Laurie, I'm also in NJ (New Brunswick...since this past summer...originally from Long Island), but I'm only just getting my garden started this spring. I just wanted to throw another avenue of a suggestion your way.

Don't be put off by a once-bloomer for this spot if you don't find what you want in something that blooms again and again. You'll get more flowers in a once-blooming flush, and for when the rose isn't blooming, you can get more color by planting a companion clematis to use the rose as its own trellis. If you pick a type 3 clematis, you can get flowers for the rest of the summer, and pruning would simply be cutting the clematis back hard in the spring.

That being said, you may want to look through some of the climbing Hybrid Musks if you want a repeat-blooming rose that will tolerate less-than-full-sun. Perhaps 'Ghislaine de Feligonde' will work for you. Another suggestion might be 'Bubble Bath.'

:-)

~Christopher

Here is a link that might be useful: Ghislaine de Feligonde at HMF

Thanks for the rec Christopher.

I don't really mind if it's a once bloomer - I kind of had a feeling I may have to go that route, just hoping I could find something which would go all season.

The clematis is a great idea. I was looking at them last season, but never put any in since I didn't have an exact plan of what I wanted there yet. Plus, I didn't see any in my local nurseries that grabbed me visually either. I probably have to start looking earlier, or buy those online too.

I took a look at both you mentioned. I think I like Bubble Bath slightly better, color-wise it goes better with existing plantings in the area. I'll look around to see if any of the nurseries I've dealt with carry it, just in case :)

Thanks again!
Laurie

You're welcome!

The number of clematis varieties out there is almost as overwhelming as the number of roses, and as they're more part of my garden's plan as supporting cast rather than the stars, I actually prefer having fewer choices to agonize over. I've had good luck with clematis from Bluestone Perennials and Brushwood Nursery. Between them both, I can find just about anything I could want to compliment a big rose.

My "plan" (if you can call such a rough idea that) for starting this new garden here was to let the larger roses I have coming gain some size, and then stepping back and thinking about what general kind of clematis would "feel" right climbing up them (this one would like something purple and single, that one would like something white and double, type 2 or type 3, etc.). This means waiting a year or so as the roses gain some size and I get a feel for how they will behave here. Then I'll look through the two nurseries' websites to find a match.

:-)

~Christopher

If this spot gets as little sun as you say, a rose may not be the best choice for it. OGRs (including once bloomers) do not "tolerate shade" anymore than any other kind of rose. Some roses will live in shady conditions, but none of them are happy there.

How tall is the trellis? Is there any chance that the top of the trellis gets more sun than the rest of it? What direction does it face? (No, So, East? West?). The reason I ask is that I have a lot of roses which were planted in shade but managed to grow tall enough to get up to where there is some sunlight.

If it is really that shady, perhaps a shade loving vine which blooms in the shade would be better there.

Jackie

You bring up a good point there. I think I might have to pay some good attention to the way the sun moves around the area. It isn't the best time of year to do it, but might give me some idea of what to expect.

I think that the area mostly faces north, sort of on an angle, not completely north. There is very early sun which hits the foundation of the porch in the morning for a few hours, but I don't know if it's going to be quite enough.

I do know that the sun will hit the lattice on one side late in the day - the front of the house faces pretty much west, however, it's a long climb up to reach that area and I can see it taking a while for the rose to take off well enough to reach that height.

Maybe I am better off planting some kind of vine there instead of being disappointed by a rose which does poorly. I'll have to do some research on those.

Thanks very much for the advice!

Laurie

I live in Livingston, NJ. I have two Zephrine Droulins. They are still year (2-year old, own root), so I cannot tell about them much. Both got blackspot, but not more than others. ZD is thornless, and easy to train. ZD is reportedly shade tolerant, but I suspect that you would see marked decline in flower production. If the splot has quite a bit of reflected light, a rose might work.

I am sure you know this, but I made the mistake a couple of times already: the sun/shade we observe right now might be quite different than what we would see in the growing season. The spot I placed one of my potted roses is fully shade now by 1 p.m., but it will get to 3 p.m. or so during the summer.

ZD was one I considered a while back. I have another side of the porch, with no lattice (I like the neighbors on that side, the other side faces the street). I was thinking about training it up the porch column on that side - where the sunlight is substantially better all day.

I do know that the light changes over the course of the year. When I moved into this house (only have been here 2-1/2 years), I paid close attention to it the first spring/summer before I was able to get the new garden going (the old one, could not even have been called a garden, it was an overgrown mess of weeds, overgrown weed trees, ivy and such). By the time I was ready to actually plant my roses the following spring, I had a very good sense of which spots would work well for them, and put the ones which needed the most sun in the prime areas of course.

I didn't, however, pay much attention to that side of the house since I had a professional landscaper take care of foundation plantings, which consisted of hydrangea, schip laurels, barberry, some new trees (a dogwood and a flowering cherry), cleaning up existing yews and ancient rhododendrons. In other words, a lot of shade loving items. So, not so sure about a rose bush, now that I think about it :(

If you decide against a rose, perhaps a climbing Hydrangea or Schizophragma will work in the spot. A variegated cultivar will offer more interest outside the bloom time.

:-)

~Christopher