here is an additional picture I took today on an overcast day....

Dear All, I am posting again hoping that someone will have advice for me and post it! Thank you so so much! Nina

Hi Nina,
Your rooftop garden will be so beautiful. I remembered seeing a rooftop garden by one of the member in Brugmansia forum and I was totally amazed! But I found him at http://allthingsplants.com/users/profile/GordonHawk/

I am in Southern Cal. and so my climate is different than yours. I hope you will find all the answers to create your dream garden.

Kasie

Does it get all that cold in NYC in winter? Isn't there a "heat island" effect? Look at the NYT article on this other thread, and check with that garden--they'll probably have some excellent suggestions.

Here is a link that might be useful: thread on NYC rose grower

Hi Nina and welcome to the forum. Being from Southern California I can't give any practical advice and my thoughts are only suppositions. I would think that a rose in your climate would freeze much more easily in a container than it would in the ground. I wonder though whether you could insulate the containers with a thick layer of some kind of packing during the winter to keep them and the roses warmer. The fact that the roses are not out in the open might also help to keep things warmer. If you like cabbage-looking roses then I'd suggest that instead of New Dawn you consider its sport Awakening, which has more petals and I think is prettier. Viking Queen is also a beautiful rose for cooler climates. I wish you luck!

Ingrid

Hi Nina, Welcome to the wonderful world of roses! Your pergola is beautiful.

I am in zone 6 NJ, and grow quite a few roses in containers. You are probably in zone 7, so it should work well for you (although I would be a little concerned that a roof-top garden might be a little windy?) In general, I try to only use very hardy roses in containers (like Frontenac), but I do grow 2 climbers in containers, Karlsrhue and Polka, and I don't think they are necessarily particularly hardy below my zone, 6. I have done this for at least 5 years, and have been successful. So, it certainly can be done!

I would, however, suggest that you protect them a bit. I protect my containers by mounding straw around them, and then wrapping them with burlap or an old blanket. I also usually protect the upper growth, just so I don't lose too much growth to die-back, although as the climbers get bigger, the tops of the plants are left exposed.

Viking Queen is an excellent suggestion for cold climates, and very full and lovely looking. I grow and love Eden, too (although I grow both VQ and Eden in the ground, not containers.) VQ in particular can get quite big and thorny! Eden not so much. You also mentioned New Dawn - another lovely rose, but also big and thorny. Anyway, I think its well worth experimenting with! A good source might be Pickering in Canada. However, if I were you I think I'd wait til next spring. It might be a little risky to start container growers in the fall!

Best of luck, look forward to seeing pictures of your rose-covered pergola!

Frances

Dear Frances, Ingrid, hoovb and Kasie! Thank you so so very much for your insightful responses! I have carefully and enthusiastically read all your wonderful advice and feel so warm on the inside filled with hope that I too will soon have the gift of wonderful roses for my special place!
All your suggested flowers are beautiful!
I have collected two photos I fell in love with I would like to share with you! I do not own the photos or copyrights to them and I hope the gifted gardeners will be okay for me putting them on here.
Ingrid, thank you for suggesting Awakening, it looks beautiful!!
Covering the containers in blankets will certainly be doable! So I am browsing through climbers and ramblers hardy to zone 4 and 5 because of the cold in the containers!
Frances, your post makes my heart sing!
Dear Kasie, I am looking for the photo you found, maybe tonight I will get lucky browsing your link, thank you so much!
I will now put up pictures I saw that I especially like!
Do you have photos of your roses? I would love to see them! They fascinate and inspire me!
All the Best, Nina

I also love this photo so much taken from a book I saw online! SUCH BEAUTY!!

I just read this about Awakening: "Awakening is like something out of Sleeping Beauty, where giant brambles grew over the entire castle to protect it from intruders while everybody slept for a hundred years. Its main canes are the thickness of a spade handle and covered with huge, bloodthirsty thorns."
My life reads like a fairy tale so I am instantly attracted to this lovely flower :-)))

And if I may share another picture that captivated my heart the moment my hungry eyes met with it! This one looks like my ultimate dream!!!

This rose in your last picture has a Beautiful globular form quality alike Eden, also known as pierre de ronsard. perhaps you could look it up on helpmefind.com?
I love I've seen in growing in Sebastopol CA like a beautifil dream! If you are truly in zone 7, maybe you could grow it?

Btw, meant to say your pergola looks amazing.

You also asked about clematis. You could easily grow clematis there, i bet. The one consideration i'd offer is that many mature clematis like to bloom on the top only and left to its own devices you might find you can't see the blooms because they are above the foliage on the top of your pergola. On a land based arbor this is okay because you still see it at the distance.
I suppose If you choose one that blooms on new wood and you regularly cut it back you could remedy this.
Have you considered wisteria? Downside is It can take a loooong time to mature enough to bloom- But it is one of the few vinesi know which blooms on the bottom because the flower hangs.

1. I would be concerned with roses in pots on rooftops. There would have to be some winter protections provided, given that winters in this area have been so variable in the past 5 years.
2. What size container? New Dawn is a beast. It would need a huge container.

You may want to also contact the Manhattan Rose Society. Many of their members grow roses in pots, and would be better resources.

Here is a link that might be useful: Manhattan Rose Society

Given the wooden surface of your rooftop, be sure to give consideration to how those large containers are going to drain. I've grown large containerized plants on decks, and am well aware of the damage and discoloration that can occur as a result -- even on pressure-treated lumber. IMO, it's always a mistake to place saucers under plants being grown outdoors. Elevating the pots on terra cotta "feet" helps somewhat, but is far from an ideal solution. I encourage you to contact others in your area who engage in rooftop gardening to learn how they deal with drainage issues.

Dear lola-lemon, diane_nj and jaxondel!

Thank you so much for your feedback and help! I appreciate it so much!

LOLA: Thank you for the compliment about my Pergola :-) I too see lots of potential in it :-) and am eager to put it to good use! Thank you for recommending helpmefind.com this is a really cool website and I found such beautiful flowers on it! "pierre de ronsard" sounds so pretty already! It still is one of my top favourites! Now I am trying to find out if there is a way I would be able to maybe bring the roses indoor over the winter...at least the first few... I don't know yet. Maybe if I lean trellises up the sides leading to the pergola roof and then take the containers with trellis and roses indoor.
For the Clematis I am lucky because I have another additional roof from which I can see the top of the pergola so it might even ass some extra beauty to have Clematis bloom on the top? I have, and am still considering wisteria, thank you! I have just read so many things of them being such an "aggressive" grower and it made me a little shy away from them! I do love the amethyst one and have read that I could grow these in containers! I wouldn't want to do any harm to a plant so if growing roses which I fell SO IN LOVE WITH would be too risky, Wisteria definitely would be my go to choice! With some lavender close by in other containers :-)

DIANE: thank you so much for the great resource! I have been browsing the Manhattan Rose Society and am thrilled!!
I heard of covering the containers and bottom of the roses with blankets and such over the winter, do you think that would be sufficient?
For the size of containers I could have any size built I would need! I will get in touch with people at the society certainly someone will know!

JAXONDEL: That's a thought I didn't even consider until now! Thank you for making me aware!

the picture shows the view on to the top of the Pergola from the higher roof level:

Wow! That is amazing. How exciting and full of potential.
Bringing anything in wouldnt work because you'd have to cut off the growth on the pergola each year and you'd never get anything over the top in one season.

I know wisteria is apt to be invasive in warmer climes, but if it's in a pot it can't really go anywhere. Plus being potted will probably restrict it's growth generally. They can require pruning (boy, i've seen some big BIG old ones in hot san Jose, ca that harbor giant spiderwebs and look filthy and full of bugs And are practically creepy. But I would guess in new york it would be a long time before you had a monster- if ever- and pllenty of time to train it and keep it tidy.) A bonus is they have such cool gnarled wood out of season.

As for roses, I'd put a rose on an exposed western exposure and let it fill out a wall abd then over the top. You'll get a nice wall display at eye height. If your climate is cold, the viking queen, as suggested by Frances, might indeed be closest to your giant dream rose ideal in a cold climate.

I know you asked for flowers, but here's a different thot: Another cold season vine is kiwi! The male actinidia kolomitka is whitesplashed (they always show pink splashed -- but i never got any pink Before it died in my zone 3 cabin garden). If you plant a male and female you can have fruit.

Which actuallly makes me aleo think- what about an
Espaliered pear? Get a self fruitful kind, of course. And pears have lovely foliage. With fall color.

roof-gardening has it's own special challenges such as the choice of potting material (as lightweight as possible without sacrificing structure), climate (windy exposure) and irrigation. Think of it as a form of extreme gardening. Having said that, what a wonderful start you have made - A lovely space with elegant lines.

Because you will be importing soil, you will be able to choose what you have (instead of making do, like many of us, with belligerent clay or rubbishy stony sand. Have the biggest containers you can get - the bigger the 'pot' the easier it is to maintain moisture, allow for good rooting and can usually lay down a protective mulch between plants, especially when they are young.

My whole garden is a pot garden so I could ramble on at great (tedious) length. There are many roses which would look lovely on your pergola but I would continue to ask advice from local rose people but especially for roses which have an ability to withstand the particular visscitudes of root-top planting.

By the way, grasses, mostly architectural ones such as miscanthus, molinia, stipas, panicums and hakenochloa are your friends - they have style, grace and movement: tremendous plants for this sort of situation.