Forget you ever heard about winter protection. Given normal eastern moisture levels and reasonable winter highs, it's issuing an open invitation to canker to come and destroy your roses.

In general, and I've been trying to come up with an exception for years now without success, hardy repeat blooming climbers are stiff and difficult to train. By hardy, I mean anything a remotely reasonable person would try to grow in the North. There are once bloomers that produce manageable long canes, and even some that are relatively thornless. So that is your basic decision.

BTW, there are two halves to the USDA hardiness zone system. The first is how cold your spot tends to get. The other half is how cold, in general, can specific plants handle. With roses, figuring out the first part isn't remotely as difficult as the second.

Would a large shrub rose be a possiblity, or are you especially interested in a climber?

Krista,

What I'm contemplating is training one (or two) climbing types along the roof line of the porch from each end of the porch toward the center. That's why I'm looking to one of the types with longer canes rather than shorter pillar roses. I'd like to be able to see out toward the yard rather than have my view blocked so I'm not looking for shrubs in that location.
I'm wondering if something like the Repeat CL Cecile Brunner would do for this. I had one growing up the back of my house in the past, but never tried constraining/training it along a narrower band. I understand New Dawn is fairly long caned and is supposedly winter hardy. I just wonder how trustworthy the winter hardiness ratings really are.

There is a great deal of work and waiting as the roses build up to what you want to do with correct pruning - figure 4 - 7 years. I would afix the roses along the roof-line so they can be taken down to the ground and protected for the harshest months or possibly weeks of winter you expect then you can reset them to the roof. Forget Christmas lights or other nonesense along the roof line. My suggestion would be the hardiest Noisette: Madame Alfred Carriere for a possible 4 year chance or New Dawn for a 7 year chance. Your southern exposure is going to help. You are going to take some hits along the way but for the effect and satifaction, I encourage you to give it a go.

I had suggested Super Dorothy before, a pink rambler that reblooms, has pliable canes and can grow to 30 feet. You can check this rose out on HelpMeFindRoses. It's supposed to be hardy from zone 5 to zone 10.

Ingrid

I've been visualizing New Dawn on your porch since you first mentioned it. Still can't shake the idea that it would be a very good choice. No firsthand experience with whether it is winter hardy, though -
Anita

This is New Dawn in a fairly cold 6a
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These are about 15 years old now, and about as big as they are going to get. Training them is the definition of garden evil, since the hill is nastier than the thorns, and New Dawn thorns are nothing to sneeze at. I wouldn't even think of putting it on a front porch if anybody ever used the porch. There is a gravel path on the other side of the wall, and any canes that interfere there are quickly zapped. Now I do think that this is a particular good clone of New Dawn since these are cuttings from a plant that was planted in the 1930's.

Basically, New Dawn should be hardy, however it won't grow to monstrous proportions and unless we are talking about a small stoop won't be big enough to cover a porch, and training it to keep it in bounds will be a major, continuous job, often requiring a ladder. That's the big advantage of a pillar rose - that most of the training can be done from ground level.

The roses I have with endless canes are setigera hybrids. Those are once bloomers, but they are big, hardy and trainable. Those roses you could run up the pillars and across the roof.

An approach you might consider is to make sure you have some reliably hardy varieties mixed in with more marginal roses, then when the really cold years hit you still have something blooming while the less hardy roses recover. By this I mean try using a couple once blooming more hardy ramblers like Paul's Himalayan or multiflora or wichurana types as a base, then mix the repeat bloomers into it as pillar roses, a shape that has the potential of giving you some interest even in a season when they suffer a lot of damage. Lots of shrub roses can be shaped as a pillar even if they aren't listed as such.

why not pillar roses and maybe some wild clematis for the pillars?

I covered one end of the summer kitchen in Ohio with Austin's once-blooming climber Constance Spry and on an exposed hilltop, had no dieback at all. We sunk three 14 ft. posts about 2 ft. out from the wall and attached trellis to the posts so in our case it wasn't attached to the house. A friend raves about Super Dorothy and the photos I've seen are jaw-dropping...don't know how hardy she is but exciting, yessss!

Silver Moon is another rose that would attain the size you're looking for, and vigorous enough to quickly replace old wood. I've seen it in Cleveland, Philadelphia, & maybe RI. It's another once-bloomer with glorious dark green shiny foliage. As with most, you'll need gauntlet gloves & an old leather coat. I also had Elegance, an old Brownell Sub-Zero climber and it was cane-hardy which is a feat for a yellow rose! The (monster) Kordes shrub Sparrieshoop can be trained as a climber & IT REPEATS say again REPEATS!! Sparrieshoop has large, fragrant, sorta frilly pink blooms, a color that goes well with other flowers.