Favourite climbing roses:
- Pierre de Ronsard starts with creamy white, cabbage-like flowers that become pinker as they mature. It has won international popularity awards.
- Gold Bunny has masses of golden yellow flowers over a long period.
- Golden Showers has ruffled petals that start off a rich yellow and fade to a soft buttery lemon.
- Climbing Iceberg is as free flowering as the shrub Iceberg. Iceberg is often listed as the world’s favourite rose.
- Constance Spry was the first rose bred by David Austin, the renowned English rose breeder.
- Dainty Bess has single flowers in a soft rose pink with central, eyelash-like stamens.
Another group of climbing roses are called ramblers. These have pliable stems and smaller blooms. Most rambling roses flower just once a year, but what a glorious flowering it is. The stems and leaves become almost invisible beneath the froth of blossom. One of the best known ramblers is Dorothy Perkins, which is so vigorous it makes a smothering ground cover. Stems take root where they touch the ground and long shoots scramble over trees and garden beds.
And then there are the heritage and wild climbing roses such as creamy-white Lamarque, yellow banksia (Rosa banksiae lutea) and white Rosa laevigata which is also known as the Cherokee Rose.