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Need A Rose To Grow Through A large Wisteria Bush

I have a huge wisteria bush in my large front yard. It is spectatular in the spring. I was walking in the front yard today, looking at the roses for any sign of new growth and I had the idea that this huge bush would make a good place to plant a couple of roses that could grow through its branches and bloom in summer. I have room to plant 3, in a circle around the plant, where I could care for them and they could trail into this huge bush and bloom during the summer. The site has all day sun and is close to a water spigot. I was thinking perhaps something like Blush Noisette or Climbing Pinkie - something that blooms all the time. Dont care about color or fragrance - just that it have a trailing habit and bloom consistently. This little project can enable me into 3 more roses........so, any ideas??? Thanks!!

Judith

Comments (18)

  • 17 years ago

    Blush noisette sounds nice, lady banks.
    Reve d' or, devoniensis, cl., okay I'm thinking all those zone 8
    Roses I would love to be able to grow
    Marachal niel
    Gloire Dijon
    Cherokee rose

  • 17 years ago

    David Ruston had "Not Adam maybe Mme Berard" growing with Wisteria in the garden at Rustons Roses (?Zone 9ish - hot, dry summers, cool winters) and it was a glorious sight. With some blooms in the sun and some in the shade, you were treated to that full range of subtle colour from buff yellow through to shades of pink and every shade and combination of peach, apricot, flesh, pink and yellow in between.
    Reve d'Or and Clg Devoniensis are both good, strong and beautiful roses - Reve d'Or more mannerly - less stiff and prickly.
    Clg Lady Hillingdon does well in a high competition situation. Lamarque and Celine Forrestier would look great with blue Wisteria too and flower a lot once established.
    Do you have good clones of Clg White Maman Cochet over there? That rose is the original heart breaker once established. Floriferous, so lovely and surprisingly tough - it takes anything high summer can throw at it here and is happy climbing into trees etc.
    If you wanted to try a crimson rose, Marie Nabonnand is a real star once established. This is the climbing rose that has been sold as 'Mons Tillier' or 'Beales Mons Tillier' etc, and some nurseries sell it as Noella Nabonnand. The fragrance is divine - strong, old damask rose notes - and it doesn't have many prickes (& those it does have tend to fall off quickly). It's a good tree climber and doesn't mind some shade. Doesn't like frost though. Takes a few years to establish but grows strongly once it's comfortably settled in and has a long flowering season - well into winter here.
    Souv de Mme Leonie Viennot can hold her own, vigour-wise but mildews and doesn't usually flower as much as the Noisettes and Clg Teas.

    Do you need to do anything special to help a rose get established when planting it near an established, vigorous plant like a Wisteria?
    Billy

  • 17 years ago

    I have never tried this before but I dont think I will have to do anything out of the ordinary to establish the roses. I will of course dig large holes and amend the soil and mulch well. The wisteria bush is very large, but the roses would be planted at the perimeter, well away from its roots and would be trained to grow into the bush. I would be able to water the bushes easily. I forgot to mention - I want roses with pliable canes only, no thick, stiff canes. I want something that will integrate itself into the wisteria bush. It loses its leaves in winter, blooms before leaves appear then is green all summer. I thought of circling it with daylilies as well - they bloom in May, so could have something blooming around this handsome bush a good part of the year.

    Adam looks beautiful, I have always wanted to try Maman Cochet and the climbing form I think I can obtain. Rev d'Or sounds good as it does not have stiff canes. I will check out the others mentioned - have always admired Gloire Dijon.
    Judith

  • 17 years ago

    Are you not afraid the wisteria might choke the rose? I would just hate for you to go to all the trouble only to have the wisteria choke the rose to death in the end.

  • 17 years ago

    Not worried about that at all. This is an old bush - its hard to describe, but I have trained it in a bush form [my mother had done this years ago] and its branches are thick and I trim it back after it blooms, but it stays in the same rounded type form, its about 5'high, 12'long. It drips with fragrant lavender blooms in spring, a showpiece. I can plant 3 roses around it, at the edge of its branches and let them drape over and through it. Have never seen this done but know it would be lovely. Because the lawn is kept mowed there are no suckers. I keep it trimmed back if needed during the growing season, but now that it is mature, I dont have much trimming to do. I want limber caned roses that will easily trail through its thick branches. Even thought about planting a Mutablis up underneath it and letting it grow through it to bloom during the warm months, but pruning dead wood out would be hard, so think I will just stay with the climbers on the outside that I can get to. I know Cl. Pinkie is thin caned and easily manipulated. So far that one, Blush Noisette, Reve d'Or, Adam look interesting. Dont want once bloomers as I want repeat blooming. I am also considering Peggy Martin, the 'hurricane' rose but dont know how pliable her canes are.
    Judith

  • 17 years ago

    In California, Blush Noisette really is not a climber.
    It's a lovely, rounded Shrub:
    {{gwi:225230}}

    I wouldn't expect it to do a lot of climbing.
    Reve d'Or, of course, WILL climb quite vigorously.

    Jeri

  • 17 years ago

    I hadn't realised your Wisteria was so well behaved Judith - (not used to Wisteria doing anything other than running riot and being a bit of a menace) and have a feeling that most of the roses I mentioned are going to be too exuberant.

  • 17 years ago

    Jedi, is that Mel, da Kernel, in your photo? I miss his threads on the forum........I have Blush Noisette but its too small to tell what its growth pattern will be. That is a fabulous bush, but not what I need. The way I trained the wisteria was that I let it flop and grow all over, tip pruned it, it kept making canes. I let them get as long as I wanted them to be and keep them pruned to that size. Once it grows, the canes fatten and become more stiff - eventually, you end up with a big round shrub whose canes interweave with each other and stand up on their own. Many people dont take the time to do this, but they are beautiful. I twined Christmas lights thru it during the holidays and it was a huge ball of lights. Now.....am wanting to get some roses in it so can get bloom all summer. Do you think Reve d'Or would be too large for it?
    Judith

  • 17 years ago

    Yes Judith -- That's Da Kernel. I took that photo the last day we went rose-rustling together, right before he became too ill to go out and play.
    I miss him every day.

    As to your tree . . . I think one question is -- how tall is it? And how big is the ball at the top?
    Reve d'Or has some long strong canes.

    See the link for the big one in the Sacramento City Cemetery.

    I keep thinking it'd maybe be better just to circle the bottom with bush-form roses?

    Jeri

    Here is a link that might be useful:

  • 17 years ago

    alameda I would sure like to see a picture of your Wisteria. It sounds very beautiful.

  • 17 years ago

    I have never been able to figure out how to post photos [I would need extremely detailed instructions] but will be most happy to go snap a photo of the wisteria in the morning. Anyone who wants to see it can email me and I will forward the photo to them. One of these days......if anyone can take the time [and patience!] to get me started, I will be able to post photos. Visualize it as a mass of long branches tangling into themselves that sit just off the ground. It is like a medusa - but not like a tree, no trunk. In spring when in bloom, it is a mass of heavenly scented lavender blooms. I have alot of roses in the front yard and can smell it constantly. When we have lovely balmy spring days, I am working out there and breathing in the intoxicating wisteria scent, I have a visualization of what heaven must be like. Just let me know if anyone would like me to photo it.
    Judith

  • 17 years ago

    Alameda, you might want to try New Dawn. If your willing to wait a year 'till the wood gets old, it will be worth it because New Dawn is a tough climber with long wispy and pliable canes. It is very easy to train and blooms all the time with blush pink flowers. It blooms on old wood, so give it a little time to get going.

    Chance

  • 17 years ago

    I just sent Jeri a couple of photos of the wisteria and she said she would post them for me! Remember, its dead of winter here so just leaves on the ground and the bare plant. I have photos somewhere of it in full bloom - its just gorgeous! Hopefully seeing a photo will help visualize what I am trying to do -
    Judith

  • 17 years ago

    OK -- Here are two views of Judith's Wisteria.
    Now that I've seen it, I understand what she is doing. Judith, you want a rose to come up through this like a fountain, yes?

    Because it is winter, and not easy to see the plants, I have defaced Judith's nice images, using a thick red line to define the fountaining plant.
    Judith, I bet this is dynamite in the spring. Wish I had a place to do it.

    {{gwi:225231}}

    Jeri

  • 17 years ago

    Oh neat!! First time I have ever seen one of my photos posted! Jeri, you hit the nail correctly. I would love to see a fountain effect twining thru the branches or some sort of pliable climber snaking its way thru the branches. The bush is pretty tall so a fountain effect would have to grow big. Am still at a loss so looking forward to suggestions! And Jeri....looking forward to your tutorial on how to post photos! Thanks!

    Oh, and want to mention....there are big bridal wreath bushes in the yard and those along with the wisteria and 3 redbud trees, 2 peach trees in bloom and daffodils- just beautiful!! Of course it looks nothing like that now, but in another month it will all change. The yard man still has to come mulch and bag all these leaves so you can imagine the great stuff I will have for all these beds I am making!!
    Judith

  • 17 years ago

    OK.
    Now that I've seen the plant, I have a couple of suggestions.
    These may be entirely wrong for you, but they are both roses that I know will grow like a "fountain."
    i.e., you want the un-supported rose to go up and then arch out, like an actual fountain.

    1. 'Sombreuil' (the Large-flowered climber, per ARS, which was sold as a Climbing Tea)

    2. 'Fourth Of July' (This could be way cool against the blue-flowered wisteria. !Patriotic!)

    Of course, I have no clue about the disease-resistance of either of them in your climate.

    I know for a fact that Sombreuil will do it, for I grew it that way at one time.
    I know that Fourth Of July will do it, because I know someone who saw it, and said it was THE most effective way to grow Fourth Of July.

    Reve d'Or might do it, but I've never seen it done.

    Jeri

  • 17 years ago

    Jeri, what a coincidence you picked these roses! I just bought 4th of July at Lowes last week. And in Chamblees sale bin a couple of months ago.......I got an unknown white blooming rose that looks like climbing Sombreuil. Thats what the girl at Chamblees guessed. Is there a difference in the climbing form and Sombreuil? Did I read somewhere that the climbing form didnt bloom as much? But anyway....I have both roses and why not put them there?? I know 4th of July is supposed to be a heavy bloomer. The Cl. Sombreuil is a smaller plant but it will grow. I can use one more rose. Dont think Reve d'Or's color would go with 4th of July.....By the way.......I have business up near Tyler tomorrow....so I have decided to take the day off and go to Chamblees!! So! That means that if another rose can be decided on....perhaps Chamblees will have it. There are several I want out of the sale bin I didnt get last time - Amazone, Jean Bach Sisely, Golden Wings, Betty Prior. I have most all the rest of them in the sale bin...gotta make a clean sweep at these prices! I do plan to get Reve d'Or and put him on the back fence behind my barn where he will have plenty of sun and room to sprawl. And Lamarque, Duchesse de Brabant, and some others I "need" and dont have.....
    Judith

  • 17 years ago

    Is there a difference in the climbing form and Sombreuil?

    *** Is there a difference between a rooster and a mule? -G-

    ==
    The BUSH form Tea Rose, 'Mlle. de Sombreuil' has been wrongly sold as 'La Biche.'
    ==
    The Climbing Rose, 'Sombreuil,' now classed as a Large-Flowered Climber, is a Wichurana hybrid probably closely related to 'New Dawn.'
    It is a prolific bloomer here, with good disease-resistance.
    For good repeat, it must be deadheaded.
    It is of un-known origin.
    Whatever you want to call it, it is a fine climbing rose.
    ==

    And, no. I wouldn't plant FOJ with RdO.
    :-)

    Jeri