Hi,

First of all, I am new to roses - looking forward to see what I can do!

I have a back fence along my property that is part sun/shade and was looking for a climber. Earlier this summer I bought a couple of Zephirine Drouhin roses to see how they would survive in this spot. After a slow start, they are growning rapidly, now's the time to start training them. Here's a partial picture of a different section of the fence, it's an old photo so you don't see the roses but I think you get the picture. The fence is 8' tall:

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I have a bunch of galvanized wire and eye lags so what I'm thinking of doing is screwing in the eye lags and stringing the wire through the eye. I can make many horizontal runs of wire (up to 8' tall) and train the roses as they continue to grow.

My questions are:

- How low to the ground do you think the first row of wire should be? Should I start near ground level or higher?

- What distance between horizontal rows would you recommend? I would think that no less than a couple of inches, but that seems to close. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Bob