Well, I personally love 'Fortuniana.' It is tough as nails, disease-free, vigorous, and fragrant. Has prickles. Not like Mermaid.

Veilchenblau -- A neighbor of one of my cousins, SW of Houston, has an old Veilchenblau that their grandma brought from Georgia, when she came as a bride. My cousin has it, now, too. I have to say, the photos of that old Veilchenblau in full bloom are swoon-making.

Then, of course, there are the banksiaes. Lutea in full bloom has to make your heart sing, and I know it's to die for in TX, because I've seen it.

Jeri

Jeri, yes, I had forgotten them, the banksias. Hmmm. I'll ponder that. Thanks.

Just reading older posts on search and see secret garden musk climber mentioned for a similar question and happen to have one needing a home.

I love this kind of a project!! ;)

Good luck...I hope your Mermaid eradication efforts prove successful. Unless you've drowned it in Round Up, they probably won't. Mermaid is MORE tenacious than Dr. Huey. Any root left in the ground regenerates. Kim

Banksia lutea is 100% positively really truly thornless. Here it is the first rose to bloom (started about 2 weeks ago). It gets big, and here keeps its leaves all year, so is nice & green when it isn't blooming. This picture was taken of it growing up my house was taken on April 4th last year. I'm sure it would also grow along a fence.

Jackie

Kim, scary thought. No roundup. I forbid it. (Almost.). Yeek! And I have dr Huey coming up in many places! He did a pretty good job, from what I could tell, but you mean ANY root left regenerates? She is so aptly named. Like a nightmare of being lost at sea. I still think there is nothing more invasive and harder to get rid of than Bermuda. Mint, Mexican petunia, weeds even! Hope it doesn't rival that!

Jackie! That is lucious!! Quite tempting, and smooth as a baby's bum!

We planted R. banksia lutea against a fence.

She climbed the fence, jumped from there to an overly-large ficus tree, and rapidly climbed up through its branches and leaves. She now waves around proudly above the tree canopy, and lights the darkness beneath it.

I LOVE that rose.

Jeri

Way back years ago, there was a Huntington volunteer who grew Mermaid against his chimney between the drive way and his house. It ATE everything in the area. It was dug out and returned. It was dug a second time and returned. Finally, the whole planting area which couldn't contain it, was excavated to ten feet (honestly, TEN feet!), all discoverable roots sifted out and sent off to the trash and the soil replaced. IT CAME BACK! He had passed away, but the rose RETURNED. No joke. I have never known anyone to be successful in removing Mermaid without liberal use of herbicides. Kim

Mermaid is really a monster! One I won't have in my yard, though I'm looking for a climber that doesn't need a lot of care, too.

I have fortuniana, and it's starting to bloom now, and is really spectacular in full bloom. It really doesn't need any care, it survived the bad drought that we had year before last with no problems, and very little watering on my part.

A lot of ramblers are really tough once they get established. I have some that receive no water at all in the summer. I'm stumped on thornless though at the moment other than Veilchenblau and the Banksias. Pruezza would be a good Banksia type. It isn't quite as vigorous and has a little rebloom. Zephrine Droughin would be nice but It probably needs more care than what you've described.

Oh my! Well I certainly won't plant back within ten feet or so of where they were. I have cannas encroaching into that area, I suppose I'll let them continue to try to suffocate Mermaid out, but wow! Thanks for the warnings!! Geez!! It's interesting how invasive some of these are, I suppose that's why it did so well in this rather harsh environment. A great rose, don't get me wrong, I love it, but wrong rose for this usage.

Thanks all. I do love the banksia, but know I want to put Veilchenblau somewhere. Geez, I love them all! Thank for your interest!

Ok, renigging on thornless, just no monster thorns, a la Mermaid....y'no, the ones with back hooks. Crepuscule? One I always see rave reviews on and don't have. Thinking I can maybe feed a line from my garden to a few plants out back. But don't know about heroic efforts soil wise. It is the alley and I've got a 1,400 square foot new-ish bed I'm filing in. (Got the biggies in, just have room for smalls).

Maybe you should plant Veilchenblau there since you want to. It doesn't need huge amounts of water. Crepescule is very nice. I find Rev d'Or(similar to me) to be almost carefree. I think that with Ramblers you don't have to be heroic with soil amendments as long as the drainge is OK. If you can water that plant while it's young so that it gets established it's amazing how little it needs from then on.

Mendocino. Yes I do seem stuck on Veilchenblau!. I have so few once-r's and read somewhere that they shouldn't be ignored. And read this is the bluest of the old roses. Just seems interesting.

Interested that u say crepuscule is not, to you, much different that rev d'or, which I have and am not too thrilled with. Hmmm. That gives me pause...will I like crepuscule? Could be a few of my ten year old plus climbers (Cornelia, mac, reve d'or, ) are just spent! Definitely only a spring bloom on all. I think in my training I have just old canes and need to radically revive them. Have even thought after the spring show of just whacking them to a few feet and let them begin again.

I digress. Thanks!

I think there are very few climbers that have really good rebloom.

Never knew that!

New Dawn has a good rebloom, if you can handle the thorns.

Rebloom is going to be a function of not only the rose, but climate and culture. Sufficient water is a great flower regulator. Not enough and the plant may survive, but flowering can easily be interrupted. In mine, New Dawn requires dead heading to remove the numerous hips or there is no rebloom, and it requires spraying as mildew is an extreme issue.

I think the issue with rebloom on that dry fence is going to be water. Some are just so blamed vigorous and thrifty, they will grow and flower period. Mermaid is the perfect example. Perhaps Fortuniana and Banksiaes would be similar, once established. I think their common denominator is their rampant vigor. Newport Fairy (once flowering) would very likely grow and provide its spring color. But, for decent repeat for anything less rampant than Mermaid, I think you'll need to run some irrigation to the area. Kim

Kim, I think I will. Thanks for the efforts. I can run a few black lines under or through the fence from a sprinkler nearby. Funny how plans change when you think (post) out loud. Just want one house eater at most. And think I already know who that is. And campanula's thread got me thinking about less is more?! Idk. Maybe pick up one more and see whats hanging out in the pot ghetto.