My circle garden was planted with some Chamblee roses this spring. They have preformed wonderfully, and I'm thrilled with them. I've been behind almost all year (I can't imagine why), and keep missing my chance to finish out the first row of my circle. I'm also wanting to add in some others.

I would like to add a climber to fill in an odd spot where a eastern porch meets an odd angle of the house. It will get sun all morning, of course, but nothing after noon. I've been looking hard at Harlekin. I'll need to give the rose support (there's a pillar there, but I'll add in a trellis), but I don't want it to be overwhelming, either.

Thoughts?

What are you looking for in a climber? I have Harlequin & love that rose. Are you looking for a pink/white blend? A "typical" rose look? Constantly in bloom? Scent? I have a couple of roses that I'm moving from the front of my house (north face, zero sun) to someplace else (haven't figured out 100% where yet). Roses, for the most part, do need lots of sun, so I'm not sure if morning sun will be enough. I know there *are* some that are more tolerant of low-sun hours. I've found that my roses that are directly in front of my house that get only morning sun & NO afternoon sun at all are.. well, a bit puny compared to the rest that get full-day sun. In fact, I had to move one rose in particular that got only like 2 hours of sun and now that it's full sun, sprouted like a weed.

Harlekin is gorgeous and it doesn't grow into a monster in most cases. It actually makes a nice pillar rose (that's a climber wrapped around a pillar).

Toni- That's what I'm afraid of- not enough sun. It will get 3-4 hours.
For that area, white, pink, or reds
repeat bloomer
scented

Trish - Can't go wrong with Cl. Don Juan http://www.helpmefind.com/rose... - blooms like mad, very forgiving of environment, heavenly scent, ubereasy to find anywhere. Mix that in with a Cl. Iceberg http://www.helpmefind.com/rose... and you're set. Palatine's sold out on Iceberg, but they also have Cl Blaze Improved.. that's a good one too. Ilse Krohn Superior is also a good choice for your color requirements. http://palatineroses.com/rose/...

I planted Harlekin from Palatine this spring. It and Antike 89 have been growing rather slowly in my garden, this fall reaching knee height. I'm hoping that both will be a prove to be great roses, but I'm planning to postpone my decision for five or six years. Although it doesn't go much over 90F most of the summer here, I notice that both only grow in coolish spring and fall weather here in zone 7b. And that's about two weeks in spring and two more in fall. Maybe the long spring/fall season of central TX would suit it much better. I've no idea how it will do with shade, though.

I grow Zepherine Drouhin in almost full shade here in Arizona, as I did in NJ. It is building up slowly and it it's been a little shy with bloom. When it gets to about 9 or 10 ft the highest shoots will start getting full sun at the height of summer. It's not as pretty as Harlekin and it will sometimes get a touch of mildew where that's a problem, but it is a trouper. In NJ it finally bloomed in its third or fourth year and it was glorious.

I grow Blossomtime on its own roots in a spot with about six hours sun. It's building up slowly, but I love the retro look of the blossoms and the fragrance. My Rosarium Utersen from Palatine grew very vigorously this year, also with about six hours of sun. My hope is that when it gets nicely settled it will bloom as generously as it has grown vigorously.

Ilse Krohn Superior in her second year from Palatine is eight feet tall and blooms all summer for me. I find the flowers wonderfully shapely and they are deliciously redolent of green tea. Were your site in full sun, I would recommend this rose without reservation.

Paul's Himalayan Musk will provide scent and grow in shade, but it will swallow the house. Felicite et Perpetue will produce really neat little button flowers, but they may not have much scent.

It's the multiflora climbers that will do best in shade; but getting fragrance in a multiflora climber starts to be a problem. Not sure about Ghislaine de Feligonde and fragrance, but I've grown it successfully with 3 hours of sunlight. This spring I planted Psyche from Vintage Gardens where it got five hours of sun and it has made canes more than eight feet long in its first year. It's white blossoms are supposed to have fragrance. I hope to find out next year.

I hope something in here proves helpful.

Steve812 said:
Paul's Himalayan Musk will provide scent and grow in shade, but it will swallow the house.

That's one thing I was worried about.. suggesting a house eater. There's lots of roses Trish could try & would work, but they'd eat the area and that's probably not something that she'd want.

I have reservations about Don Juan. When I grew it in NJ it ultimately perished of black spot. I got some fabulously wonderful roses from it: dark red and deliciously fragrant. With regular spraying it lasted two, maybe three seasons, looking pretty ugly as a plant through most of summer. There are parts of Texas where I'm quite sure Don Juan would be even more unhappy. Porkpal, correct me if I'm wrong. Not sure whether Trish's area is one of them.

Ugh, I just looked at WeatherUnderground's history for Jacksonville TX. How can ANYONE live in that kind of humidity? I'd be a giant pile of tallow with that heat & humidity! YUCK! Talk about permanent sticky...

http://www.wunderground.com/hi...

The RH is high in the morning but it dips below 50% in late afternoon when the temperature is 104F. The trick is to move at a leisurely pace from air-conditioned house to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned workplace, and back again for the warm half of the year, as I recall. It's also a good place to practice taking siestas. I grew roses in Austin in similar weather. They liked it there, but they were all pretty much immune to blackspot. One digs holes for plants in fall or early spring. One sits in their shade in the cool of late evening, breathing deeply air that is thick with confederate jasmine blossom (trachelospermum jasminoides). Or maybe one sits inside in front of the air conditioner with the coolish air blasting one's sweaty brow. Spring and fall are long, and winter doesn't even exist except for the few days in January when a "blue norther" sweeps through. That's how I remember it, anyway.

Trish wants a rebloomer, so Paul's Himalayan Musk and Felicite et Perpetue are out of the running anyway.

Don Juan isn't being offered by Palatine, so it's also out.

What about Summer Memories, Trish? It's on your want list and it's a great rose.

I just have a second, but you three have been super helpful- thank you!!

zuzu- you think SM would be ok with that much shade?

Steven, I'd give up fragrance first. Most of my garden has scent, so I woudn't be missing that much.

Yes. Summer Memories will do fine with 3-4 hours of Texas sun and it's such a wonderful rose. You'll love it! The blooms are very full -- 80-90 petals -- and it has a nice fragrance. Not strong, but quite pleasant.

I've lived in places with a much much higher humidity level than this, so it really feels like fine to me. Toni- I would feel drier than an alligator in your climate!

Steven- we're actually in North East TX, so a bit cooler than Austin. I've also lived in Kerrville and San Antonio, and I do prefer the northern climate, although I do miss the zone of SA! We'll expect light frosts starting in mid to late Nov, but it won't get really cold until the last week or so of December. I count on 1 month of cold, then start looking for warm weather in mid to late Feb. Our early spring gardens are planted by March. As for summer, I was still gardening and 9 months pregnant the first week of June in the mornings and evenings. Our heat is about the same as Denver's from mid June through late Aug.

I think I'm pulling the trigger on the Summer Memories.

I've only ever driven through that part of TX, but I did like the mix of grassland and giant liveoak that I saw there. Of the thirty something states I've driven in, that bit of Texas always struck me as one of the prettier kinds of geography. In Austin, it wasn't hard to be out and about until ten or eleven in the morning. It was the summer hours of three to six pm that definitely required some AC. I loved the long spring and fall seasons. I had chosen to live in Austin, and I remember it fondly.

Yippee! Here's my order:

Poseidon
Eliza
Summer Memories
Let's Celebrate
Brinessa
Ascot


I noted the Lion's Fairy tale and Julia Child are available from Chamblees, so I'll just get them from there. I think I'm developing a bit of an addiction...

Oh, boy. Pink, white, and mauve -- those are going to look great together!

*cough cough*

Yes, well.....for the circle, I actually ended up mixing all of the colors. You know- when you can't decide, just throw them all together and say that you did it on purpose


I took pics this morning, and will post them this evening.

I was just judging by the ones in your Palatine order. My own garden has no arrangements based on color. Even if I had wanted to do that in the beginning, the gophers would have ruined any patterns I set out to create. Now I plant everything in gopher-proof cages and can get more selective about color combinations, but I do the exact opposite of most people: I try to make sure that similar roses are not planted close together. There are a couple of spots in my garden that really bother me because I have a few sets of roses with similar coloring that are growing next to each other. Painted Moon, for example, is growing next to Tambourine, and they look too much alike to provide any contrast in that spot. Now that I'm retired, maybe I'll split up those pairs. I like contrast.

I like the contrast as well. Otherwise things get lost. I need to find a good red at Chamblees to finish out my circle, I think. Otherwise, it will be terribly pink heavy over there.