fill in while I wait for the roses to catch up.

I LOVE your fence! It’s quintessential cottage garden. And that deep pink of Parade against the white fence. Ahhhh! I can’t think how it could be more perfect…lol. And you have such a long line of fence to use. All the roses look amazing! I imagine it gives you a great deal of satisfaction when it’s all in bloom. I’d have a hard time not spending every day sitting out there just soaking it all in. You must get a lot of compliments. :-)

erasmus, not unkempt. GORGEOUS! I've always thought white picket fences with roses spilling over them are one of the prettiest things around!

Thank you....it is a lot of blooms... I do like it...I go out there and soak up blooms but really I do have an appreciation for landscapes that are mostly evergreen, or that emphasize the lines in a garden more than the floweriness. I am one of those rose crazy people and have been for about 23 years. But I started out loving other plants.

Got introduced to old roses and plants like hybrid musks...they were a different animal than hybrid teas. I have had a small own root rose nursery for a couple of decades and am winding that down. So I have thought of my garden as a working garden. It's a rose farm. I am a bit obsessive about propagating them..it's fun but a lot to take care of.

I love the clems as much as roses. The other plants give me as much pleasure as the roses..roses are just bigger plants. They do create an environment and I think neighborhood animals like it.

I hope you can get back your New Dawn / clem pairing...I don't know why not. New Dawn is so vigorous.

Wendy, fishing line is an interesting idea too. Thank you. No one fishes in the house, so we don't have that on hand, but I'll keep it in mind, I may find someone we know that does. I could always buy some too.

And I have my eye out for a thread of your garden, Wendy!!

Thanks Erasmus, for the help and encouragement. I am definitely going to try to get the New Dawn going again, maybe for next spring purchase. I'll post a photo when I get things settled in this bed along the fence. Didn't realize you have a rose nursery business. That makes sense considering the photos of your roses I've seen. LOVE your fence full of roses! I'm going to have to ask you more about your rose business in another thread some time. I'm heading back out the door to get more done before it rains.

My original decades old spool finally ran out a couple of years ago. I went to Dicks to get more and was amazed at the choices of how thick. That's why I mentioned 50#. It took me a couple of tries to find the right thickness! No idea what gauge real fishermen use!!!

50 lb fishing line at Amazon

I was thinking about the photo journal of 20 years' garden evolution and it's overwhelming! I have 6gb of "MyGarden" pictures on my computer and the first decade+ they are small (~300kb ea). so you can imagine how many pics there are. (I asked Google how many 300kb in 6GB and it said 6e+6 whatever that is! A lot! ) I couldn't find the pictures of the original yard as purchased and some of the early bed layouts but I know they are somewhere. Maybe will start today. Rainy day=housework or organizing pics? ez pz

Wendy, I like the sounds of that. [g] I understand, I must have a ton of photos too, probably all of the same plant from one year to the next. And I did find some initial photos, when we first moved in and started working on the yard. Fascinating. We also took out a hedge and installed a new walkway and seeded a new lawn ourselves with the help of our kids. But there are those photos but a lot of gaps when the kids were little and I was only vegetable gardening. Those were photos taken before we had a digital camera. I have bags of terrible photos from a cheap small camera that I've yet to go thorugh and only a handful of photos that have been scanned onto the computer.

And...then there's the fact on this small property, we've never done anything all that radical or interesting. lol Pretty boring stuff in many regards. Not as interesting as Roxannas actual garden that was put together with hardscape and everything. But I will get around to putting something small together for a thread, too, because it is interesting at least to see the yard bare of anything but grass change over the years. And of course, it is still changing. So have fun with your project, I will sincerely be interested in getting a look at your garden journey. Maybe Roxanna has started a trend and we'll get to see a lot of GW gardens in the beginning.