I lived in Michigan for many years, on the coast of Lake St. Clair, which made me a Zone 5b/6a. I too fell in love with Eden for my arbor and had to have it. I ended up planting it, and for the most part it did great! The flowers were awesome and the rebloom was pretty good too!

That being said, some winters were pretty tough on it. One bad winter took the whole plant down to about 3 feet. I was so upset. It did come back really strong, sprouted new canes all over the place, but the height was gone and the effect on the arbor was not the same. Still beautiful, just without that gorgeous romantic drape of the flowers and the canes.

You may have better luck in Columbus, but I would be prepared for some dieback in really brutal winters. Still one of my favorite roses! Good luck,

Toula

I SPd my Eden last year. A climber it was not (at least not in the north). Too much winterkill. Some years even had trouble being shrub-size. Beautiful flowers though.

Conundrum it is.

Just try tipping a 13' massive bush's root ball.

I am going to need a front end loader to try tipping it again.

After we had done the usual, digging out a nice trench and around the roots, and tied and wrapped the canes with fleece. We put a huge cardboard box next to the canes. With a rope which DW was pulling the top of the bush towards the trench, I took a running leap onto the cardboard. OK! Well several.

I didn't do a very good job, ran out of gas cans to hold the cardboard down. Hopefully no one had a camera around!

Better luck next year. It is going to be a very nice bush this year. It has huge buds on it.

Cool!

I've grown climbing Eden for about 5 years now, but he doesn't climb for me. Our harsh winters do too much cane damage and I have to prune him back to the snow line. However, Eden always comes back and performs nicely as a shrub rose (too bad I planted him on an arbor). Although Eden is slow to rebloom for me, I keep him because the blooms are so very beautiful and the leaves are wonderfully glossy and disease resistant. I'm glad he's in my garden, but I can't call him a climber.

Thanks for all the responses! I'm so torn...I spent about 3 hours researching Eden, Red Eden, and White Eden and hear they are hardy from 4-6-10 and some people in 5 report it does well, but no reports of how much die back occurs. I know Cbus sits close to the z6 line, but I have a hard time justifying it as being really all that much different from those in Michigan and Maine as Columbus will regularly have winters in the teens and occasional bursts of -5 degree weather for prolonged periods of time....even in the city where I live.

I'm pretty bound and determined to get the red and white eden either way, just somewhat torn as to make it go in the ground out back in the sun, or throw together a really small arbor by the front arbor and plant both of them in pots and let them grow up it during summers and bring them in during the winter. Such a difficult choice. I'm beginning to become obsessed with the roses. I started out with 0 this year, and if I get the edens, it will bring me up to 9 this year!

I've tried Cl. Eden & Cl. Red Eden. Only Red Eden remains in my garden. The canes do not survive the winter and the poor thing barely makes it to "small shrub" size before cold weather returns. The blooms, only a handful, are wonderful and the shrub is disease resistant but it's not a focal point in my garden.

Have you considered Constance Spry? After 5 years my (own root) CS is a monster of a rose bush (easily 10' x 10' - not something to sneer at in zone 5) that requires very little from me. She's cold hardy, disease resistant, drought resistant, and needs only a shovelful of compost in the spring.

She blooms for about 6 weeks in late May through June and for the rest of the season she's happy to put out new canes.

In my area, I don't mind the non-repeat bloomers since the Japanese Beetles makes repeat blooms a moot point. And since the Edens are reluctant to repeat bloom then I say "Why not look at Constance Spry?".

Run with scissors makes an excellent point about Constance Spry. Until mine died from RMV, it was always robust, hardy, and had wonderful fragrant pink blooms. I never had to spray her or winterize her. She does take up a lot of space, and needs an arbor or long fence for support.

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I like CS, but don't have readily access to it from my nursery. I stopped by my nursery yesteday and picked up a New Dawn and Zephirine Drouhin, and a Red Eden(Eric Tabarly) and White Eden. My only conundrum is should I take a chance with the Eden's in the backyard on my 10x10x5 arbor, or is it even feasible for these "Edens" to get up that high? I was surprised to see that Red Eden isn't even technically an Eden and not a sibling of Eden itself. I beleive White Eden is the same way. I suppose Columbus is technically z6, although it's winters are just as harsh as Michigans. One thing the roses may have going for them is that I am located within Columbus itself and the roses will be planted along the south wall of the house in full sun and there is a fence on both sides to protect them from the cold. Our nursery specialist(smart guy), went through and explained that both of the eden's were hardy, although it didn't really answer my thoughts on how excessive the die back will be year by year. My current options are:

1: Plant New Dawn and Zephirine Drouhin on the 10x10x5 south arbor in a protected area, and plant Red and White Eden in the GROUND on the north side of the house by constructing a smaller arbor by the main entrance of the house that still gets full sun.

2: Plant New Dawn and Zephirine Drouhin on the 10x10x5 south arbor in a protected area, and plant Red and White Eden in 2 large POTS on the north side of the house by constructing a smaller arbor by the main entrance of the house that still gets full sun. Then during the winter, take the canes down and bring the pots inside.

3: Return New Dawn and Zephirine Drouhin, and plant Red and White Eden on the 10x10x5 arbor on the south end of the house in full sun.

I feel pretty confident all the plants will live through the winter, but I just don't want an immense dieback every spring where the rose never makes it past 4 foot every year. Thanks for the help guys. I don't hear too many people that have experiences with Eden or the Eden counterparts Red Eden and White Eden.

Hi Jeffcat! I live one hour east of Columbus, I have had
an Eden (Pierre de Ronsard) for 10 years. I love it but my advice would be don't put it on the big arbor. put it in a sheltered place maybe a Southern exposure. Mine gets 6-8 ft each year but has dieback every time. this past year was pretty bad and it died to the ground. It is now about 3' tall(with huge buds on it) Ijust got a new dawn and a william baffin to put on my new arbor. I am hoping that they will be very winter hardy here. roseberri

Thanks roseberri.

I played it safe and planted New Dawn and Zephirine Drouhin on my large arbor out back(south side). I expect New Dawn to take off...not sure how quickly Zephirine will go, but it is a fairly large rose already and I didn't have much of a choice as it goes right by the walkway now that I have them both in the ground and can see how they sit. Both are blooming and doing fine though.

Red and White Eden are still in pots. Regular Eden was sold out at the nursery. I feel like Red and White Eden are somewhat of a risk being relatively new plants(circa 2004) and hearing less about them, but I'll be quite happy if it works out. The spot I am putting them in is on the north side of the house, but far enough in front of the house that Red and White Eden will probably get more sun than any rose I currently have planted. You mentioned Eden would work for smaller settings, so I am only building a small 4'wide x 7'tall simple arbor for out front(haha just to make room for them). Something simple and just to walk through although with such a small yard it will probably become a focal point. If you are familar with Victorian Village in Columbus roseberri, then you can grasp the size of my small area. I'll have to keep everybody updated on how Red and White Eden do as Red isn't even an "Eden" genetically, and I believe White is a sibling of Eden. Both relatively new and I might wrap the whole arbor and roses with burlap this winter. Hard saying right now. I just want the arbor thrown up and the roses in the ground already! Can't wait.

That should work! best of luck!

Thanks, I hope so roseberri. Red Eden is blooming right now. White Eden has no blooms yet, but seems to being fine. What do you use as fertilization for your Eden? Just curious as 8' would be preferable and desirable for the structure it's going on. So far, I just mixed some rose tone in with some new scott's topsoil to get them started. Also, do you protect your Eden at all during the winter, or just have it in a protected location?

It has been a few years now but I’m wondering how your eded did I’m OH for you, I’m next door in Indy and I’m considering getting a couple Edens for my small garden

I'm just wondering how jeffcat and his roses are doing. I always look at his posts and HMF pics for reference.

Hi , I have an arbor I would love to plant climbing rose. I live in Syracuse, NY zoneB. I want pink color, vigorous growth and hardy.
Any recommendations? I’ve never planted roses before, so i need all the help. Thank you so much.

I do not grow this rose, but have often seen it recommendedas a true climber for colder zones. Alas, not pink. : ( Quadra For Pink you might want to look at Victorian Memory or William Baffin. There is another whose name escapes me so hopefully krista, nola, dingo and bella rosa will pie in if they see this. You might want to start your own thread adding your zone to your name. BTW, you didn't put it in your post....just zoneB. Also searching zone 5 in roses will give many results.

Thanks ... it’s overwhelming all the choices .

Well, if you're in Z5, there are fewer choices that will not die back and need to regrow every year. That is the kicker. I try to zone up my climbers to avoid that. When they say hardy to a particular zone, that generally just means it will survive in that zone without mentioning the amount of surviving cane. Those that are tip hardy in colder zones are fewer. However, if it doesn't lose all its cane and is vigorous, that may be good enough.