Hi Elemire, I've noticed the shrubby element to most of the Noisettes. In most ways in most places, that's good. Here, given that I've decided that I need a few extra canes to pull down to the ground, I think it will work out fine. But if I wanted only a few leggy canes to climb that narrow area between the windows, then shrubby might be a negative. I looked some more this morning at the narrow spot, and 4.5 feet across is probably stretching it. It's probably just about exactly 4 feet wide... meaning that in order to get the canes traveling upwards at 45 degree angles in such a narrow opening, I'll be really, really glad that Crepuscle is _flexible_. >Crepuscule. I think I might be pairing her with Ghislaine de Feligonde on the arbor, the orange gradient might be nice. That sounds like a wonderful pairing to me, Elemire. Crepscule will like every one of the shades of Ghislaine's coloring that she runs into, and both plants will look even better next to the other than they would alone. I don't know about mildew problems with oak trees, Elemire. If ours have it, then they manage to grow just fine in spite of it. Much of the yard here is covered in all sorts of deciduous trees, and they all do okay without any care at all, except for the dogwoods. Dogwoods are prone to succumb to really bad droughts, so during a drought we water the few dogwoods that are within the reach of our hoses. Other than that, we don't pay attention to the trees. Once in awhile, a large tree dies, and at that point we always speculate that it had had enough of all the droughts here in recent years. I'd read that Mac likes a lot of water, and have thought some about the competition of tree roots. I've actually thought some about trying out putting a huge pot with some drainage holes into the ground there, and may end up going that way with it. Not this year, though we might get a small MAC started here as soon as this fall if I ever get the total scheme straight in mind for this section of the yard. We just redid a raised planter (near the potential MAC spot but slightly downhill), and I want to see how those planter roses are doing in terms of the pergola that sits between the two (potentially two) rose sites. Assuming the Renae I cut one cane of RRD out of starts the spring growth with no signs of RRD, then it's going into the planter along with Madame Plantier to climb up the pergola. There's also a Eutin there to wander around the planter floor with some hellebores and spice up the closeup view of the planter from the pergola. If the climbers do reasonably well in their too-shady spot, then we won't need MAC to try to climb up from the other end, and she could then scoot into the nearby oak tree. We cut off the lowest limbs of that oak tree to give some sun to the top of the pergola, and I just hope the amount of direct sunlight there will be sufficient. If not, then I suppose we can put camellias into the planter. (I adore camellias too! It's just that I couldn't quickly get a camellia to do the scented pergola-covering tricks a rose can easily do within a few years.) Well, I'm off to more rose planning/imagining... Thanks again for your comments! Best wishes, Mary

Please stay away from Chateau de Clos Vougeot. It's a very weak and spindly plant, and I can personally confirm that it's a MAJOR PM DISASTER and also way up in the BS league. I wasn't even that thrilled with its floppy blooms. They never looked like that symmetrically petaled wonder bloom photo on HMF. I don't think the climbing version would be any better than the original I had. There are so many much much much better smelly reds out there, also among climbers. Check out the classic and strongly perfumed Ena Harkness, weak neck, but that's not bad in a climber. Or Climbing Etoile Hollande, or Crimson Glory. Or Gruss an Teplitz (check for hardiness though). Or Naheglut/That's Jazz. Or Dublin Bay, as others here have mentioned. As to Sympathy, I assume that it's the German rose Sympathie (note the difference in spelling ), bred by Kordes. It's supposed to be a very good rose, and smelly too (I don't grow it, though). Hooe this helps, Andrea Here is a link that might be useful: Sympathie

Hi Bryony,... I should like to know what colour is the wall now? is this not your property but you are planting it for someone else? How far up that wall do you want these roses to grow, to the top windows? to the eaves, or just around the lower windows and porch? if lower levels then there are many more you could consider, that are not strictly listed as climbing roses, but will climb if put against a support... Let me be brutally honest here, I think you're making this far too complicated, unnecessarily so.... why go to the trouble of importing from Europe 'Cyrano de Bergerac', 'Florence Ducher', or 'Billiard et Barre'.. because as far as I can see none are readily available in this country, for what is a fairly modest sized terraced cottage. There are plenty - loads - of yellow and pink roses you can choose from, so I can't see the need to complicate things with roses from abroad... if you're a collector then yes, import a few as I have done, but for this purpose it's really not worth the trouble and expense, and I would also forget about 'Marechal Niel'... leave that to warmer climates... it grows beautifully in Crete for instance... I grow 2 pink and yellow climbers together, one is 'Zepherine Drouhin' and the other is climbing Lady Hillingdon, I quite like the combination. However I don't recommend 'ZD' there are better to choose from... I would choose roses with better disease resistance and keep it simple... Let us know what you think, and what kind of height you're looking for...

Whoa, this looked better on my phone/tablet, I swear! 'Florentina' again. From ARE, didn't bloom the first year I got her, then threw a bunch of blooms at me after I moved her! She must have feared the shovel, ha! More LOS Here's LOS, 'Julia Child', and 'Princess Elise', with either Winter Sun/Winter Sunset on the right, just out of sight. That's a 'Walker's Low' catmint in the front, which I might move to the back of the tower. I had 'America' sweet peas in the middle of this one. This is the basic design of my towers, for now - three (supposed to be) short roses in the front, and climbers on the towers. I can't remember if this one is 'Bolero', 'Wedding Garland', or 'Honeymoon'. I'm thinking it's Bolero. Apparently I didn't get any pics of 'Honeymoon' or 'Wedding Garland'. I'll have to fix that this spring!