Zone 4 is difficult... (is it the North Pole?) Anyway, in my milder climate, Kordes roses worked well for me. Maybe with some protection: 1) Dortmund: Individual flowers may not be extremely handsome, but the entire effect is impressive. 2) Rosarium Uetersen: although not really red (but rather a dark pink, or "coral red") it is a beauty! (These two come with the added bonus of being disease resistant as well). This post was edited by mikeber on Mon, Apr 15, 13 at 22:53

The best climbing rose I have is Reve d'Or. It's an apricot rose, light colored. But it grows fast, blooms a lot and is the most disease resistant rose I have. I have it combined with a clematis that is a darker red color, I can't remember the name off the top of my head. If you don't mind spraying, Don Juan is an excellent very red climber.

Eden has stiff canes similar to William Baffin, the best I could do was train it at a 45 degree angle , I think it was too stiff to do anything else with. Darlows Enigma is a hardy shrub/climber for me, hardy to the tips. Starts blooming for me around this time with dark red new foliage. Repeat bloomer, sets hips for winter interest, very fragrant but probably the worst thorns ever. The blooms are single and white. Another very hardy climber for me is Seafoam, this rose will do whatever you want it too do. Starts blooming around now and goes well into the fall,no fragrance but that's OK because it has exceptionally healthy,dark foliage. The blooms are white, a little pink in thefall. I have another hardy rambler called Ghislaine de Feligonde. This reblooms for me, if I deadhead. Some people on the forum says theirs repeats and others say theirs doesn't. This thing is a MONSTER for me, and hardy to the tips even after this last winter. Blooms are yellowish to pink, very pretty. As far as structures go, they are always iffy for me. Eventually the older, thicker canes of the rose are what I tie the new shoots to. For additional color for my once bloomers I either plant clematis, liatris,daises or any tall perennial. Oh I also have Veilchenblau, it has always been hardy to the tips. Young canes are easy to train if you get there soon enough. Once bloomer, but when it blooms there are so many you can't even see the foliage. Orange hips in the fall, leaves turn a nice yellow than as well. Semi double blooms, every shade of purple, will get as large as you let it. It's practically thornless. Honestly winter protection is a gamble for me, some people bury the canes in the winter, I did this once and the rose got canker. It's just too much trouble. If I had a rose I loved with questionable hardiness, I would plant it close to the house where it would not be subject to northern winds.

Heavens Moses, I appreciate the complements and confidence but I'd hate to have anyone assume whatever I say about roses is necessarily true or going to apply everywhere else. First of all, I still screw up regularly and sometimes spectacularly, and it can take me an embarrassingly long time to figure out why. For instance, I've discovered that what I've treated for many years as my zone 6 pocket on the south side of my house drops off in zones pretty dramatically after the edge of the house, and a lot of the roses I've claimed for years aren't hardy in my yard may actually be just fine if I planted them a foot or two to the west. Also, everyone that has chimed in on this thread and other similar threads has different input that is all both useful and true, even on occasions that we present opposite viewpoints. We reflect our own growing conditions, care and priorities, and it's in the variety and mix of all of the above that we're hoping to be useful to rose growers around the world. I simply can't overwinter New Dawn in several tries, but other zone 5 gardeners with New Dawn with the size and temperament of Tyrannosaurus Rex are astonished, and correct that it should grow fine in our zone. I don't use landscape fabric and counsel others on the tremendous headaches it can cause, but I've seen lovely postings of people with roses surrounded by landscape fabric and stone mulch that works fantastically for them. I think Carol has captured the essence of the question from Sue - she already has these roses, probably from local sources, and she's hoping to keep them alive since she's been justifiably frustrated in the past. By all means winter protection is an option and we all have our favorite methods that we have suggested. A better idea of your location and way of growing the roses will help us give you more specific suggestions for saving these climbers. You can pick whichever sounds like the least work to you, we're just reminding you not to get too frustrated if those methods don't work for the particular roses you have. Most garden stores sell what's well known rather than what's hardy or otherwise good for our zones, so that's why we're also giving you advice for the future about how to be less frustrated next year if your protection methods don't work for these roses. Of course if they do work, we welcome having you log in and tell all of us "experts" that our advice doesn't apply to you and you have a better strategy. We are happy to be wrong if it means that you're successful in growing roses the way you'd like to do. Cynthia