I have grown Cl Iceberg for over 10 years. Unlike most climbers in my garden, it is NOT a house eater. Even in our warm (zone 9) climate, it grows up the arch I told it to grow on (which is is sharing with a purple clematis, and part of Buff Beauty which decided it liked the arch too), but does not then go up our house much, as the other roses do. Blooms all summer and through December (yup, still blooming right now). All the care it gets is pruning to keep it off the path, and osmocote once a year. Completely disease free.

In this picture, it is the one in the back left with the purple clematis (white front left is Sombreuil, aka Colonial White, which is a house eater here:

Here is Cl Iceberg closer up:

The only problem that I can see with Cl. Iceberg is cane hardiness. I grew Iceberg the shrub for many years here. In my garden it was crown hardy but not cane hardy and suffered terribly with black spot unless sprayed. It was however a tremendously floriferous rose as long as bs was managed. I not certain a climbing rose will be a success without live cane after winter. Your zone may differ from mine.

jacqueline9CA Those are fantastic pictures! I hope I can eventually create something so tranquil. It looks liken you paired it with maybe a Jackmanii clematis? It seems they pair really well together. I actually have been thinking about planting a rose with my jackmanii. Have you had much trouble with them overpowering each other?

It looks like it also gets to be in the 15' range for height for you? Do you zigzag it to increase the horizontal lengths to increase blooming? I am trying to think how I could incorporate it with my jackmanii and still get good coverage on the large lattice I have set up. I didn't think I wanted something that would be big.... but maybe I do since I have a 4' by 14' lattice with the clematis, and so far the clematis doesn't fully cover things up yet so it makes me think I could afford to over plant here.

Patti W - Thanks for the heads up about potential cane hardiness issues. I am in Boise Idaho, so its naturally pretty dry here, which is nice that disease pressure doesn't seem too terrible relative to what I hear for others around the country. So far this winter we have been mostly in the 20's Fahrenheit for lows, but the last few days have been in the 0-5 degree range for the lows. I am trying to be extra conservative to my already conservative guesses for climbers. Iceberg blooms on old wood I am reading so cane hardiness is definitely something I care about.

I had 'Yellow Sweetheart, Climbing' here in 7a, growing against a wooden stockade fence. It suffered quite a bit of Winter damage here, and seemed to take a while to recover. Its blooms are virtually scentless, despite online descriptions which seem to copy and paste the same initial mistake. Last year I noticed RRD on the end of one stem, and that was enough to rip what there was of it out. I think that in a warmer climate it would do better. But if you're after scent, scratch this one off.

I know you said you like very-double blooms, but that's the only thing you want which is missing from 'Renae'. Of course, there is a more-double seedling of it called 'Annie Laurie McDowell', but that one is both harder to find and slower to grow, since it focuses more on blooming than growth. But for either, I'd still be concerned about cold-hardiness.

:-)

~Christopher

Thanks for the link Patti W! I actually had read the article again this morning as part of my inspiration to post here to garner more information from the tried and tested GardenWeb viewers heh.

Christopher - thank you for sharing your experience with Yellow Sweetheart. How was she for thorniness for you? Did she do a decent job blooming for you once she recovered from the winters (assuming she eventually managed to recover a bit)? I suspect if she struggled with your winters she probably would be a bust for me since we get a bit colder here, but we do get good summer heat.

I actually am the proud owner of an Annie Laurie McDowell! She has been a great little rose for me so far. Just finished her second fall here, with very little die back last winter so hopefully she comes out this winter just as strong. So far mine has only a few canes in the 2.5' range. I am excited to see how she develops. I am curious to see how she ends up in my climate though, since she is a pretty new rose for the community. Definitely a rose I think deserves more attention. Totally smooth and perfect little flowers, with a great fragrance.

My name - to answer your questions, no, that is not Jackmanii (which I have elsewhere and love). I unfortunately forget the name of that clematis, but it has smaller and redder blooms than the Jackmanii.

We did not do anything special with the Iceberg to make it bloom more - just tied it to the arch. It does get pruned about once every 2 years, or sooner if it starts to attack the pedestrians walking under that arch. No method, I am afraid. Just tie it up and cut off any bits which are annoying. My roses are left mostly to themselves to figure out how to grow.

Jackie

Before succumbing to RRD and being ripped out, YSC bloomed in waves, and had completely smooth canes. But it didn't seem to "get going again" after removing Winter damage until about July. I don't think it's a good idea for you if you live where Winters get colder than mine.

:-)

~Christopher