I know all about the first come, first served policy! To my cost! Some trees were taken out before I moved in, so shade is not really a factor. The lot lies on an East/West axis, with a fence and cedar hedge along the long north edge. The house sits at the east end of the lot, so the back yard is actually something of a u-shaped suntrap, with the empty part of the u facing south. The most difficult part of the yard for roses is along the west, which is where the trees used to be. I have the albas there. Some roses are wrapped in burlap, two are tipped and covered with dirt and compost, and all but the albas, rugosas, and a hybrid setigira are mounded with dirt and straw. This last winter has been quite mild, with only one night of lows near 0, and the ground not staying frozen--I am glad I mounded, even if I do get some canker.

I tried many, many "shade tolerant" roses on the north side of my house. I get full sun for 6 months and shade for 6 months when the sun angle changes with the season, (my house interferes with receiving any direct sun at that time). There are no trees on this side of the house. I have never found a rose that remained happy or healthy in that situation. I don't think you should waste your money putting a rose there. Plant something that is pretty, and that will enjoy that spot. I have camellias planted now that are extremely happy, and look nice all the time. I am sure there are some native bushes, or some other types of plants that would love to be on the north side of your house. Then, if you have the room, plant some roses out in front of those, maybe with a little path in between, if there is some full sun there. The combination can be quite striking. Sandy

Let me give you a few off the top of my head: I tend to like roses that are easily trained; that is, one with flexible that 'bend to my will'. My absolute number one favorite climber is Francois Juranville. It is classified as a rambler, hybrid wichurana, bred in 1906. Height is said to be 15-25 feet, 10 foot width. I have this rose on an arbor that is 8 feet tall, 10 feet wide, and 4 feet deep. It covered the arbor in two years and that was from a band I direct planted. It's absolutely covered with soft pink blooms right now, has wonderful dark green, glossy green foliage and is less thorny than most roses, but does have thorns. It is said to have an apple fragrance but it is fragrance you have to search out, it doesn't drift. I have never seen a bit of blackspot on it. Another climber I have that is listed as a shrub rose is David Austin's James Galway. It is trained on a pillar and is about 8 feet tall. It is fragrant but you have to search it out. I have never seen this rose have blackspot and mine is ten years old. It is a bear though with its thorns. It is one of those roses that I have to get up my gumption to go out and prune or work with the new growth to get it back in bounds. It is a medium pink bloom. Third is Awakening. Awakening is a sport of New Dawn, hybrid wichurana, discovered in the 30s and introduced into production in the 1990s. It has a hybrid tea rose-like pale pink bloom and blooms nonstop. It is classified as strong in fragrance. This rose is planted on a new arbor we built just this spring, but the plant is in its second year since I kept in a pot until we got the structure built. It had very minimal blackspot last year in the pot, and by that I mean a dozen or so leaves, but none this year so far. I did have two other starts of this rose which I gave to a neighbor and we put her roses where they would cover a brick wall on which we built a wire system. They are covering about half of her brick wall so far in their second year. It is said to be 8-14 feet tall and 8 feet wide. I am planning on it covering an arbor that is 8 x 8 x 8. Those are my personal experience climbers that don't have blackspot problems for me and are fragrant. I have a Souvenir de la Malmaison which is a fragrance drifter, tolerates shade, has a wonderful palest pink bloom and is growing about 20 feet into a tree, but it loses its leaves to b.s. most years. You might also consider a Lady Banks White. Mine is incredibly fragrant, it smells like hyacinths to me. It is thornless, has 2-inch white blossoms that cover the plant and is never bothered with blackspot. It is a species or wild rose of the early 1800s. It will cover as big an area as you will let it. It grows in the same tree as my SDLM rose. Lady Banks is almost a tie for favorite with Francois Juranville simply because it is so low maintenance. But FJ wins out because it is a "ROSE"!! Marcy

I haven't found 'Colombia' here so far. Do you think 'Felicia' would be happy in a pot in the heat? I've read that it could be trained as a short climber and HelpMeFind lists it as suitable for containers. Same questions for 'Eglantyne'. I also noticed a climbing 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' (stingy repeater?) and a climbing 'Yves Piaget' (the regular version blooms all summe here) in a catalgoue which I can't find much info about. I love Boncrow's suggestion of Clothilde Soupert but the climber sounds like it gets pretty big too.