Roses don't "climb" on their own. You will need to add some trellis work or lattice, or something, around the porch corner/side and gradually tie up your rose as it grows.

It's hard to find good climbers for zone 5 because of the hardiness issue (most roses that grow tall in the south get winterkilled in the north and have to "regrow" each year, therefore being much shorter than a "climber".

If you want fragrance, you'll probably have to go with a once-bloomer, meaning the rose will put on a good show in June/July but will not rebloom the rest of the summer.

It is indeed difficult to have a pretty big climber in Z5, but alternatively you might try to have a clematis as a climber and hardy big shrub rose next to it. You may try to look at Laguna or New Dawn, they both are rather easy to grow for beginner. I did not have Laguna in my z5 garden, but New Dawn did well with minimal care for about 10+ years. You might want to buy it own root rather than grafted, since sometimes roses die to the ground in colder winter.

One beautiful climber that I've heard does well in cooler areas is Viking Queen. You can see pictures on helpmefindroses, a fantastic web site with pictures of thousands of roses. Click on lookup after you're on the site and then type in the name of the rose. I think this rose is lovely and have seen pictures of it on the antique rose forum where several people in much colder climates than mine grow it. It's supposed to have a very strong fragrance.

Oops, I just looked up this rose and is says zone 6b and warmer, so I don't know whether it would work for you. Perhaps on a south-facing wall it might work. There is an excellent on-line rose nursery named Northland Rosarium that features roses for cooler climates. It has pictures and in-depth descriptions of each rose and would be a very good source for any roses you might want in your garden. Palatine Roses in Canada, which ships to the U.S., is another source that many people swear by. Clay is good for roses but you'll have to amend your soil with compost from a garden store to lighten it and nourish the roses. Believe me, it will all be worth it in the end. The most important thing is to find the right rose, and you can't go wrong with the two sources I've mentioned. I almost forgot, but Pickering Roses in Canada is another source that is well thought-of. Best of luck and have fun choosing!

Ingrid

In a (presumably) high traffic area like that you'll probably want a rose with as few thorns as possible. I think New Dawn will probably grow there, but unless very few people come to your front door I suspect in the long run you'll regret planting it there. It (& Dr. Van Fleet from which it is a mutation, and also Awakening which is yet a second mutation) are rather thorny. If there is any possibility of a free stem waving to and fro in the breeze, people will not want to use your front door if any of those roses like the spot and grow with anything like the enthusiasm of which they are capable.

(By the way New Dawn is one of my favorite roses! It's just that I realize there are better and worse places to grow it.)

(PS: I was going to link to some illustrative photos of New Dawn from HelpMeFind, but they seem to have crashed just now.)

Illusion is a hardy climber that I have had for several years. Wonderful foliage, bushy and floriferous. Very bright red flowers with good form.

I have Viking Queen on order from Pickering. Celeste says it does well for her in zone 4, so I am crossing my fingers.

I'd suggest getting an outdoor thermometer and measuring the temperature throughout the winter--to measure the exact microclimate the rose will need to survive. You might then compare it against other weather records in the area to decide whether that spot is the same as, colder, or warmer than the surrounding area. Climbers are long term projects--don't expect much for the first two years.

I will add to Jim's comment on Illusion:
"Wonderful foliage, bushy and floriferous. Very bright red flowers with good form."
It is also quite thorny as you might want to situate it so it won't grab people as they are walking by.

Scent is difficult. If you are willing to give up scent for hardiness, you can get Quadra or one of the canadian explorer roses. I think John Cabot will get too big (and is too thorny) but Quadra should be okay. You'll probably have to order it, I think Pickering has it. I have one and it is absolutely hardy but no scent and a bit thorny.

Quadra is better then Illusion in my opinion. I have both and like both.
Both supposed to be equally hardy, but Quadra blooms more and the flowers are more beautiful in my opinion. Both are bright red. In my climate Illusion wil get some BS (still keeps some leaves), but Quadra is absolutely healthy., not a spec of disease.
Olga

Olga. I think both Q and I are Kordesii hybrids which are noted by their hardiness, lack of scent and disease resistance. So I'm surprised by your mention of BS on Illusion. I suppose it is climate difference. Mine is absolutely clean.

I've read good things about Quadra but it's too new for me.

I think given that you want to wrap a climber up your porch post, Isabella Skinner/Victorian Memory is far too much of a large bush to use in that situation. It would take a lot of training and constant removal of extra canes to accomplish what you want. It has a light fragrance in spring flush but you won't get much from the sporadic re-bloom.
Viking Queen has quite stiff canes - wrapping it may not be easy. The canes are not winter hardy for me here in zone 4, but may be OK for you. And it's not really much for fragrance.
The reality is that climbers in zone 5 and colder are a problem if what you see in your mind's eye is the beautiful draped roses in photos - taken in the south. Just a friendly warning: be prepared to invest years (at least 3) waiting to see your rose mature, and be prepared to have possibly made the wrong choice for your location and have to start all over again! That said, be sure to do thorough research (talking to rosarians in your own area is best) and good luck with your plan.

There also are Geschwind's hybrids, that do not grow very big, are quite care-free and perfectly winter hardy, for example Himmelsauge. Of course, they bloom only once (although long), but they are an option and quite pretty.

Is Parade hardy in zone 5? HMF does not load for me for some reason, so I cannot check it. But I seem to remember that someone from Colorado kept posting wonderful photos of Parade and said that this rose was very fragrant.

I don't believe that Parade is cane hardy in zone 5. Some people do grow climbers that aren't cane hardy and retrain them every year. And HMF is not very good at distinguishing between cane hardy and crown hardy (and they aren't very good at zone ratings in general and are much too conservative).

annececilia, what do you mean about the size of Isabella Skinner? I have seen your photos of it on HMF and am intrigued, but I am curious to know what sort of a size it grows to and whether the canes are lax or not.

woost2, if you're open to it and can't find a rose to suit your purposes for that porch post, don't forget about clematis. Someone (I don't know who) in Poland has been breeding award winning new clematis hybrids recently, so I suspect that there are probably several clematis that will work for you. While many of them bloom either only in late spring, or in late spring and again in late summer, there are also clematis that bloom throughout the summer. Furthermore, many of them bloom in various shades of purple, pink, or white that will probably go well with the colors on your house. Some clematis varieties are much too vigorous for your post, or not vigorous enough, but then there are others I'm sure will grow nicely on that post - and you won't have to worry about thorns at all.

York, I mean that it is not a graceful climber. It really wants to be a very thick shrub, about 9' tall. I worked hard for 5 years to train it over the arch. When it finally matured and I got a handle on how to work with it, it was magnificent - for 2 years (and those are the pictures you see on HMF.) The next winter it got some cane damage from freeze/thaws. I tried to salvage as much of the canes as I thought might survive in order to keep its height and it suddenly got horrible blackspot that year. Since my goal was a completely spray-free hardy climber on the arch, I removed Victorian Memory. Sadly, it is no more in my garden.

In training the canes, I had to be very careful pulling in the new growth - it was easily bent and damaged. Old canes became very stiff and woody. Also, it wanted to send up many new canes at one time - as I said, it desired to be a thick shrub. I was always cutting canes out to keep it from being too heavy in appearance.

Thanks much, annececilia! I understand exactly what you're saying.

Back to the drawing board.................

I'm in zone 7, so I have no first-hand experience to share that's relevant to your winter conditions; this is just what I've gleaned from reading...

I'm pretty sure that your designated spot will have a warmer microclimate than what you'd have farther out in your yard; this spot is near all the porch cement on your south-facing porch. That porch cement will absorb heat from the sun on its open side and some from the house and protected ground under it too. And the rose will be near the post and sidewalk that will retain some heat from the day. On non-sunny days, it tends not to get as cold at night as whatever your lowest-temperature nights are... or the spot will be insulated by lots of snow cover and the porch itself will be slightly warmer due to the heat loss from your house, including the window glass, and the overhead covering for the porch ought to help slowdown the loss of those extra sources of warmth.

Low-thorned and fragrant, Ghislaine de Feligonde ought to work well; its canes are flexible and it is supposed to be good for a beginner. It has everything good about it that most people want, if the size is right for the spot. I'm thinking that with Ghislaine de Feligonde, you eventually could end up hanging a rope from the central pillar to the one on the right and she might mosey on over, but this one is not be such a vigorous grower that wild growth would be a problem. Attach a few screw eyes to your post to use for places to tie your jute twine to, and use the twine to pull the canes toward the post. The rose ought to go on up with just a little bit of directing from the twine.

Another idea: maybe the very fragrant once-bloomer albas like Mme. Plantier, Alba Maxima, Alba Semi-Plena, or Blush Hip?

Ghislaine de Feligonde and low-thorned Mme. Plantier are both due to arrive here shortly... I can hardly wait!

Or some of the hybrid musks, like Lavender Lassie, Francis E. Lester, or Moonlight? (Some thorns there, not sure how many.)

Fragrant William Baffin? Though I've no idea of how thorny it might be. The Canadian Explorer Series with roses like John Davis and John Cabot might work, but I don't know about thorniness on any of those either.

If you can't find a climbing rose that suits you, there's another climbing choice besides clematis: Hydrangea anomala, subsp. petiolaris. (I've never grown this, and have no idea how quicky it might grow and require lots of trimming. I just read about it yesterday, but the idea of a climbing hydrangea is intriguing.)

Best wishes,
Mary

This old post mentions some cold-hardy roses. I'd look into the "Spirit of Freedom" Mentioned on this post, one of the growers there is in zone 4. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rosesant/msg051332108445.html

I have Spirit of Freedom and while in zone 6 this winter was unusually cold for us and the rose is doing fine... She's a beautiful climber. My mother in law also grows her on her farm, and has terrible natural clay. Can you use horse manure in your green community?

I bought Nahema (Delbard from Roses Unlimited) last spring and planted it facing south near a chain link fence. I just tied the canes to the fence with twine. It seems to have survived the winter without protection and I don't spray. I will have more information as spring progresses.

I have Spirit of Freedom and it never gets taller than 5' here.

Once bloomers might work. Alba roses like Great Maiden's Blush are suited to your climate. For rebloomers, some of the New Dawn roses like Awakening, Blossomtime, Aloha and White New Dawn will grow in your area. Climbing Cecile Brunner is pretty industructable. The Griffin Bucks will also grow there and some are fragrant.

(Apologies for discussion thread hijacking, but I have a quick aside question.

How lax are the canes of Spirit of Freedom and Nahema? Would either of them be trainable to a fence only 3' high, or would they constantly fight to be more upright than that?)

In my limited experience with training climbing roses, I think SOF might be a little tricky...the ones I have want to get big and tall. That being said, the first one I got was not the "climbing" version you can buy now. The 2nd 2 I bought a year later were the climbing version and their canes are decidely more light and flexible. With those it may be possible, but she likes to get big on me here in southern NJ.

Does anyone have any experience in growing "America". HMF says it gets 6 - 12 ft tall, and is good to zone 4b. I planted one near my foundation last summer, and have covered in burlap. Not unwrapped yet, so can't tell if cane hardy yet.

From my experience in a local public garden, America has iffy disease resistance, and iffy hardiness. It has a considerably warmer microclimate than my garden, so only suffers bad dieback about half the time.

York, I don't think Spirit of Freedom would be hard to train along a fence. Mine dopesn't have any stiff, upright canes. But then again, mine only gets 4-5' tall. And has about average winterkill for an Austin.

My SOF is about 5' tall and has thick, inflexible canes. I don't think it would be easy to train as a climber and hard to get tall enough to climb in a colder climber.

My thoughts are for a climber like Awakening, though as others have noted it is very thorny. Another thought are some fragrant once-blooming ramblers like Baltimore Belle or climbing American Beauty.

Constance Spry. Yes, it's a once bloomer but when it blooms the display lasts for a month. I have 'her' at the S.E. corner of my house next to & over an arbor. It took about 3 to 4 years but now she's a big girl. Easily 10-12 ft tall and 8-9 ft wide - almost unheard of in Michigan. Very little damage from our dry cold winters. Very disease & drought resistant. And doesn't require much in the way of food or coddling. In fact, I think she thrives on benign neglect. I never spray for BS or other diseases and will only rarely spray insecticide in the spring to keep the sawfly larvae under control. It's a tough-love program in my garden and fussy roses just don't make it.

Like most of my other own-root Austin roses, it took a few years to get established but is well worth the wait.

I've got a climbing Cecil Brunner, that after 3 years, has finally hit it's stride. Fragrant to boot. It dies back to about 3-4 feet every winter though. trained on an arch in the middle of my rose garden. Didn't see the "CL" on the label when I bought it. LOL

The trick with Climbing Cecile Brunner is that when it's happy (& doesn't die back a lot in the winter) it's a BIG ROSE!

for those of you looking for a climbing rose for a northern garden here are some voices of experience!

Since this post is getting older you may not see this. Are you still looking for a climbing rose? I happened to come across the Arborose collection. I never actually saw what your zone is. Northland Rosarium carries the collection. They are zone5 roses, all but one have some fragrance and they repeat. Whats different about them is the softer bendable cane that you could wrap around the post. They are shorter but would still give color and height for the area. With time they will produce more canes each year for a fuller look. Just an idea in case your still looking.

Thanks Patty. Houzz seems to have ditched the original posters' zone info. Z5b. I never did do a climber. I planted a Knockout that was gorgeous for several years but did not survive the winter of 13-14. We didn't have enough snow cover to keep that spot buried through a freezing cold winter and the leaves I had stuffed around it apparently weren't enough. So, now I'm looking again. I did love the pink doubles in that spot.

I think you have a good potential site for a climber. If you will make a tall cone of mulch in fall around the base of the climber (make the cone at least 2 feet tall) you will help it survive even if you do not get a good snow pack. The winter of 13-14 was unusually harsh so don't let that one bad winter be your guide for success. We have done some trials in Zone 4 on hardiness and Laguna performed exceptionally well - it has strong fragrance and is a German ADR winner so no spraying necessary. There are own root bushes of Laguna available in the market which would be preferable for your climate or Palatine Roses will have it on multiflora rootstock for order next season.

I concur that climbing Cecile Brunner is a great fragrant climber. Griffin Buck, Park Roses, Canadian Explorer and some Kordes Roses are rated for your area. Down here most roses do well and we have many Antiques and Heirloom roses to pick from. I would contact a nursery that specializes in Antiques and unique roses that do well in your area. Good luck. It is a lot of trial and error to find what works and what doesn't.

Edmunds has Laguna(bare root), I ordered one last month.

Thank you York_Rose, I just ordered one Victorian Memory (Isabella Skinner) today. :-)