by meilland, sevillana gpt, carefree and hardy, can be trained as a small climber.

By Meilland, Red Eden (syn. Eric Tabarly), blooms abundantly and continuously from April through December for me, bloom form very double similar to Chateau de c.V., the colour is a pure dark red to my eyes, extremely healthy and vigorous shiny foliage. Takes a lot of heat here, but is supposed to be hardy in zones 4b through 9b. Scent is faint but pleasant.

Quadra is unusually hardy and disease resistant, moderately vigorous, repeating, very double blooms.

Illusion is still (in my yard) the top, zone 5, red climber.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~kuska/illusion-the-plant.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: Illusion article

Sympathy, dark red, reblooms, good health and very hardy.

valerie

Red Eden sounds like a really popular rose - and being a modern climber, might be easy to find around me. Looks like a beautiful red colour.

Illusion sounds like another good option, thank you! - hardy and JBs don't like it! Always a plus.

I can't find almost anything about "Sympathy" online. I even looked on HMF.

Quadra - I know it is a hardy and very low maitenance rose, but I've always thought it was more pinkish-red than true red. The plant in our version of a public garden around here is a pink-ish colour, but to be fair, it might be mislabelled. They have several roses that I know are mislabelled, like a "Baron Girod de L'Ain" which is a nice pink-red colour! lol.

So no votes or opinions on Chateau de Clos Vougeot?

Thanks for all opinions and suggestions so far!

If anything, Quadra would be too dark for your requirements.

Dublin Bay might work for you.

Ruth

I've seen pictures of 'Chateau' covered with powdery mildew, FWIW.

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

Heres a shot of Illusion that used to be at NY Botanical Gardens It was trained on a swag of chain between 2 poles.
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How about 'Rhode Island Red', a.k.a. (apparently the same) Fields of the Wood? Dark true red, fragrant, moderate climber, not bad for disease, and (I presume) hardy. The link here is to a set of photos of a garden at Florida Southern College. All of the photos of the climbers on the white gazebo are that rose.
Malcolm

Here is a link that might be useful: A set of photos including Fields of the Wood

I grow Dortmund, Sympathie, Illusion and Rhode Island Red. One thing common to all of them is they take their time to get going. It was 5 years before Illusion got any size and bloomed well. I have had 2 Sympathie's, one died and the second had it's first flowers last year, beautiful, nicely formed deep red, after 5 years. Dortmund is onlly 2 and has finally grown some long hardy canes. Very slight flowering last year. Rhode Island Red, one is 10 years old and flowered very little while the other is only a couple of years old. It also didn't flower very well. In fact I should take out 2 or the 3 I have.

I slso have a Santana, a Tantau, that I'm not so far very impressed with. American Pillar is a once bloomer that puts on a profuse display. For some reason it died after the first year. Going to try another one in a different spot.

Illusion seems to be pretty hardy much to my suprise. I'm a couple hours south of you here in beautiful Ont. I'm going into my 3rd year with illusion its already sent up some (4) good climbing canes. Bloomed well last summer with a good repeat. Some Blackspot but nothing serious I don't spray. Was a very cold winter and no cane damage at all. I can't comment on fragrance not high on my priority list. Looks like a keeper here.

Mark

If the colour is first priority I think of Sympathie too. In full bloom the fragrance is not unsigificant either. Petals are silky shiny, of best dark red color that last no matter how harsh the sun is. It is easily shaped, grows tall if hardly pruned, but with pruning in spring easily kept as a short climber. The picks on helpmefind do no justice to the colour.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sympathie on HMF