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Never say never (DA rose question)

11 years ago

*sighs* I always pictured most, if not all, DA roses as being the big, cabbagey sort. You...enablers...have shown me the error of my ways. :)

We have a 6' solid wooden fence and I'm thinking about a rose to grow along it. It's west facing and so gets full sun from about 10 or 11am-ish onwards. I really like The Generous Gardener and Graham Thomas--would either of those be suitable? Can TGG be trained along a wall or will it be an enormous stand-alone mound? I'll have to see if the GT our local nursery has is the climber or not, but if so, will it be happy being pegged along a wall with that much sunlight or is it happier with full sun all day long? Or any other suggestions for one that would do well with that much sun. Fragrance is a necessity, color doesn't really matter and less full blooms and frequent/continuous rebloom would be preferred. As always any help greatly appreciated!

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Comments (5)

jerijen
11 years ago
Praties -- Graham Thomas is Graham Thomas is Graham Thomas. They just label it as a Cl., where it is likely to be one. (Such as where I live!)

In your area -- I think you'd have to ask others what it does for them.

Jeri
jacqueline9CA
11 years ago
Praties - where are you, geographically? Here in sunny No California, my Graham Thomas (as far as I know, there is only one kind - it just grows differently in different climates) is very upright, and gets about 8 feet tall until the Fall, when it does put out much longer canes even than that. Jeri is correct (as always) - if you tell us where you are, someone from your area may be able to tell you how these roses act where you are.

Jackie
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Krista_5NY
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praties
Original Author
11 years ago
I'm near Olympia, WA, Jackie. We're in an odd little micro-climate (yeah, I know. Who isn't? :D). We grow wine grapes (Muscat, Pinot Noir and Chardonney) and they do great here. We're on a lake, so the air is never bone dry, but it isn't any more humid than the rest of western WA. We run about 5-10 degrees hotter in summer and colder in winter than Olympia and we can get some pretty high-ish winds when the weather fronts blow in from the Pacific.

The rose would be sheltered somewhat by the house--the house would be between it and the prevailing winds. Once the sun tops the fence, it'd get sun up until about 7pm during the summer.

Sorry about asking about the climbing version of GT--the DA website lists the "normal" one as 4x4 and the climber as 6-8 ft. as a climber. All the same plant just "let 'er rip!" or "prune wildly!"?
seil zone 6b MI
11 years ago
I have the "normal" GT and it gets 12 feet tall even with my cold winters. It rarely needs more than tip pruning in the spring. However, the canes on it are very stiff and do not lend themselves easily to spreading sideways to cover a fence. You would have to be very vigilant about spreading them before they harden off. And GT is a water hog so you'll have to water it it you don't get a lot of rain.

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