citylights
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The best climber for me?

My first post here.

I'm looking to plant a climber in spring.
What I'm looking for:

- preferably disease resistant
- large and frequent blooms
- preferably red climbers
- to be able to survive harsh winter conditions ( I live in Toronto, Ontario)

thanks in advance!

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

Wow you aren't asking for much! I'm not sure I can think of anything that meets all your requirements. Here's some thoughts:

For big red showy flowers, clematis might be your best bet. You have to work with a knowledgeable local nursery though. Some varieties of clematis would be hardy where you are (looks like USDA zone 5a, Canada zone 6) and some not. Also personally I haven't found clematis real good on disease resistance. There's this thing called clematis wilt that keeps getting mine.

Trumpet creeper is a good hardy disease and everything else resistant vine. The flowers aren't as large and showy but there are masses of them. It's hard to find in a true red, even the red varieties tend to be orangey red or red-orange. But you didn't say what you want to do with this vine. Don't make the mistake I did of planting it against your house. I now have to cut the beast back every year to keep it from swallowing up the house.

Honeysuckle trumpet vine is smaller and more manageable and does have true red flowers. The flowers are smaller, but the vine gets covered with them and over a much longer season than trumpet creeper. It is hardy and disease resistant, meets all your criteria except large flowers. But maybe smaller, brilliant red flowers will do? Hummingbirds love this and the trumpet creeper.

Another possibility for you might be to grow annual vines. Mandevilla is a tropical vine which is tender perennial. It has huge showy flowers, more often pink or purple, but I think there are red varieties. Supposedly you can bring them in and over-winter them indoors, but people say this is not easy to do, to get them to survive the winter inside, the move back out and start flowering again. Works sometimes, but lots of people just grow them as annuals. Then there' red morning glory, and my personal favorite cardinal climber. I grow that every year. Fast growing annual vine, small red flowers but covered with them all season, another hummingbird favorite.

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applestar
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Rainbowgardener, I think you missed that this thread is in the Rose Forum -- I do that often too since I use the search NEWPOST feature as well.

Well, let me tell you -- ALL my roses died... :oops: ... except Abraham Darby, a David Austin rose. It's supposed to be a shrub rose, but at the moment, it's waving a cluster of hips ABOVE the first floor roof rain gutter -- so it must be about 10~12 feet: I.e. I think you could treat it as a small climber. Yes, yes, I know you're supposed to cut off the flowers when/before the petals start to fall -- why do you think the rest of them died? :> I should at least harvest the hips for tea or collect the seeds and see if I could grow them.... :roll:

Citylights, It's NOT red -- it's a peach kind of color, but very fragrant. I did spray with 10% milk during the worst of the humid summer months to keep away the black spot, but it fights them off pretty well, and it flowers all summer until frost, even without deadheading. :wink:

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rainbowgardener
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Thanks applestar, sorry, city lights. Right, I just check new posts, so it's not divided by forum.... Sorry, I did totally miss that we were talking about roses, about which I know very little. Ignore me muttering to myself over here :) !!


PS! Welcome to the forum city lights!! Glad you found us, hope you find it friendly and helpful, even though one of the moderators is sometimes a bit fuzzy headed!

citylights
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hey rainbowgardener! thanks for the welcome! I already planted 2 clematis. one of them was doing fine until a rabbit decided to break the vines at the bottom so the entire plant had to start again. hopefully next season it won't go through that again.

applestar I know how you feel! whenever I buy roses they never survive winter and its so disappointing (considering you spent so much time and effort). how winter resistant is Abraham Darby?

I'm thinking of going for the improved 'Blaze'. It's a nice red and it seems pretty disease resistant. Thoughts?

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rainbowgardener
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Something I have seen in catalogs that I think looks beautiful is a rose bush and a clematis grown together, so the clematis winds around through the rose bush. It could be a red clematis grown with your red rose for double the red impact or it could be a pink or even a white one for a ton of contrast (or red and purple or .... :) )

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

how winter resistant is Abraham Darby?
Well, I'm in Zone 6b and the plant is growing against the SE housewall, so that's not a good guide to go by.... Even though you're in Canada, Toronto, being by the lake, must be a bit warmer than the northern location suggests, right? Hm, hm -- OK Toronto is supposed to be 5b... and Abraham Darby is listed as hardy through Zone 5.... so it's probably OK as long as you're not planting it in a very exposed location.

Pay attention to the micro-climates around your garden. Sometimes you can get away with a lot more than you might think.

It sounds like you're more attracted to the red color though. I LOVE their fragrance. Hmm... OK, did a Google search for "red climbing rose disease resistant" and the first one I came across is called "Dublin Bay." I'm not seeing too many Zone info on this rose but the description sounds good.
This page might be helpful: https://www.rosesofyesterday.com/specialconditions.htm According to this, Abraham Darby is hardy to Zone 4.

diggerdave
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Deb and I have grown Dublin Bay for 10+ years. We like it but grow it as a tall shrub. It is not cane hardy here (zone 4/5) and starts each season with only a foot of live cane. Blackspot is not a problem here but friends report Dublin Bay can get BS pretty bad. DB is almost scentless in our yard. I haven't made an album for DB but here is a link to some yard photos with it visible (below the monster clematis Ernest Markham):

[url]https://65.18.154.219/digger.com/gallery/yard?page=6[/url]

I have been watching for the red climber Ramblin' Red for a few years because of good reviews about it.

roseprose
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Hi, citylights. It sounds like you might like Ramblin' Red, a very hardy and disease resistant climber bred by William Radler, who gave us the Knock Out roses. Bailey Nurseries claims it is hardy up to zones 2 & 3. It has a modest scent. It is a bloom machine. :flower:



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