I have just about the size arbor you are speaking about and I have climbing Aloha on one side and a Clematis on the other. Neither gets so bushy that you can't walk through the middle (some perennial vines/roses would). Aloha has all the qualities you like (disease resistance, fragrant, full flowered) and doesn't grow too tall for the arbor. BUT it does have thorns. However, my arbor is not used as a major entryway, so I can't think how it might do for the casual visitor who won't be thinking thorns when dashing through it.

I really like all the suggestions so far. Viking Queen is a lovely colour and a climber which is hardy to my zone is a rare thing! Compassion is an even more spectacular colour, and I like that the descriptions say it bushes out from the base so you get blooms all the way up! Climbing Pinkie also sounds like a great rose, especially the nearly thornless part, which is perfect for an archway over a gate. No comments for Penny Lane or Galway Bay? Not too commonly grown, perhaps? Are there any OGRs that would climb and could survive my zone? I know there are some climbing bourbons, but they seem borderline hardy up here, and the climbing ones are even more delicate (or so I've heard).

Sorry to say that any normal-ish climbing rose in unsuited to this situation. Once it gets going, it will make shoots 8-10' long that are too stiff to wrap on a lamppost. Maybe you have a stretch of fence 15' wide where you can grow Compassion, a very nice rose.

Here are some others not to forget: Griffeth Buck Vernon Rickard Paul Barden I don't believe Americans are dissinterested in things that were not invented here. We seem to be quite fond of things with European names like Krupps, Braun, and all those other coffee makers. We eat tons of ethnic food. Lots of us are tourists. When the Beatles came out many of us became Anglophiles and a lot of us still think the English cottage garden is the ultimate. We are a country full of appreciative people, IMO. I have never noticed anyone not wanting to buy a rose because it was bred by a non-AMerican. Excuse me for digressing. Anyway even with it's flaws I bet I could really enjoy looking at that book, Devon. I usually check the big Botanica's out from the library but have my easy to hold paperback copy which I enjoy. My library also has The Rose Bible and Antique Roses for the South, both of which were responsible for a number of roses in my garden. Linda