In my climate Sombreuil is a spectacular performer!

So good, in fact, that I can't believe it isn't a cliche to grow this rose. But as it happens, I've never seen Sombreuil grown anywhere but in local botanical gardens. And at my house.

My 7th, 8th, and 9th plants of this rose will arrive next week to join 6 other beauties that grace the front of our home. Oh yes, I love this rose!

Bill (who is not fully certain of this rose's "date" but certainly doesn't believe it's 1959, nor 1850-1, or even 1880's).

Wild species musk roses. Huge clouds of small sweet flowers.

With your criteria, Sombrueil without question! And I succumbed to many things I read here and planted Golden Celebration-- it's a fabulous performer. I barely grow any true "modern" roses these days but I love Royal Sunset and would like to have it again. The one I really, really want to try? Kordes "Summer Wine", a coral single-- it fades to pink, but never mind...

How do you think 'Laguna' will stack up?

This is one rose I want to try for next year, but if I get from Palatine I have to get 3 (and room grows short between the 6 of last year and the 51 of this year).

Also been considering: Wild Blue Yonder, Outta the Blue, Night Owl, Moonlight (Kordes) and Flutterbye - any opinion on these?

Patrick, I have a really small yard and the typical climber would not "fit" in it. So, I think 'Reine des Violettes' is the perfect "short climber" for a really small garden. Mine has never been pruned, and is allowed to grow to about 7 or 8 feet up a large tripod. So easy to train, very flexible, thornfree canes.

Randy

Don Juan, Inspiration, Zeus, Awakening, City of York

It seems that everyone is always asking for a climbing rose that reblooms well with a fabulous scent and disease resistence. Gosh Patrick I never am capable of having a favorite of any kind of rose. Anyway when I think of climbers I'm not so exacting about rebloom and all that. Mostly they don't rebloom well. Here's some favorites: Madame Berard, Paul's Himalayan Musk. Manchester Guardian Angel, Climbing Orchid Masterpiece, Climbing American Beauty, Albertine.

I have a very small space in which to garden and I have managed to squeeze in four climbers. I really like all of them for different reasons. We have a rather unremarkable 1950's ranch house, especially in the back yard where the remodels are not so evident. Madame Alfred is growing on a trellis with an arbor on each side. She fills the back of an otherwise dull architecture - especially this year because she was not pruned. She's eating the house and more power to her! There are drooping canes low enough that I can get a good whiff of her blossoms.

New Dawn is along a fence. She fills the whole expanse of the side yard. The shell pink blossoms are breathtaking in the spring. I don't get the rebloom I would like, however. I am waiting for a clematis Niaobe to arrive at the nursery to keep her company.

Sombreuil grows over an arbor in a corner of the garden. There is a fountain underneath. The flower form is delicate and somewhat formal, the fragrance is exquisite. I am coaxing a jackmanii clematis to grow into Sombreuil. I love the combination of the violet and white. She tends to turn her blooms to the west in the afternoon giving my neighbor the best view. She sometimes passes a bouquet over the fence in appreciation - now that's a good neighbor!

Polka grows on the side fence opposite New Dawn. The rose is vigorous, sending up huge canes. The blooms are large and my favorite apricot hue. Polka has had no disease in the 5 or so years she's been in my garden. The rebloom is good. I just planted clematis Etiole Violette under Polka. I think they should make a good combination.

My garden ias small enough that they all have to be favorites to stay...

BettyN

Blaze

{{gwi:253960}}

WHERE was that photo taken? and did you take it yourself? so nice!

Mendocino Rose said it for me: they're all my favorites at one time or another, or else why grow them? Of course I have lots of room. I value beauty of plant and flower, fragrance, good health, ability to live in my garden's conditions (spartan); and I have a weakness for house-eaters. Since I'm not good at pruning, a rose's not needing skilled pruning is also good. (One day I'll figure out what to do with climbing Teas, but I have a long way to go.)

Currently one favorite is 'Treasure Trove', which has reared itself twenty feet up a scraggy black locust and sent a waterfall of canes across the path we use to descend into the wood. Rather than cut (painful) or tie up (impossible) the canes, we just built a rebar and wood pergola under it to keep it off our heads. 'Treasure Trove' is loaded with red-flushed new growth and it's impossible for a rose to look happier than it does. Obviously the coolness, moistness, and influence of the trees of the shade garden suit it perfectly. The other current favorite is the double white Lady Banks, which is a great fountain of growth loosely tied to its pergola, and about to come into bloom. Also 'Félicité-Perpetue', with lovely glossy dark red-tinted foliage, arching, luxuriant, radiant, unprunable on account of its dense growth and vicious thorns. It's obviously perfectly able to take care of itself, and so I just leave it alone. I think it's rooting as it goes. Generally I like 'Alberic Barbier' and similar types of Wichuriana Ramblers, and just about anything with a good dose of Musk in its ancestry, for the fragrance, flexible growth and good foliage.

Melissa

P.S. But I have to add 'Cl. Etoile de Hollande' for its superb color and scent and, nothwithstanding these aristocratic attributes, its sturdy good health and ease of culture. It's a great rose.

Alchemist and Sombreuil.

Alchemist looks intriguing, but how would it be for blackspot resistantce in the mid-atlantic?

Can see Sombreuil in backyard, Laguna on side & Alchemist (maybe) in front.

My most favorite climbng rose will be Reve d'Or. Almost thorneless, very healthy & no sign of pest or disease with no spray, frexible canes that make so easy to train, ever green in my climate, and gorgeous bloom. I have this rose planted at theend of my arbor, and those soft canes cover and cascade very elegantly.

I do love Sombreuil, it is no-spray here. I must put in a good word as well for Alister Stella Grey and Crepuscule and Gloire de Dijon (GdD if you spray fungicide) and Kaiserin Auguste Victoria and Cl Lady Hillingdon. There are so many good ones!

Yesterday I visited a garden that had 52, yes fifty two Cl. Lady Hillingdons on a succession of 26 10' high arches. I wish you all had been there to see them too! No, I didn't have my camera and it was killing me that I could not get a picture!!

Lunar Mist and Laguna are new here this year, and look very good so far.

hoovb, where did you see that wonderful sight? Was it a public garden - or probably private since you didn't mention where...? I'm trying to imagine it ...

triple b - I took that photo at the Washington Rose Garden in Portland. It's a bit bigger than my Blaze here...

I asked for recommendations last year for climbers to plant along a low fence. One that had many votes was "secret garden musk climber". I got it from a mail order place. Teeny tiny, when it arrived. After about one month it took off like crazy. By the end of summer it was done focusing on growing like a monster, and gave a few blooms. Single, white, yellow stamens, and a scent of clove. The reputation is that it is very hardy, very fast growing and wants to stay in constant bloom.

I fully believe this is the rose that covered sleeping beauty's castle in the fairy tale. This thing will take over our whole city if I let it. And right now, the bush has an uncountable number of buds waiting to open... amazing.
I'm sure this will become my absolute favorite climber!

Private estate, duchesse_nalabama. I kept pinching myself. I thought I was dreaming, but my dreams are never that good!