She certainly is! Great job!

Isn't she beautiful!
Sammy

Looking good, lisa! How does she smell?

Kate

Look at her all blooming beautiful! I love it when things work out :)

She does smell heavenly!!!

I hope the color on this looks okay...it looks perfect on my phone and not-so-perfect on my laptop :) but it is so pretty I wanted to share.

{{gwi:273360}}

I really like the way the bluish clematis set off the pink color of the rose. You've done a great job! What color are the daylilies(?) in front?

Ingrid

Success!!! She's beautiful, Lisa! Keep us updated on rebloom. I'll bet GJ's aroma is heavenly. Aren't chain link fences the best trellises? They last forever and make training roses/climbers so easy. I've considered installing a couple of tall panels against my existing wood fence (which requires many screw eyes and hooks and wire). Iron is quite rusty in Portland and needs regular attention. The last thing I want in my life is a needy garden structure! Carol

Ingrid, I am not sure what color they are! I have a bunch of random daylilies that I grow at the front of my beds as edging. That particular area still has some wild orange daylilies that I am still working on eradicating. I'm pretty sure they would live through a nuclear bomb. :)

Lisa

Carol....yes, I love my chain link fences! ..for several reasons! I have had privacy fences in another house, but I really love the friendliness of the chainlink in this neighborhood. I frequently chat with my next door neighbor over the fence. The only time I kinda wish I had a wood fence is when the dogs on my back fence rush the fence. I think they have pit bull in them and they scare me every once in a while.

I have passion vines, clematis, and honeysuckle growing on the fences in different spots. Oh, and squash! it is perfect trellis for zucchetta. I do occasionally have to sneak into my neighbor's yard to pick them :)

I bought a GJ today and now I'm trying to figure out where the best spot for her is. I originally wanted to grow her over an arbor that is also the entrance to my yard. BUT I see she is very thorny and don't want her scratching my family. I think she may be good growing a few feet before the arbor- grown to climb up my fence. Any suggestions on the best way to achieve this? Should I fan her out and just have a few canes growing tall or do I need to grow her up something else? Thanks in advance

Lisa, your GJ is lovely! I miss that rose so much. Lots of folks say she is stingy with bloom; mine never was and yours certainly is not! When I moved, she was on my list of roses to take but she had sort of become 5 interconnected large plants over the years and digging her out seemed impossible so I left her behind and now I am sad. I will have to order a replacement for next year. She was always the rose that I just had to stop and bury my nose in when I was in the yard. :-)
Anne

Looks good. Don't chain link fences become beautiful when they are covered in roses?

Folly

lisa h,
Your Gertrude looks beautiful tied to the fence! Nice job! How does it look in October?

Hi Lisa did GJ repeat ok for you later in the year? All I get from it so far is a good spring flush and nothing else. :(

I don't remember another big flush. I'll try to remember to keep an eye on it this year. Either way, I like it tied to the fence because otherwise it just looks like a wild octopus!

Just lovely! Gertie is one of my favorite roses, if only for its scent.

dani, I would stretch the first long canes arcing low on the fence and later ones just above, etc., until the fan covers the fence. Canes allowed to grow straight up will not bloom much. GJ's thorns are absolutely vicious, so you do want to keep her away from traffic.

Yes, the thorns make it all sorts of fun to tie back, but Michael is right...it keeps them out of the way.

Very beautiful! I just love roses along fences and yours looks to be very happy. I love her blooms, so pretty. I took one of my thorniest roses and put it against my backyard fence to keep annoying neighbors kids from hanging over our fence and messing with my dogs and chickens....problem is I have too much fence and not enough wicked thorny roses.

Beautiful and looks great on the fence. I heard and read about GJ thorns. Can't be much worst than other thorny roses.

Update II: Someone "liked" one of my comments, so it brought this back up to me. I have removed this rose. It was only pretty for a few weeks and then it was just an ugly, thorny bush. Last fall I finally had enough and dug it up. I was sad. When it is pretty, it is gorgeous. Oklahoma is a tough place to grow roses. I had to take out two Fairy roses this spring due to RRD. I have other roses nearby, I hope, hope, hope they aren't infected as well.

It wasn't for me. It might have to do with our very hot summers.

I love this rose. Yours is beautiful! I had 3 before, lost them to the cold winter. I ordered 3 more for this spring from Hortico. They repeated here in zone 6a.

I liked to see praise of chain-link fences, since my garden is surrounded with them and we can't afford (or don't want) to spend big bucks to change them. I have hung some horizontal snow fencing on them to give a little more airy, see-through privacy, I want to be friendly and open but not too friendly and open. Am waiting patiently for climbers to decorate them. So far, the rose that is doing the best job is the single-flowered Pendleton musk, Kathleen. This is a fantastic rose, a sleeper that would be a good candidate for "if I could have just one."

I am a big fan of chain link fences! My neighborhood was built in the 50's and most of the houses have chain link. When I am working in my yard is just about the only time I see my neighbors. I use my chain link to grow passionvines and other vines now.

However, when my neighbor's pit bulls used to charge me, tall wooden fences did cross my mind!

I have roses trained on chainlink fences in the back yard -- the part of the garden I call the Fence Roses. Our fence is black and it almost disappears from view. A neighbor has green and his stands out vividly; black is much less noticeable. Ours is an 8 foot fence to keep the deer and other wildlife out and the dogs in. I do make sure that I prune the heavier roses every year. For example Rambling Rector could probably pull it down over time if left to grow unchecked. Most of the other roses are less of an issue.

Rosefolly

As for Gertrude Jeckyll, younger plants of GT tend to be pretty much once bloomers. However as they mature they are more likely to repeat. They will never be continuous bloomers, or anything like that, but you will get some repeat after several years. It is true that I live in a gentler climate than Lisa does, but if I recall accurately, Niels also had some repeat, and Lisa lives in a gentler climate than he does. Well, maybe not. I was thinking Ohio, but Lisa lives in Oklahoma. The deep midwest has an extreme climate, as I understand. I've never lived there myself.

I've had other roses that behaved this way -- Pierre de Ronsard (Cl Eden) being one. As young plants they are essentially once bloomers. As time goes on they develop some remontancy.

Rosefolly

Rosefolly, Oklahoma has wild swings, which can be pretty hard on things. Our winters are generally milder than most, although we can get below zero. We are cold enough we can grow peonies, if that helps! But we have already had a string of 80 plus degree days since January. However, I think it is the summers and drought that are so tough. Some years we can have 100 plus degree days for weeks on end and no rain. Then some years we get enough rain and have mild summers where we think we have landed in clover! That doesn't happen often, but it is treasured when it does.

rosefolly, i HATE my silver chain link fences, was considering painting them green but am going to try black as per your description!

I learned by accident that gertrude responds well to a severe pruning. when I grew her in pa, i cut her back by 1/3 after each flush and got 3 flushes of bloom. If I left her alone, She was pretty much a once bloomer.