It wouldn't be right for me to recommend roses to you, as I'm a long way off... but I think it might be alright to tell you what I wouldn't put on a white picket fence, and that is white/creamy coloured roses like Ghislaine de Feligonde and Generous Gardener... GdeF, although starting out a rich apricot with yellow/orange tones, quickly fades to creamy white... and GG is blush white in colour... I don't think these would show up their best against a white fence...
..however, what I will say about Ghislaine is that it is very long flowering in my garden... I still have flowers on it right now...

..I'm not familiar with your other suggestions, but I would choose rich pinks and crimsons for a fence like yours...
..see what you think about that... happy choosing...

Have you considered how you will keep the fence painted?

Since I have a ridiculous amount of white picket fence to deal with. My suggestion is to tie your roses only to the front or back of your fencing so you can slip between the rose and the fence to maintain

I would check ask about hardiness on your choices. I am in SoCal but am about to put ALMD on my fence and have cl Yellow Sweetheart both of which I love

I think it's probably a good idea to stay away from the whites and creams. Good point!

I had considered the painting issue... Another reason why 'Awakening' may not be ideal since it has awful thorns to deal with. Kippy how far from the fence do you plant your roses? Would you be able to post a picture of how you go about doing this? I imagine many of them will grow over the top and cascade down the other side.

ALMD and Cl. Yellow Sweetheart seem perfect being nearly thornless, but hardiness may be a concern. I wonder how they both are with blackspot?

-Chris

Annie Laurie would be great if she will take your winters. Take a look at Peggy Martin.

'Yellow Sweetheart, Climbing' defoliates from blackspot for me once or twice during the season, but keeps blooming and growing regardless. If you're unsure about 'ALMD', consider its parent 'Renae', which is also thornless. You could also try 'Reine des Violettes' if you're looking for thornless, as well as 'Zephirine Drouhin'.

Or, you could go with once-blooming ramblers, and tuck some Clematis between them for color after the roses bloom. If you choose ramblers carefully, you can get a succession of bloom times -- I think I remember Hartwood Roses posting about ramblers on a fence, and bloom times for the various types.

As far as Clematis -- Type 2s will have their first bloom alongside rose-season, pause during the hottest part of Summer, and resume when temperatures cool in August. They'd probably do best BETWEEN ramblers. Type 3s will start blooming just after the roses finish, going until the end of Summer. Since they do best when hard-pruned every year, you can have them actually growing into the roses -- just cut them back hard when you prune the roses in early Spring.

:-)

~Christopher

http://hartwoodroses.blogspot.com/2010/05/rambler-fence.html

http://hartwoodroses.blogspot.com/2012/05/rambler-fence-approaching-full-bloom.html

http://hartwoodroses.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-prune-and-train-ramblers.html

This is probably not what you're interested in, but my inclination would be to plant a hedge instead of climbers, mainly because of ease of maintenance, although I suppose there would be more pruning. I would choose two or three complementary roses in terms of color, size and appearance of the flowers and plant them in sequence all along the fence. You would probably have a much wider choice of roses that would fit your needs.

Ingrid

Catsrose, thank you for the 'Peggy Martin' recommendation. I'm not familiar with that one, but will look into it.

Christopher, thanks for the clematis planting tips. I'm sorry to hear that 'Yellow Sweetheart, Climbing' isn't disease resistant. It looks like such a pretty rose, but I hate the sight of a defoliated plant, so will scratch it off my list.

Ingrid, I'm starting to lean towards that idea. It seems like a fence covered in climbers will just be too troublesome to maintain over the long term. I may just plant one climber, since I really want to try 'ALMD', and then plant smaller shrubs down the rest of the length along with perennials. There are some newer Austin roses, that are supposed to be more disease resistant, that I'd like to try like 'Munstead Wood' and 'Princess Anne'.

Thanks again!
-Chris

Chris, ALMD has been growing at a truly glacial pace in my garden; I don't think it's even a foot tall after about a year and a half. It could just be me; I think others have had better luck.

Ingrid

Ingrid, not sure if it helps, but I got an ALMD. She definitely likes more shade than sun, a bit extra water and some really good soil. Mine has put out a few new canes in the past couple of months and I think wants a bigger pot, she is in a 5g now.

Maybe potting yours up in some fresh potting soil will help?

Chris, I forgot your question

I put the climbers on my picket fence out about 12" but I can tell you that is too close for such a vigorous climber. These three are in the back yard and if you looked you would see the canes are all on the inside of the fence, just some of the leaves and flowers poking through. To paint, my plan is to untie anything still tied and slip cardboard between it and the fence and then paint the fence with a long napped roller from the other side.

For the front yard, I too fell in love with the much shard photo of the white picket fence and the pink roses with the purple plants in front. Only I am going to use a pretty pink single of Kim's that should make a nice sized shrub rose and can poke the pink blooms through the fence. I planted Lavenders already. The last time I painted that fence, I used the sprayer and cardboard, it had a different vine on it then.

I think a nice shrub rose would make more sense, especially for that point the fence needs paint. You can paint when you prune and have nice access. I have used HT any place I might need to drastically prune something for access.

They now make white picket fences in vinyl, so painting it wouldn't be a problem.

as noted.. the issue is the fence.. not the roses ..

wood rots ... especially.. once you tie greenery to it ...

so.. either go vinyl .... the price will be paid back.. over the decades in maintenace problems avoided ...

or.. if you insist on wood.. which will need to be painted every few years.. figure out how to grow the plants .. but be able to remove them.. for painting.. this would include planting them.. far enough away to enable maintenance ... [unless you have a pain tolerance.. to stand in a rambling rose bush and paint lathe work ..]

the problem.. is all these fancy martha stewart type books/pic.. fail to mention the 20 gardeners.. they have.. to do all the work ...

work smart.. not hard ...

once you figure out that issue.. the plant selection.. is to your whim.. live your dream ....

ken

Kippy, I have ALMD in a good place as far as shade is concerned but the poor soil might be the problem. The other day I put soil amendment on all the roses (with my husband helping quite a bit). I may add more after the rain and see if it brings added improvement. I'm not good with pots and so would rather leave it in the ground but if it doesn't do better by spring I will repot it.

Ingrid

Chris,

A neighborâÂÂs lawn mower guy kept clipping off any cane that was on the owners side of our fence (owner agreed to having them there) so I moved them back about 18 inches. To do that I installed 3 foot high 4 x 4 posts with a hole drilled close to the top. Ran a stiff wire through the holes and pulled everything tight. My Zeffy climbers can now expand outward as they grow down the wire. Once the roses reach maturity itâÂÂs going to be hard to paint that fence. Here is a shot of them on top of a chain length fenceâ¦â¦

I have a long board fence in front of my house which matches my horse fencing. I have let it weather rather than painting it and it looks fine. The fence is a good distance from the house. I have roses, both climbing and shrub, along the fence. Since no painting is involved, the only maintenance other than the roses is keeping the grass from growing along the fenceline - the roses are well mulched, still working on mulching under the fence. I have all colors - pale, bright, pinks, yellows, apricots. Makes a beautiful show when blooming. All colors look good on the fence. I would definitely opt for the vinyl fence. If I had to paint around some of these roses [Prairie Princes, Chuckles and New Dawn come to mind] I would be scratched to pieces, not to mention the daunting task of pulling the canes back.

Ken quoted one of my favorite sayings - work smart, not hard. Enough hard work to do even if you do work smart around my place! There are many kinds of fences, surf the web and look around - I particularly like the old fashioned loop wire, hard to find, but lovely. I would rather spend more time with the roses than painting a fence - which will need to be done fairly frequently, especially white. I have a horse farm - at another farm, we had all white painted fences. I swore when I moved I would not make that mistake again, since I don't have swarms of helpers.

Even if you do put pale colors on a white fence, you can have colorful annuals or clematis at their feet to liven up the color. So many possibilities!! Have fun!
Judith

I think y'all are visualizing trying to paint in the spring or summer on a fully leafed out, growing, blooming plant. Remember you would plan to paint the fence in February (at least around here) right when you've done your spring pruning and when you would normally train a climbing rose.

At pruning time you've got a handful of leaf-less main canes on which the laterals have all been pruned to 8" or so. Un-attach the mane canes from the attachment points on the front of the fence. (DO NOT allow any mane canes to grow through the fence! Laterals are fine to grow through the fence for the look you want--they get pruned off anyway.) Use a big piece of cardboard to slide between the canes and the fence and use a roller to roll it. Let dry, re-attach mane canes.

It's probably a bit of work, but seems a completely do-able project to me that would result in significant rewards. I'll let you know in a year of so. In the mean time, I'll have pictures to post of a heartbreakingly beautiful Rev d'Or on a white picket fence.

I would choose smaller climbing roses with a mannerly growth habit rather than any of the thorny, big house eaters. I once saw a fence planted with a series of Don Juan roses that was quite stunning. I know, they are not old roses; but surely we can come up with some well behaved, high contrast roses for your fence.

And I agree. Prune, drape tarp over the roses, then paint. And don't let major canes grow through the fence. This all seems do-able to me.

Lots of good tips here! And lovely picture Toolbelt! Does anyone else have pics to share of their fences? Do yourself a favor and google image search "rose picket fence".
-Chris

You can see how this rose, Janet-in need of some pruning by the way, is leaning on and sneaking through the pickets, but most of the plant is on the inside

The picket fence hides a hand rail, the rail is what you see on the front, for mom for just in case she needs it