Climbing roses – climbers for wall, arch & pergola

Climbing roses are perennial, fast-growing pillar climbers with long, firm canes. Almost all varieties are repeat-flowering or even bloom continuously all summer; most bear large blooms with a good fragrance. On a rose arch, wall trellis or pergola they set accents of height where other roses cannot reach.

Many climbing roses have been honoured by the RHS with the AGM (Award of Garden Merit); particularly easy-care, robust varieties bear the title ADR climbing rose.

• Blooms: large, single to fully double, many varieties with a good fragrance
• Flowering period: repeat-flowering to continuous, from early summer into autumn
• Growth: firm, upright canes, approx. 2 to 4 m depending on the variety
• Difference from a rambler: stiffer canes, more compact, but repeat-flowering — ramblers grow more softly, taller and mostly flower once
• Use: rose arch, house wall, espalier, pergola, obelisk; weaker-growing ones also in a large container
• Planting time: container-grown all year round, bare-root from October to May in frost-free soil

The boundary with vigorous shrub roses and hybrid tea roses is not always clear-cut — many begin to climb in a suitable location with restrained pruning. Well-known examples are Aloha '49, the AGM climbing roses Gertrude Jekyll and Graham Thomas by David Austin as well as Pierre de Ronsard / Eden Rose. If you want to climb higher, you will find the right variety among the rambler roses and the strongly fragrant historic climbers.

What are climbing roses?

Climbing roses are not a botanical class of their own, but vigorous garden roses with long, firm canes that are guided upwards on a support Unlike true climbing plants they form no clinging organs — they are pillar climbers and need a sturdy framework to which their canes are tied.

At 2 to 4 metres in height they stay considerably more compact than rambler roses, but in return flower more often to continuously — ideal if a rose arch or house wall is to bloom all summer.

Recommended climbing rose varieties

• New Dawn – the classic: pale pink, repeat-flowering, robust and hardy. The best climbing rose for a north-facing wall.
• Sympathie ® – velvety dark red, double, weatherproof blooms; vigorous and proven since the 1960s.
• Jasmina ® – nostalgic, delicate pink blooms with an apple fragrance, forms beautiful rose hips in autumn.
• Paragon – large white clusters of blooms with fragrance, free-flowering and repeat-flowering.
• Joseph's Coat – an extraordinary play of colour from yellow through orange to red in a single bloom.
• Rosengarten Zweibrücken ® – red, compact climbing rose up to 250 cm, also suitable for smaller supports.

Strongly fragrant varieties can be found in our list of fragrant roses; proven robust ones among the AGM and ADR award-winning roses.

Climbing roses for rose arch, house wall and pergola

On a rose arch, climbing roses look most lavish when planted on both sides; on the house wall south-west and south-east aspects are better suited than the full south side.

Decisive for abundant flowering is the training: guide the canes not vertically upwards but horizontally to slightly diagonally — this way the flower buds break along the whole length, and the rose does not become bare at the base.

How to plant roses and guide them correctly on an obelisk, arch or espalier is shown in our guide Training roses on climbing supports; suitable supports for roses can be found in our accessories. Particularly attractive are combinations with clematis of the Viticella group, which use the same support.

Pruning climbing roses

Climbing roses are pruned differently from bedding or shrub roses: the basic framework of strong main canes stays in place; in spring — at forsythia flowering time — it is mainly the side shoots that are cut back to about 3 to 5 buds. In addition, remove dead and overcrowded wood.

In repeat-flowering varieties, deadheading faded clusters encourages a second flush. Old, overaged main canes can be removed close to the ground every few years so that the rose renews itself from below. General basics can be found under Pruning roses.