Jim- Good to know about Golden Showers. I decided to get one William Lobb to go with my two Fantin Latour roses. I suspect that it might not grow as tall as they say on the website, in my colder climate. In this location it's okay it it's just a big beautiful shrub. Thank you all for your input. I was leaning towards New Dawn for the kitchen garden arbor, but was afraid it might be too exuberant. Finally decided to zone push a little and ordered two Lavender Lassie roses that should arrive early next June. They'll be own root and the arbor will be in one of the most protected locations we have, so I'll keep my fingers crossed :)

Hi there! I just HAD to post b/c I am in north-central FL too! Where are you located? just curious... Anyways, we have 3 climbing roses. Candyland, Angel Face, and Royal Gold. Candyland is the BEST by far!! I highly recommend this rose. We bought it bare-root last March and planted it. It is currently around 8 Ft. or so, maybe taller. It is healthy and blooms all season. Last month we counted over 50 buds. It has multiple blooms on each cane. The whole thing was covered w/ roses! We just fertilized it for 2 months in a row and now it has tons of green growth, which I think we need to slow down on that.... Royal Gold has been a dissapointment so far......There are hardly any flowers and when it does flower it blooms so quick and the petals fall off fast! Forget it withstanding any rain! We have an Angel face with a few flowers on the side of the house, it was supposed to have been a Blaze, but they tagged it wrong! :( It's pretty healthy but just doesn't compare to the Candyland climber!! It's raining outside right now but I will try to post a pic later.......

lavender_lass: Wow, another person with such an expansive garden! Unfortunately, I can't make out much detail in the first two photos (think it's the resolution of my screen) but I can definitely the beauty in the bee balm. What's next to the bee balm a columbine (and if so, which)? Ingrid_vc: I totally forgot to mention the sea lavender too. I've intentionally walked away from it at the garden center thinking I'd never know how to use it but your photos illustrate their beautify wonderfully. I've never actually seen them so tall. How are they as cut flowers? They're really quite gorgeous. campanula: You make me want everything you've listed. Do you have any photos you can share? I'll bet your garden is wonderful. I love looking at grasses in the gardens of others but don't have enough space to allow them to become the plant they want to be. Years ago I planted one and it spread so fast and so large that when I went to remove it, I nearly needed a forklift. I'm in Southern Calfiornia where many uses grasses to accent the front of their houses as they're quite drought hardy and they look amazing. I, on the other hand, wouldn't have room for all the roses and other flowers I need in the garden if I were to grow them. Please do post some photos, if you have a chance, as I know we'd all like to see those beautifies if you have them growing in your garden. Thanks for the great recommendations.

Hi Mila Welcome to the fun of rose gardening and we all understand, since we're in LOOOOVVVE with roses too. One way to keep the love going both directions is to pick roses that will easily love you back. I would question the rating of Dortmund as zone 4, since it died like a dog in my zone 5 Nebraska winters, and Kate reports that hers just barely squeaked by in zone 6. I'd guess it's more like a zone 6 rose at best, and it wouldn't be the easiest rose to grow as a climber in zone 5. The most important thing about climbers isn't just getting them to survive the winters at their roots, but to have surviving cane to climb and bloom from. That means choosing roses that are hardy at least a zone colder than yours (as you were trying to do with Dortmund as it was reported to you). Otherwise, you're likely to end up with a "climber" that's no more than knee- to waist-high, with skimpy blooms on the ends because it doesn't have enough strength regrowing from the ground each spring to put out the laterals that are the good blooming canes. Doing this means you don't have to mess with any winter protection at all, which is not only a heck of a lot less work and more fun, it makes for nicer blooming roses (because they're already hardy and healthy in your zone) and it makes your neighbors happy. My husband has requested that I keep the front yard "neat", but he's fine with several hundred roses with bare canes, since the trees are bare anyway and no one expects leaves. The untidiness came from my old winter protection methods with bags of leaves chopped all over the front rose beds (now I have a low fence and just dump leaves around the edges of the beds a bit). All of the winter tip methods and other ways of winter protecting roses are likely to be unsightly, and might not even work for a climber that's not suited to your zone. I do absolutely nothing for any of my 30 or so climbers, and most of the time they're the only roses in the spring that have live cane left on them. So, if Dortmund is a risky choice, you have 100's of other options that will be more fun and less work, some of which folks have already mentioned. Madgallica listed some Explorer roses that she grows, and most of those roses are rated to zone 3 or even 2. I agree that Quadra is indestructible and even in a bad year it covers my arch comfortably. It does need an arch or something very substantial to grow on, as it gets big and is very thorny. Here's mine on a better than average year. On the north and east side of my house, it's effectively a zone 4, so this and other Explorers are great choices for me, and they mostly seem to repeat pretty well. If you're on the south side of your house, you may be flirting with zone 5b or even 6 effectively. Here's a shot with Alexander MacKenzie and John Cabot joining forces (very similar hot pink flowers) to try to climb the wall on their own. They really need some support - the canes are well over 7' tall - but I've been kinda lazy. If you're intrigued by Dortmund, you may want something further on the red end of the garden "red" (often a hot pink). Two options are The Prince's Trust and Florentina, both of which are nicely hardy and healthy in my zone, and are already getting big in their second years. I don't have full bush shots, but here's a flower from Florentina. The Prince's Trust has been intriguing me more and more lately. It absolutely was DESPERATE to grow right out of the pot - my band from Rogue Valley was easily 3' tall when it arrived, and it has put on nice growth ever since. Again, I don't have a full bush shot but it's easily 8' in each direction from the base by now in its second year. There are climbers that would work for you in almost any color scheme you would want in zone 5 (OK, purple would be a tough stretch), so let us know what you're thinking and we can help you and your rose come to a lasting and meaningful relationship (smile) Cynthia