Oh, and I forgot...continnual blom would be great, but I want at LEAST a repeat bloomer.

No, I am not picky! :o)

My Eden is not climber-cane hardy, meaning most winters she needs to be pruned back severely due to winterkill and never really reaches climbing height. I've had her going on 4 years now.

What about New Dawn? I think she would be hardy enough in the area you describe. For me, doesn't repeat much, but for the first time last year (her 5th) she kicked out what I could actually call a second flush in the fall.

Unfortunately there aren't too many climbers that reliably repeat that are hardy in the north.

The question is, what's wrong with John Davis?

Cecile Brunner didn't survive here as a bush.

Yes, the micro-climate of a warm south wall will be at least a zone warmer than elsewhere around your property.

Rosarium Uetersen would be a very nice, large pink and romantic looking climber in this spot. It also repeats well and suffers little disease. I doubt you would need to winter protect the canes at all to get it through winter with minimum dieback in this location.

As Mad Gallica pointed out, John Davis is also a good choice, but you need to be careful planting JD against a southern wall and ensure the roots are planted a good 2 feet away from the base of the wall and angling away from it. JD can suffer bad mildew when planted in areas, such as a south wall, that are very hot in summer and where air circulation may not be the best.

Tim

John Davis is cane hardy with an excellent spring flush, but mine does not really repeat very well. Awakening however bloomed continuously for me last year, reaching 8 to 10 feet for a two year old plant. There was some winter die-back, but was completely unprotected last year. I wrapped it in burlap its first year, and it did very well through a zone 4/5 winter.

Mike

the morden man said: "Yes, the micro-climate of a warm south wall will be at least a zone warmer than elsewhere around your property. "

That was exactly the info I was searching for, thank you gobs! All the other tips are great, too, and I will also lok into the other mentioned roses.

I am SO in love with the rose 'Annie Laurie McDowell.' Wonder of I can stretch to a 6? Only one way to find out, I suppose!

How about Viking Queen? Gorgeous in all the pictures I've seen of her and she does rebloom.

Ingrid

Viking Queen? That is gorgeous!! But then, so is John Davis...and Rosarium Uetersen....and...and...

I don't know why the HR site didn't display VQ one under the hardy rose heading. The description says flat-out that it is winter hardy, and to zone 4, even...

I am extremely impressed with the 'Awakening' Climbing Rose.

This cultivar is listed as zone safe for USDA 5 through 9

'Awakening' repeat blooms from May through November in my zone 6b/7a

'Awakening' is a sport of 'New Dawn' and has all the great resistance qualities which 'New Dawn' displays.

The blooms are a very lovely pink, which shows well against the glossy dark green background leaves.

'Awakening' climber can send out canes 15 - 20 feet long.

I have experienced that this climber also bounces back well from very drastic pruning. I have a friend who prunes hers drastically each spring, and I have pruned mine even more than that. By the time I finished pruning mine they appeared to look more like a shrub rose shape, but when pruning them that way, before mine went dormant in late fall toward early winter, they had once again grown an abundance of 10 to 15 feet long canes. They grew that well even though I kept them pruned in a manner where they would ramble along my berm.

I have never seen blackspot, or other common rose diseases on mine; not even last spring, when we saw several months of mostly cloudy and rain event days.

My friend has Awakenings trained to cover the north sides of three foot high planter dirt filled cages in which, on the top of that soil, 'Carol Mackie' Daphne Burkwoodii shrubs were planted and are growing well. The only problem she experienced with them was last spring when we had so many repeat days of cloudy and wet rainy weather. Since her roses have a six foot tall privacy fence directly to the south of them and they are tied to grow along and fill-in the entire north side of the above mentioned openweave, but dirt filled planter baskets, those canes and their leaves which were growing along the side of the planter stayed moist for too long of periods. Within a week of such conditions, her 'Awakenings' became infested with what she called a milk mold. She had to treat her roses for that condition repeatedly until the seasons changed to more dry conditons.

Like I mentioned above, my Awakenings which I had trained to ramble along the south and west sides of a corner berm did not show any milk mold problems; not even during the nearly continuous rainy spring season last year.

This Spring our spring rain events are more normal, with enough time between the rains for plants to dry. In these conditions my friend is not seeing any milk mold problems on her 'Awakenings', so it seems reasonable to not expect any such problems occuring in your USDA Zone 5, southern wall's, even higher microclimate zone, exposure.

Greenhaven, you can't believe everything you read. I can attest to Viking Queen definitely NOT being cane hardy in zone 4 - in fact, it makes a very short and unhappy shrub here. I bet to do well as a climber, it would have to live in zone 6.
JMO, but I would go for a proven hardy climber even for your microclimate. Pushing it with a zone 6 rose is asking for big disappointment after investing several precious gardening years with a merely "hopeful" candidate - after all, how many gardening seasons are there in a gardener's life? Do you really want to lose 4 or 5 of them experimenting with a borderline rose in such a prominent and important spot? Take advice from one with years thrown away on marginally hardy roses and go with a more sure bet.

Katrina and Mike, thanks for the info about Awakening, which I will speedily pass on to my sister in Ohio! Waaaay back when I lived in Ohio a lot of people in the rose club were growing Blossomtime (bred from New Dawn), beautiful pink fragrant blooms. Perhaps Awakening has supeceded it, but Blossomtime's worth a look.

Delbard roses are supposed to be hardy in zone 5, at least according to Ashdown roses (not cane hardy). Two Delbard climbers are Nahema and Papi Delbard. Anyone grow Delbards in zone 5?

Rosarium Uetersen is a great rose and very hardy. But then I'm only in z5a so you're a bit colder.

New Dawn is marginal here but it's parent, Dr. W. VanFleet is hardier but of course is not a repeater. I got it as a purported ND.

I had Viking Queen I think but it died some years ago. Don't remember much about it. I have a number of other climbers out of which another one, Antique '89 seems quite hardy but new, a couple of years old, so don't know yet about the flowering. The rest haven't prospered or have dieback.

Keep 'em coming, today is the day I have decided I am deciding and stopping this insane hemming and hawing!

Great suggestions, lovely choices.

Greenhaven I've found Ramblin' Red to be extremely hardy & always in bloom (though not like its first flush of the season). I'd consider pushing the envelope a little in that micro-climate, though. Isn't New Dawn the one people rave about?

BTW I've heard that Rosarium Uetersen is a fabulous rose.

Viking Queen- Two planted in a micro-climate and are only tiny after two full years in the garden. Like two feet tops.
John Davis- Has never rebloomed for me. Gets mildew.
Rosarium Uetersen- No dieback about five feet tall after two years and I have moved it this spring to a sunnier location. Healthy beautiful color.
New Dawn- Had two no repeat ripped them out.
Awakening- Put one in last year and love it. Put in two more this year that took the place of a William Baffin(no rebloom) and a Fourth of July moved to a location were it can be a shrub. I love Awakening so far. I did not winter protect it this winter but did the winter before. NO dieback at all.

Gosh, it's so easy to miss replies on this forum!

I think I have it narrowed down. 'New Dawn' sounds fabulous, and is very pretty, but I think I want something darker pink. Plus, it seems they are everywhere, though probably for a good reason! I guess I want something a little different. Awakening intrigues me too, but again, something darker, I think.

A couple other good choices will be too short, and my thought of 'Cecile Brunner' there is O-U-T after seeing pics of it getting tremendously large and taking-over-y.

So, I think it is down to 'Rosarium Uetersen' or one from HR called 'Lavender Lassie.' The only thing keeping me from RU is that I don't know where to get one. Unless I hear about a supplier for RU it will be 'Lavender Lassie.' Maybe still 'Awakening.' How tall does it get for those who have it? And, I have seen two photos of it that are radically different.

http://www.rdrop.com/~paul/climbers/awakening.html
-and-
http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com/rose-1028.html

Which one is more accurate?

I tried to view the pics but could only find the one from antique.... anyway if it is a darker pink you want then do not go with Awakening. I chose this rose due to it's size. I hope it will get as big as New Dawn did for me about thirteen feet in only a couple of years, a monster. I want it to climb up a post and then over a pergola. So due to it's height and reports of good rebloom I chose it. Good luck Amy

Thanks, both. I think I am gong with 'Lavender Lassie' since I cannot find a source for 'Uetersen' (even though I think it is the best choice, and Boy1 choce it as his favorite of three.)

Here are a few pics for you:

{{gwi:260263}}
{{gwi:260264}}
{{gwi:260265}}
{{gwi:236207}}

In my garden, JD repeats for me after I give it extra MG and yes, it does get mildew, but not much. I love this rose and have 3 three of them. RU never got taller than 4-5 ft and this was only after I moved it to a much warmer part of the yard. The color is more salmon-pink. Its a beautiful healthy climber.
VQ got tall for me, but it topped out at around 6 ft. It did repeat for me, and never had any dieback, and was very disease resistant.