I have seen eye hooks used for this purpose, but I hate to see you drill holes into your brickwork. I would probably construct a metal trellis that could be driven into the ground and attached to the wooden eaves at the top. You could paint it white to match your iron work, or dark to hide it.
Renee

From what I've read in DIY stuff, I think it's okay to drill into the mortar between the bricks, just not into the bricks themselves.

That icky white iron work is on its way out pretty soon. I haven't decided what I'm replacing it with, but it's rusted at the bottom and it's pretty wobbly. I've used copper on all the solar lights & rain chains, so a copper structure wouldn't look bad. The problem is that the structure would need to be 30 feet tall, and I don't have any wooden eaves at the top---just the vinyl soffit.

AT the Chicago botanical garden they have a brick wall with eye hooks in the mortar and wires between the eyehooks. The roses are attached to the wires. On the wires they added a turnbuckle, which makes the wire length adjustable so that it can be tightened to be perfectly straight. It looks neat and clean that way.

Hi there. I had a similar dilemma and didn't want to ruin the look of a brick wall with strategic drilling into the mortar and having to string eyelets throughout (although I did that with another portion of wood fencing and it worked out brilliantly) so I resorted to drilling at the top of the wall which had wood attached at the very top and I used that to drill nails in it then I attached a 1x1 at the base of the brick and drilled nails into that wood in the same location and then used garden wire to run the wire horizontally from one portion of wood to the next (vertically) then I attached wire at about 1 foot increments across - all the way up in an effort to make squares which the rose could attach to and through. Much to my absolute delight it worked like a charm. Was probably more work than necessary but it worked to cover that portion of the brick wall I wanted covered without the plant sprawling in every direction and without me having to drill into the mortar. I find it much easier to drill through wood than mortar anyway (but I'm lazy and know with the right drill and drill bit it's a breeze - I just wasn't going to make it a drawn out project for myself).

Of course, it [the rose] does continue to sprout tentacles in the opposite direction at times but they're much easier to control as it's just a quick snip as opposed to fighting the multitude of spiny branches that were once going in a thousand directions.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Julie

I'm with the camp that suggests building a trellis to suit the space and then attaching the trellis at a few strategic points to the wall. L-brackets work very well for this purpose, since they can be properly secured and also hold the trellis away from the wall for good air circulation. It's what a "plan" to do for some of my climbing things, like roses and clematis on the front of my brick-faced house.

My husband built me a large trellis in the backyard, out of cattle panels spray-painted black. Looks very nice, and complements the original black railings on the house.

Aha.....good suggestions & I'm seeing what I need to do a little more clearly. My current effort looks silly & doesn't provide clearance from the brick wall, so I'm probably developing a nightmare situation for disease. Gotta fix that toute-de-suite.

I think I also need to find some anchors. DH stuck the screws in the wall unanchored, and they just fall right out with the slightest tug. Ugh.

Getting down behind the rose to anchor a board is going to be a tall order, as is trying to attach anything up near the soffit. My DH & I are both afraid of heights. I like the garden wire idea, but I think that's likely to be an "I'm not gonna do it---you do it!" situation.

The only thing about the trellis is that I was really hoping for something that was mostly invisible....and I know I'll never get the DH to make one. I'm currently working on rain barrels, a loft for our daughter, and restaining the kitchen cabinets (that's in my spare time, when I decide I have meddled quite enough in the garden) and I'm probably in danger of being involuntarily relocated to the nearest Best Western if I start one more project.

So....what is this miraculous garden wire? I've never heard of it until now. Can I simply weave the flexible canes in & out of it, or do I need to wrap the canes to protect them from rubbing on the wire? I'm thinking I may be able to get the DH up on that ladder if I threaten to withhold red meat for a week.
---Laura

There is a more basic question that seldom is asked: is your topsoil deep enough to support the multi-story growth that you're asking of this rose?

I have found that the ultimate height of a rose depends on how much of it makes it through winter, how much food including water it gets when it wants it, and will the roots get long enough to support the tall growth that you want?

Bonsai'd plants are small because they are kept root bound. Roses often are limited by their supporting soils. But if the rose is bound on one side by a massive house and maybe on the other by a sidewalk, the final size will be limited.

Some roses get huge because their roots work better than other roses. Mme Hardys that I've seen in an eastern cemetery weren't more than five feet tall. That's in eastern red clays, not in great top soils.

Your results will probably vary.

Yes, it's well fed, watered, and has plenty of soil to support the growth. It has canes exceeding 10 feet right now that are flopping forward because I don't have it properly supported. I've been cutting her back every week because she looks gangly and lopsided, and if I let her spread outwards, getting in the front door past the thorns is a real issue. No dieback in winter, she's several years old, and a true octopus.
When we moved in, I had no roses and didn't know what she was. I actually cut her down to the roots in the fall of 2008 because it was a gangly eyesore that we couldn't walk past up the front stairs. By May of 2009, she was six feet tall again & bloomed like a monster.

Lol, kinda like my poor Zephrine Drouihin? I have nearly the same problem with her, except I have slightly more space to deal with. I intend to install some anchored wire because it will be nearly invisible against out stone entryway...but it is one of those things that always gets put on the back burner. Then I get fed up with my leggy, floppy rose and decide that I am going to dig her up. Then she blooms. *sigh*

Hehe...exactly! Except mine's a once-bloomer. Looks like we need to have an Illinois wire-hanging party, huh?

Uhmmmm...Madame Hardy is a once-a-year bloomer; Flarabunda are you saying it blooms more than once a year?

She's also a shrub rose, not a climber in any description I've ever seen and shouldn't go much over 6 feet in Illinois. Any chance it's something else? There is an English Rose, Fair Bianca, that looks identical when it blooms but its supposed to be even shorter...2-3 feet so I don't suppose that's correct.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Musings

Flaurabunda said: "Except mine's a once-bloomer"

Nothing wrong with trellising a non-conformer, I suppose. :o)

PS, peeked at your blog, enjoyed what I read so far! Wanted to say: 1) I always regretted giving away a Carefree Beauty after I saw how fantastically it performed for a neighbor and 2) there are many fans of cemetery roses here on the forum, particularly in the Antique Roses section. You will be in good company!

Ah yes. Those evil wall-rooting roses. They love the lime in the mortar, and suck it right out of the wall.

That's hilarious about the brick rose advice....sometimes it'd be nice to have a rose that climbs that easily! And thanks for clearing up the once blooming question...I wasn't following the conversation well. Also thanks to greenhaven for the kind words about the blog. Something I'm trying out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Musings

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