Are you strictly looking for roses that bloom more than once per season (i.e. "repeat") or are you open to once-blooming climbing/rambling roses as well?

Do you have any color preferences?

What size are you envisioning your rose to be? (Some climbing roses are small enough, with sufficiently stiff canes, that they can be pruned to be large shrubs, while other climbing roses are large enough to cover most of the side of a house.)

Will you be growing the rose in a mostly vertical fashion (e.g. on an arbor or trellis) or a mostly horizontal one (e.g. along a fence)?

Hi,

I don't have any color preference. It would be wonderful to have repeat blooming roses climbing vertically over my arbor.

Lisa

Quadra. It is dark red with old-fashioned full form and some repeat bloom; fully hardy, very disease resistant, and suitable in size for an arbor.

Other candidates would be John Davis (light pink) and John Cabot (strong fuschsia pink). That's about it for 5a-hardy repeaters. Don't expect heavy repeat bloom.

You can order bareroot plants from Pickering Nurseries for delivery next spring when you think the soil will be well thawed.

Pics and info at HelpMeFind.com.

Far left is Captain Samuel Holland. The light pink rose on the left side of the arbor is John Davis. The dark red on the right side of the arbor is Quadra

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The pink mound on the far right is Frontenac, which is not a climber.

I haven't downloaded the John Cabot pictures from the camera yet.

Quadra looks gorgeous! I've never heard of it. It must be a newer variety.

Lisa

William Baffin is another possibility for a tough climber, as is Viking Queen.
I have an Alchymist climber (non-repeater) I love. There's also ramblers to think about, and things like Ghislaine de Feligonde, which I do not have yet, but is supposed to repeat. North Creek Farms over in Phippsburg is a local source for roses, & Suzy Verrier is pretty good about answering rose questions.

'Ramblin' Red' is an outstanding climber for zone 5. Vigorous, disease-free, good repeat.

Others are: 'Rosarium Uetersen', 'Sky's the Limit', 'Golden Arctic', 'Zeus', 'Goldstern', 'Kiss of Desire', 'Felix Leclerc', 'Goldregen', 'Climbing Carefree Sunshine'. All are doing well for me.

The Canadian Explorer roses mentioned above are mostly cane hardy in zone 5a. Some of the others will have some dieback but hardy means the roses will grow back from the roots after being severely pruned. Those root hardy for me
are Fourth of July, Autumn Sunset, Royal Sunset, Aloha, Clair Matin, Purple Splash, Jean LaJoie, Westerland, Coral Dawn, Compassion, Berlin, Dublin Bay, and Viking Queen. Some of these will have up to 3 feet of green cane after pruning, depending on the severity of the winter.
Ramblin Red, Darlow's Enigma and New Dawn, are cane hardy also, requiring only tip pruning.
All mentioned are repeat blooming.

Nahema survives the winter with a significant amount of cane. I do not winter protect. It has beautiful pink blooms and a nice fragrance (it is named after a perfume). I got mine own root at Roses Unlimited.
http://rosesunlimitedownroot.com/new_page_4.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: Nahema

The good thing about Nahema is that it's almost thornless, just like its parent, Heritage. Unlike Heritage, Nahema blooms last longer. The photos at helpmefind rose doesn't do justice. A mature climbing Nahema can look absolutely dreamy.

Thanks to all of you for your help. I'm going to look up all of your suggestions and decide which roses I'm going to buy.

Lisa

It's understandable that rose enthusiasts don't want to restrict themselves to the few Canadian Explorer roses that are fully cane hardy. But I think if you only have one climber, you want it to be blooming at the top of the arbor in June, the time when climbers produce by far their heaviest bloom on old canes that survived the winter.. If you have minus 20 and a less-hardy climber is damaged down to 3' stubs, it will bloom in June as a shrub and then produce a few long climber shoots that will not bloom much before being killed back the following winter. If the rose is damaged to the ground, you get even less. With some of the roses mentioned, full cane-hardiness probably depends on whether the actual winter low is minus 8 or minus 18 in a particular year.

Going along with micahelg's statement, I am growing "America." It is a large flowered climber with high-centered blooms that resemble a hybrid tea. Unfortunately it is not cane hardy. It is too close to a shade tree, and only grows 5'. I wish I could see grow here in a sunny location. The flowers are coral colored and beautiful.

I also grow Spectra, another large flowered climber, that I absolutely love. It too has high-centered hybrid tea style blooms. In France I believe it is regarded as a hybrid tea. Mine will reach seven feet tall. However, it is not a Zone 5-A rose bush. I have it in a very protected location that gets full sun but it protected from the wind. Although it gets cold temps, it would mimic a Zone 7 micro climate. The roses in this bed are tremendously vigorous.

I also am growing what I believe is Dr. Huey (the common rootstock used for roses) and it puts on a tremendous display. It is a great climber and once was sold in commerce. It is cane hardy.

I have to second (or third or fourth, I lost track) Ramblin' Red. It's fully hardy in my garden and grows like a monster. One warning - give it something sturdy to climb on. It will rip anything flimsy right out of the ground. Voice of experience here, LOL! I had to cut it down to the ground this spring to extract the old trellis and it is already 4 feet tall again and covered with buds. In a week or so, the new pergola will be up and it can go crazy again.