Climbing roses can complete and refine the home landscape by adding a distinctive grace, color and fragrance to garden arches, fences and doorway trellises. In mild climate regions there are many dozens to choose from, but the harsh climatic swings of the Rocky Mountain region lay waste to many, especially climbing "sports" (mutations) of Hybrid Teas like 'Climbing Peace' or 'Climbing Oklahoma'. But gifted and imaginative rose hybridizers of yesterday and today have bred quite a few elegant yet tough-as-nails climbing roses that boldly defy winter's bitter dry cold and summer's oven-like heat. They reliably offer large (and often fragrant!) blossoms from spring through fall with minimal care.
Bred to be undemanding, these disease-resistant roses require only that they be grown on their "own roots" (vs. grafted onto a rootstock) in a full sun location. Plant them deeply in a large hole well-amended with compost or aged horse manure and keep mulched year round. Water deeply 3 or 4 times a month, spray off any aphids that may appear with a garden hose, and feed once in late spring with a complete organic fertilizer like fish emulsion plus a handful of Epsom salts sprinkled around the root zone. To encourage even more repeat bloom, cut bouquets to bring their beauty indoors.
The varieties listed here will reward you with buxom, well-formed blooms of varied forms, colors and fragrances, and are readily available as "own root" plants from many retail nurseries plus the reputable mail order growers mentioned below. Remember; if a particularly brutal winter freezes them to the ground, "own root" roses will readily send up new growth in the spring from below the soil line for quick repair of the damage. While some of these tough and reliable climbing roses are as modern as can be, others have been bringing joy to gardeners and homeowners since Victorian times, a testament to their cast iron beauty!
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