Jeri, I think I saw that there's a March "what's blooming" event at the Sac cemetery. Will any hybrid musks be blooming at that time? *** If Anita (Cemetery Rose) is here, she'd best answer that. The Open Garden is mid-April (Sta., April 17) What is blooming at that time varies from year to year. I have seen years when many of the roses had shed their first flush. In other years, almost nothing was blooming yet. In a majority of years, it is the height of the spring bloom. BTW, the photo of Secret Garden Musk Climber is really lovely. How large is it at maturity? *** What you see in that photo is two mature roses. That "wall" is centered by a commercial arch, which is flanked by two upright trellises, one on each side of the arch. If you used just one plant, it would probably be half as wide? It is my understanding that SGMC is a smaller plant than Darlow's Enigma. Both would be considerably wider than "Setzer Noisette." One note re. Frau Karl Drushki: It is a bush, not a climber. There is a climbing form, but it is not as widely available as the bush form. And I'd be suspicious that it might bloom less than the bush form. Jeri

I have a spot against the North side of the house that receives about 3 hours of morning sun. My clematis Hagley Hybrid has done well there. The only thing is it likely took a year or two more to really get thick and fill the trellis (it had the height but not the width for a few years). Now it grows just the right size each season to fill a small (four or five foot) trellis. I also have some type of small blue flowered one that has okay in even more shade (though not as good as the Hagley one). I did an internet search for "clematis shady area" and Nelly Moser clematis was also mentioned. Along the west side of my house, between my house and the neighbors, I have a dropmore scarlet honeysuckle vine that also tolerates a spot with only a few hours of mid day sun. It gets lots of shade from my house, then the neighbors house later in the day. If you like foliage there is also kiwi vine or virginia creeper. I moved an arctic beauty kiwi on the north side of the house last year and so far it seems to appreciate the protected site (last week's frost killed the leaves on the other kiwi in the yard, this one was protected by being against the house.) You sort of just have to experiment and see what does well there. If research says a vine can tolerate part shade, then I'd be inclined to give it a try. If it says full sun only (and you confirm this on a few websites), then maybe that one wouldn't be such a good candidate. Glen

Yes, but it won't in much shade :-) It needs summer heat (which we don't always receive) and is not self-fertile either, so needs a second variety to cross pollinate. While the fruit is a curiosity and certainly interesting, I'd not consider it a stellar menu item - unpleasant, gummy and pulpy texture with a slightly sweet taste. Think a combination of watered down tapioca and sweet, non-fishy caviar :-) Our display plant at the nursery, in a very exposed location, still has most of its foliage, although rather ratty looking at the moment. You didn't get hit with those two strong cold fronts we experienced this winter - one in November, the second just last month? We had temps in the teens (farenheit) in some areas here. I'm surprised you didn't experience something similar up north.

May I take the time to explain that the roots do not need sun. It is the leaves that need the sun light for photosynthesis. Our zone is very challenging to even find a cane hardy climbers. That said they would need 6 hours of sun to bloom well and be a robust grower. They would also need support for you to tie them to as roses do not naturally climb. If the arborvitae is east then this is a northern exposure correct. A clematis will mature much quicker than a climbing rose. Roses tend to take a good three years of building root mass before they show what they can do. Here is a photo of Dortman at Cleveland Botanical Garden posted by Karenforroses. At the top of the page you can search previous posts on here. Just type in climbing roses for zone 5. or Hardy climbing roses zone 5. Each time you change the words around you might get some different post. Lots of good ideas in those older posts.