njmomma, I was going to mention white "Maman Cochet" until I saw which zone you lived in. If I understand you correctly, you can only buy one plant, which would mean it would need to grow to be c. 20 feet tall so it could grow up, over, and down the other side of the pergola. I've never grown "Deuil de Dr. Reynaud" but its the type of Bourbon I love, rose-pink bordering on cerise, showing a luxerious plushness of bloom. la brea: 3 questions about your rose - how healthy is your "Deuil de Dr. Reynaud"?, must you spray it? -how big does it get? -what type of fragrance does it have? It is said to be floriferous and fragrant, which would get my vote for a pergola. njmomma, I've searched for D. de Dr. R" , it is presently available from roguevalleyroses.com, if you decide on buying one. There is a modern climber that I love because it has a more natural bloom style than a typical modern H.T. and reminds me somewhat of the Old Garden Tea named "Anna Olivier" but it is more cold hardy, it's called "Autumn Sunset" and it re-blooms better than any other modern climber that I've ever seen, in shades of apricot, pink and yellow and buff-tan. Hortico often sells it. Like many climbers, it takes 3 years (sometimes 4) to reach its full size which in your climate zone could be c. 20 feet tall. Luxrosa

I have both Eden and White Eden in pots planted in the ground. They are doing well, going into their second year and have bloomed better than the ones in the ground without a pot. I think it might deter the voles for a longer period of time. Not sure what the deal is,but I saw one here a few years ago growing wildly beautiful in a pot, in the ground and chose to try it. So far, so good, but less than two years. Incidentally, for those who like Eden, White Eden is a must-have to combine with it. It blooms more frequently and is a gorgeous white.

Hi everybody My holiday home in Portugal gets a little damp, is there an indoor plant that could help that might absorb the moisture... bearing in mind it wont be watered for periods of up tp 2 months, needs to be a large one Thanks

I'd definitely agree, go with Illusion among those two choices, particularly in zone 6. I haven't been able to get Crimson Sky to overwinter in zone 5 and even if it survives in zone 6 it's not likely to be a climber. Also, $59 is an insanely expensive price to pay for a rose - we could do better than that. For instance, Regan's sells Crimson Sky for under $20, though they're done with bareroot sales for this year. An alternative to Illusion that blooms a lot more often for me is Quadra, and it would be rock solid hardy for you and pretty trouble free. Both Quadra and Illusion are available from Hortico for $17.99 plus shipping, and those are bareroot grafted roses that give the rose a little head start toward settling in to be a climber. Roses Unlimited also carries Illusion, and a gallon sized plant is a bit bigger than a band-sized plant, though both will grow fine. Those would be own-root plants, where there isn't a graft and the same rose would regrow if you have to cut it back to the ground (shouldn't be necessary with both of these latter two roses). Here is Illusion on one side of my front yard in a good year - the trouble is it only does this about 3 times a year at best so there are times it's just green. A more reliable bloomer most of the season for me is Quadra, which is at the other end of my house in similar conditions. Quadra will have some rest periods, but it looks like this off and on all summer. Both of these roses are healthy and hardy, though any rose takes some pruning out of dead wood periodically. Both are also toward the crimson side of red rather than "fire engine red", which applies to a whole lot of red roses frankly. Do remember that any climber takes about 3-4 years to fully settle in, so don't expect either one to look like this in its first couple of years. You want a climber to put on growth and build cane structure in the first few years, and blooms are secondary considerations at first. Also be sure to use something to tie the canes to a climbing structure (they don't hang on themselves like clematis does) and do your best to train as many of the biggest canes to bend sideways or horizontally, so that the blooming canes or "laterals" stretch upward from those initial sideways canes. Otherwise you can get blooms just at the tips of those main canes and not all along the way. You can see a cane bending sideways for Quadra in the photo above toward the right side of the arch, and that cane itself isn't blooming until the laterals that branch off it are growing. Hope this helps! Cynthia