planning ahead :) -- climbing roses

[greenemama]

we just bought a really awesome little brick house that is screaming for something to vine up and over it. there's a lot of sun on the front of the house and we're considering planting a couple of trees -- dogwood, redbud, maybe a japanese maple (pricey!) -- but for the most part, it will always have a good deal of sun. i don't know much about roses, have never dealt with them. i want something that is fairly low maintenance (1-2 times a year pruning -- is this possible?), that grows fast and tall -- 18-20 feet. anyone?

how many plants would i need to cover the front of the house? i don' t know how many feet . . . :bag i suppose that's important info. :doh

how much are they?

[snlmama]

When we had a house w/ lots of sun (our current home the yard is almost entirely shade), we bought "antique" roses. Here is the place I got them - it is near us so we went there but you can order them also http://www. antiqueroseemporium.com/ Antique roses are hardier and need less care than hybrids. They won't have long pretty stem and will have thorns, but they are low maintenance and pretty. :)

[something glorious]

mollie,

i know nothing about climbing roses :O but i just wanted to say i hope you'll post pictures of your new, cute, brick house soon :grin your old house was such a gem- can't wait to see what you've chosen and how you'll make it your own :heart

[greenemama]

mollie,

i know nothing about climbing roses :O but i just wanted to say i hope you'll post pictures of your new, cute, brick house soon :grin your old house was such a gem- can't wait to see what you've chosen and how you'll make it your own :heart


:hearts

thanks, lauren. :grin when i can see across the room i'll take some pics to post. it's a disaster here. we're in desperate need of shelving. i thought that we didn't have a lot of toys but i guess that's because i never just let the kids dump everything out at once, like they've done here in the name of unpacking. :giggle

[cklewis]

ooooo -- mrs. harris has a _coat of many colors_ climber. it's gorgeous!! it blooms like 3 different colors!

davis austin roses are real hardy around here. you have to be careful. roses are hard in the SE. not like the midwest at all.

and get a kouza dogwood! :tu

c

[greenemama]

mrs. harris loves me, for some reason. :scratch maybe because i read the assignments in her class? :doh i should give her a buzz and see if i can come over and get a rose growing in the south tutorial. thanks for that reminder -- i forgot she was a rose growing crazy lady.

[cklewis]

She would SOOOOO do that!! She would love that. You know her hubby died this summer? Mollie, do it! She would explain the whole thing. And she's got a good recipe for preventing black spot. It's organic. Uses tomato leaves, I think? She's cool!

:hug

C

[cklewis]

It's called "Joseph's Coat." And another good one, she said, is Don Juan. It's a real dark red that has really long stems so that it looks like a tea rose.

I told her you'd call. ;)

C

[greenemama]

yay! i'm so excited. there really isn't a better way to learn how to do this. :ty

[katiekind]

You should definitely take advantage of that opportunity. She'll know a lot about your local growing conditions and varieties that do well there.

If you like to learn by reading forums, here is a terrific community of rose gardeners who are always eager to share their knowledge:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/roses/

If you poke around you'll find the organic rose growing forum, and the antique rose growing forum, too.

One thing to know about climbing roses...it takes 3 years for them to mature into the kind of picturesque bloomer you're probably thinking of. There is a saying, "the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap". So you do have to think about that.

For all that roses take a little more work than some things, and are subject to some pretty frustrating ills, they are also very hardy.

But you need to buy good plants, not those sticks in a bodybag for $3 that you see at hardware stores and such. Good nursery roses are worth the money. In the southeast there are some great rose nurseries. I'm a little foggy on exactly where you are but in Campobello South Carolina there's a marvellous rose nursery that does a lot of mail order business: Ashdown Roses (http://www.ashdownroses.com/index.asp)

I hope you'll share a little about what you learn from your Mrs. Harris. :-) :rose

[cklewis]

Yeah, Mollie. I know there is a local nursery that sells roses that are on their own roots. :scratch What's that called, Kathy? I can't remember. Dr. Jones told me all about it. I can't remember. Mrs. H will know.

C

[katiekind]

It's called,


"own root" roses. :grin You're good, Camille!

They are a good thing, and usually less expensive than grafted roses. On the other hand, I've found they take an additional season to catch up to grafted roses in size. Some people say they ultimately have a longer lifespan than grafted roses, though.

[cklewis]

Oh! :doh :giggle :laughtears

C

[katiekind]

Mollie, here's a thread at that rose forum that has a lot of photos of climbing roses, including Joseph's Coat and Don Juan.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/roses/msg041349318366.html?28

Enjoy!

[greenemama]

ooh, thanks kathy!

i meant to say earlier that you're so right about what i'm picturing. :giggle :O three years is not that long, but it sure feels like it. :grin

[katiekind]

It's especially a long time if you plant one that is an enormous monster of a climber that gulps down the trellis it was planted on and starts eyeing the house and hardly blooms at all and when it does bloom, the slightest humidity causes the blooms to clump together into a big soggy gray ball.

Ask me how I know.

A nice master gardener at the rose forum had tried to warn me, "just be sure the site you've selected is large enough". But I didn't ask for a definition of "what's big enough". The broad side of a barn would have been.

I dug it out and planted something less monsterly. :mrgreen

http://www.radioministries.org/familytime/06garden/edenbower_may23_thumb.jpg

[cklewis]

:yes That's what's happened with out jasmine. Tooooo big!!

C

[greenemama]

:giggle well, i really do want it to cover most of the front of the house. maybe i should post a pic of the area?

that pic is lovely.

hmmm. . . jasmine . . . we have a fenced in yard and the fence is tall . . .

[katiekind]

I wish I could grow jasmine. Our winters are too cold for them. :shiver

Go ahead and post your picture! It will be fun to talk more roses. Though, your best help will come from your local rose fanatics.

[cklewis]

tamar is another rose fanatic, mollie. her dh too!! :tu i think she has a joseph's coat. :scratch not a climber though. . ..

c