James I'm sorry I did not see this before. I had Apricot Impressionist but it was not cane hardy here. It can be grown as a shrub here.

I'm hoping that the new breeding in Canada will produce a few vary hardy repeat climbers. There really are very few that do well here. There are of course some pinks that will climb here. I'm trying some new ones that were put in this past spring. These where shorter climbers that can be wrapped on an obelisk. The only true climber that I have right now is Above and Beyond. This is a one time bloomer thou. I also getting Above All but it will be a large shrub here.

Yes if you wish for a true climber that will have surviving cane they must be zone 2,3 or 4.

I have good luck to winterize my zone 5 climbing roses by laying down and covering with leaves (at the right timing of the cold season), if you should go with your choice Apricot Impressionist, and winter protect.

Here is a post from the rose forum where Karl Bapst and a Cynthia from Nebraska talk about winter protection methods.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1716072/principles-of-rose-winter-protection-in-cold-zones?n=9

Here is the Karl Bapst rosenut winter protection method on help me find.

I have improved on zone 5 Karls method over the last ten years and made it easier.

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/ezine.php?publicationID=687&js=0

You are keeping the roses cold.

The recommended method for wintering climbers over in the winter in zone 5. You can lay the long canes on the ground, stake them down, and cover them with at least a foot of whatever you used on the bases of your bushes. Get it all ready and wait until the ground freezes before you cover it to avoid mice and such which will make a winter meal of your canes if you cover them while it's still warm and before the mice have their winter homes all set.

Thank you both for the advice. I agree that I should stick with something more suited for at least zone 4 or even colder. I'm thinking, although I wanted more apricot in the garden to get offset some of the pinks that I already have, I'll use either John Davis or Viking Queen. My past experience with the unpredictable weather in Indiana is that if something needs a lot of winter protection, it's just not the best thing to plant. There's almost always a good alternative and then I'm not too bummed out when a bad winter kills something off.

I love apricot color roses James. If you ever find one that you don't need too spray. Please come back and share the name.

I'll put my two cents in and recommend Colette climber, which is really more an apricot/peach color than a straight pink, as it is commonly described. Colette one of my most cold hardy roses (which isn't relevant to you since I live in zone 7), so you might want to check with Cynthia (Nipstress) in zone 5, Nebraska. She endorses Colette as being very hardy, too. It's a beautiful rose. Diane

Colette

That picture of Colette always gets me! Alas I already have one climber with that "look" which is Eden, planted as a band last year, no blooms yet but did throw up some 3 foot long canes towards the end of the season. Looking forward to some real action this year.

Hey Patty W. zone 5a Illinois, so you have Above and Beyond? You said it is a one time bloomer for you, it is supposed to have some rebloom, so it doesn't for you at all?

Richard my Above and Beyond is too young too tell anything yet. I really am not expecting additional bloom. Sure wouldn't mind if it threw a couple extra blooms in a few years. Seems some of those with scattered re-bloom do so in warmer climates. Who knows but in the mean time I'll enjoy what I get.

I haven't tried it myself, but I've read that wrapping canes with evergreen boughs can help keep them protected over Winter. Looking at your picture, I'm thinking you may have some at your disposal. But since I'm in a warmer zone, see what others in colder climates have to say about that.

:-)

~Christopher

I feel ya Patty, have you seen the pics of it uploaded by David Zleesak, the breeder? It can get HUGE! How old is yours?

It is important to note that roses in zone 5 and colder need winter protection. I strongly suggest when starting out you chose a site with a north wind break such as a south facing wall and if your really lucky west and east windbreaks (garage wall and/or neighboring houses)

It is important to have a windbreak. Also, as Chris mentioned, evergreen bows is a great way to protect.

The extra work consists of 15 to 30 minutes to protect it come fall, and another 15 to 30 minutes in the spring to get it ready for the next growing season.

I just went too look at those photos Richard. My reaction is may be I bit off more than I can chew. I think there will be another move in its future. I do have a dying tree in front. Could put it there if I move everything else out. I'll be thinking on this for a while.

Hi folks

Wow, thanks for the call-out for two previous comments, Samuel's for a thread I started on winter protection ideas and Diane for some of my comments on zone 5 climbers. Samuel is right that protection in zone 5 can increase the amount of surviving cane you have over the winter and either jump start the spring growth or help a marginally hardy rose survive (sometimes). In the case of climbers, you don't want a rose that isn't mostly cane hardy in our zones, since if a rose has to regrow from the roots each spring it's unlikely to get large enough to bloom or cover an arch like you want for a climber.

Having said that, Diane is right that there are plenty of climbers that I have found hardy in zone 5 without winter protection. I'm wayyy too lazy to do the "Minnesota Tip" method of protecting climbers by taking them off the trellis and burying parts in boughs or other materials, and if a climber needs that much protection that still might not be enough to get it to climb and bloom well at the heights you want. Some people also wrap their climbers in burlap for protection, but again that's too much like work for me. If you're on the east coast, you have to be cautious about methods of winter protection since winter moisture can damage the canes as much or more than the winter itself.

To answer your original question, Apricot Impressionist died once years ago over the winter but survived an average winter last year. It wasn't cane hardy though, so I'll need to be growing this one more as a shrub than a climber. There are a few other Apricot climbers that have been cane hardy for me without protection. Polka is a stiff upright climber that's usually tip hardy for me, though not a big climber - the problem in your scenario is that it doesn't easily bend over an arch (very stiff canes) and it only occasionally reblooms. The fluffy apricot blooms are much better than Apricot Impressionist though when they show up. Another apricot-ish climber is Westerland, though it tends more toward the orange. Harryshoe had an absolutely stunning Westerland in Pennsylvania, though mine hasn't gotten that impressive as it's in part shade. Still it survived my zone 4 pocket tip hardy as did its sport Autumn Sunset (more yellow in tone), and those might look nice climbing up each side of your arch that you mention, since they're similar in flower form. Not as fluffy as Polka or AI, but more frequent blooms. The Austin rose Carding Mill will routinely grow to 6 feet or so and mine sort of climbs on a fence nearby, but it's also very stiff and it isn't cane hardy for me in many years, so I doubt I'll ever get more than the 6' of height. Rosarium Uetersen is a coral-pink color quite double that is very hardy for me, and reblooms some with double fluffy flowers.

Diane is right that Colette is mostly cane hardy for me, but nothing like the impressive show of her fantastic picture. Mine reblooms reasonably well and has lovely double blooms. Nahema is a pink that is usually winter hardy but inexplicably died last year (to be eagerly replaced). Lunar Mist is a reliably cane hardy yellow double rose that reblooms well enough for me, as does the pink Madame Bovary, dark pink Laguna, light pink Madame Carolyn Testout, and the fluffy white Sombreuil (probably Colonial White in reality). If you want a break from pink alone, the picoteed pink and white of the Kordes climbers Harlequin and Antique 89 both are pretty cane hardy for me.The mini climber Jeanne LaJoie is mostly cut to the ground but immediately puts out rapid growth and blooms to a height of about 9-10' each year (small light pink blooms). Both Dames des Chenonceau (pink) and Champagne Moment (cream) are double fluffy blooms and good rebloomers that I originally THOUGHT would be short roses, but they would each climb at least half of your arch and meet in the middle.

Then there are the roses rated to lower than zone 5 that will absolutely climb in your zone. The best of these for me is Quadra that you really couldn't kill if you tried, and it blooms with dark cherry blooms off and on all season with big thorny canes - it would definitely cover your arch, just train it early. Same with Illusion, though it isn't quite as big or thorny. Any of the Explorer roses like Alexander MacKenzie or John Davis will get plenty big and totally hardy, and at least rebloom a little when mature. Ramblin Red is also resolutely hardy in the same dark pink/cherry as all of these I've mentioned. If you want more of a mauve, Reine des Violettes is robustly hardy (mine is the "not" RdV, but the real one is also quite hardy and reblooms). If you'd be interested in a once-bloomer, there are dozens that would climb well and make a huge statement (emphasis on huge). Paul Barden's Marianne for instance is a lovely fluffy doulbe apricot gallica that I'm putting in this year, and apparently it doesn't particularly sucker widely and has a nice long-blooming spring flush.

I can toss on some pictures of any of these that interest you, but this response is already long enough (and my pictures aren't with me at the moment). Let me know if you want more info on any of these. I probably have another 20 climbers beyond these that I haven't mentioned, and can give my (one-person) opinion on them too, FWIW.

Cynthia

My head is spinning, Cynthia, at the breadth of your knowledge about climbers. Is there anyone else than even approaches this knowledge on the Forum? I can't even ask a question yet, but need to go back and reread all this information. But thanks for taking the time to share it with us. Diane

Lots of knowledge on this forum for sure. Just to add a few tidbits, Cynthia didn't mention that Lunar Mist is a sport of Colette. They have similar flower forms too, so you could do with Colette and Lunar Mist, what she suggested you could do with Westerland and Autumn Sunset.

As a principle for me here in borderline 5b/6a zone, I don't grow any climbers that are not cane hardy to zone 4 if I want them to cover a structure! We can get a nasty winter once in a while due to our crazy geographic location in Missouri with lows down to -15 F sometimes and windchill down to -30 F all with no reliable snow cover.

Glad my list was helpful! Richard - that idea of growing Lunar Mist and Colette across from each other would be just lovely and nicely complementary. I'd forgotten that they're related, but you're right the flower forms would do nicely together. Here's a picture of Lunar Mist, a portion of the sprays from late May last year (it's also an early bloomer) - look at all the big fat buds ready to pop soon:

Here's a corresponding picture of my young Colette (nothing as lovely as Diane's, but there's still time). You can see the apricot shading in cool weather that would complement Lunar Mist well.

And speaking of Diane - heavens, I appreciate the complement but EVERYONE on this forum knows many things about roses I do not, yourself included. The topic happens to be something I've had a lot of experience in, namely ROSES THAT DIE IN ZONE 5. I've now officially killed more roses than I have in my yard, so it's one claim to fame (however dubious). The climbers I can indulge in because of that big black fence all around the large-ish back yard.

Let's see - to tempt you on the zone 4 and below climbers that will easily eat that trellis for lunch, let's start with Quadra below. He's very thorny and needs to be trained when young, and in your case I might put him behind the protective wall and let him smother the arch and keep from poking people in the trellis too badly. This is one Quadra bush I mistakenly grew as a bush for about 5 years and I lost a lot of blood trying to wrestle him into this arch for about 3 hours.

In my list above, I meant John Cabot. My John Davis isn't really big enough to climb yet. Here's a sample of John Cabot growth, with Alexander MacKenzie just visible off to the right (the blooms are VERY similar). I really need something for them to grow on next year.

I'd mentioned Polka - here's a modest spray from a few years back that shows the color progression. It fades from a deep apricot to a pale cream over time. This plant was about 5' at the time and supported itself. Now it's stretched over a pedestal horizontally (one bend in the stiff canes) and I'm making it put out more laterals. Mostly it could support itself.

Here are several climbers all mushed in together (I like rose chaos) in a good spring a few years ago. From left, the dark pink is Laguna, the light pink Madame Bovary, the white is Cornelia (hybrid musk), the light pink is Bonica, and the yellow is Elina. The last three aren't officially climbers, but they can get pretty big in a good year - the fence is 6' tall. I don't think any of them would climb an arch though.

Here's my favorite shot of Dames des Chenonceau (far back at right, pinker) and Champagne Moment (cream at the right) in a good year (2013) where they absolutely overwhelmed the 3' wire fence they're behind. They wouldn't cover your arch but would make a great statement up each side of it on their own. Even in an average year like last year, they flop out widely and reliably at a good 6-8 of cane with profuse blooms, even if pruned back severely.

Here's an arch shot that includes Mme. Carolyn Testout (pink to the left of the arch) and Harlequin (pink picotee to right of arch, appears mostly pink from here). Lots of other roses in the way, as I say 2013 was a good year.

Here's Reine des Violette - since mine is the "not" RdV, it only blooms once and is thorny, but if you get the real one (Burlington has it), it reblooms and isn't thorny. That's a good consideration by a seat placement, and it smells heavenly.

Lastly, here's a shot of Rosarium Uetersen. It is growing low here but the plant stretches from way to the right side clear to the left of the picture, and the color is a more coral tone than this picture shows.

Have fun making your decision! Of course we want to see the pictures against that elegant looking seated arch.

Cynthia

Richard, I documented my winter protection this year so far in a thread in the organic rose forum in a thread called winter protect. I know you expressed to me that you wanted to see that. The important thing in zone5 is that the roots are strong and deep from healthy soil. It is not the cold, it is the wind that the rose needs to be protected from.

Thank you Cynthia for showing how roses can be grown without spraying.

I love to see pictures zone 5 roses. I also posted my zone 5 roses in the Organic roses forum in a post called zone 5 rose shrubs.http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3641915/zone-5-rose-shrubs?n=7

Here is Viking Queen Climber. I let it grow without pruning because the last 2 winters were cold.

Samuel, yes, I did read that, thanks. I believe I responded to it as well.

Cynthia, awesome documentation here. Tell me, how is the winter dieback on Polka and how is the rebloom performance for you?

Thank you all for the help. I love the pictures, Cynthia. I'll be putting a lot of thought into what to plant on my arbor. I'll be sure to come back and post pictures.

What a stunning display of roses, Cynthia, and I do agree that 2013 was a good year for your roses. I learned something new since I didn't know Lunar Mist is a relative of Colette. You can see the similarity of the two in their bloom structure. I just love Lunar Mist and its soft yellow. It's a new one to me. Your elegant fence is a perfect backdrop for displaying and supporting the roses. Is the groundcover in front of them in photo 6, lamium? It's gorgeous, too. And what is the pink rose climbing up and over your arbor?

I love the abundance of everything in your garden. The roses do so beautifully growing into and around each other. My roses push into their neighbors, trying to squeeze them out, with the less aggressive ones flattening out on the crowded side. Is there a secret to getting roses to play nicely with one another?

Thank you for showing these gorgeous photos. Please show us more. Diane

Thanks for the feedback Cynthia, and yes, I'm going to be pursuing a more lazy gardener route, loading up on disease resistant plants for my prime garden spots and moving the other disease prone stuff out back and not babying them. Need to spend more time relaxing in the pergola and enjoying the garden that way than spending that time spraying. What a thought huh?!? :)

Yes, relaxing in a pergola sounds wonderful, Richard. Cynthia's got some great ideas for making our gardens more enjoyable.

Which brings me to say thank you, Cynthia, for the tip about using 3' green wire fence to hold up a rose like Princess Alexandra of Kent so she doesn't flatten poor, mannerly Munstead Wood. I like the tomato cage idea for smaller roses, and don't know why I haven't thought of that. Even the shorter wire fence that's also available might come in handy to use with smaller roses. Thanks again, Diane

Here I am again, bringing this thread to the top, so Patty can see Cynthia's gorgeous photo of Quadra. Diane