Lesley - I haven't had that much experience with climbers, but I do have a couple I really like. Dublin Bay has been a really good one for me. It has a nice spring flush and this year it had at least a few blooms all season. Mine are a nice shade of red, they always look pretty. One downside is that mine is not fragrant, I do love fragrant roses. it is a good rose and it seems to be fairly disease resistant. Aloha is a nice pink one. Mine has a heavy spring flush and blooms intermittently during the season. It has a lovely fragrance. It does seem to me when we've had a lot of rain my Aloha blooms don't look that great, but under the right conditions they are gorgeous. Not sure it would get as tall as you would like though. I have a picture of some Dublin Bay blooms for you to get an idea.

I agree with Sara--Dublin Bay is a nice red, fairly good disease-resistance, and has some repeat bloom periodically throughout the summer. Bad news is that, like most climbers I've grown, the repeat is sporadic--not very reliable or strong.

Based on my experience, the repeat problem is common among climbers. Maybe it also relates to how long the climber has been growing in your garden--I think maybe you need to wait about 5 years to get it really going. In fact, the only decent repeater I ever grew was Golden Showers--which I had for 15-20 years, but didn't really repeat good at all until the last few years when I started paying it special attention and watering it more. (It got RRD--wouldn't you know it, just when I got that baby performing well!)

I think St. Swithun will need a few extra years to perform well too. (I had it briefly--another victim of RRD).

I am presently growing The Pilgrim--which hasn't done a lot its first year, but the blooms are gorgeous. Same is true, I'm told, about Teasing Georgia, which has more color than the more pastel Pilgrim (or so I am told). Like St. Swithun, I expect to wait 5 years to get something really good in terms of repeat bloom.

I used to grow Viking Queen which was somewhat more ready to bloom and seemed quite promising on that score. However, the blooms were not as lovely as the Austin blooms.

I have an order in for Spring for the hybrid multiflora Ghislaine de Feligonde---which I'm excited about. Entirely different look, but I'm already anticipating that it won't be a strong rebloomer--or so the comments would lead me to believe.

My Eden climber was one of the most gorgeous bloomers you could have, but not strong on rebloom.

That's about it for my experience with climbers. I usually concentrate on finding disease-resistant climbers under 12 feet (for my pillars). All the above climbers are reasonably bs-resistant. I also run a clematis up each pillar--to give me a bit more bloom to pick up the slack when the roses are in no hurry to rebloom.

Hope that helps.

Kate

I had Golden Showers for 20 years, and it repeated with a lot of bloom faithfully every 6 weeks as long as it was dead headed. If not, it would take 8-9 weeks. Grew in partial shade happily too, and is rated for zones 3 through 10! If you like yellow, I would recommend it.

Jackie

So many shrubs, that can be anchored to meet your mannerly climber repeat needs. I grow Don Juan, generous gardener, Jeanne la joie, climbing Abe Darby, Dortmund, golden celebration, golden showers, teasing Georgia, harlequin, angel face climbing, SDLM. Any good shrub or rose with the correct upright narrow habit could be used. I wish alchemist and 3 weddings were repeaters. And Kate, I also have GdF on order for spring. Excited! And I love my new dawn and Eden too. And awakening.

How about Kordes Aloha Hawaii. This is the first year but the fall blooms are like Austin's flowers.

Is the kordes a repeater? I want it. It is gorgeous!!

I can't say much for mine, which came as a band in Spring 2013, but I picked 'Orfeo' based upon a few good reviews. And I say "a few" not because it got a lot of bad ones, but because not many people seem to grow it -- but those who do, love it. Mine hasn't bloomed yet (which isn't surprising), but it has grown very well. If the canes weren't wrapped around a tree trunk, I'd estimate they reached at least 6' before the rose went to sleep for Winter.

:-)

~Christopher