Hi Beth,

I grow Ramblin Red here in zone 5 Northern Michigan and find that it is quite cane-hardy, although I have a zone 4 friend who has to cut hers back in the spring. I think red roses would look lovely in the front of your home. The overhand shouldn't affect sun exposure too much since it is a south exposure, but you'll have to make sure the roof overhand doesn't keep the soil too dry. Roses don't like to sit in soggy soil, but they do like regular watering. Ramblin' Red has been an excellent heavy blomer for me with little problems with disease. We don't have many Japanese Beetles yet, but the rose chafers and rose leaf beetles don't seem to care for the red blooms (yeah!). I've seen plastic coated metal trellises in a couple of catalogs that are designed to fit around square posts. Somthing like that would be ideal, and you could train the canes around the posts as they grow (horizontal canes generally have a lot more bloom than upright ones, although Ramblin' Red has been good about blooming along vertical canes as well for me. The post trellis that I have seen is set away from the post a couple of inches. You wouldn't want to prune the rose to the ground in the fall or winter, but rather wait until spring to see how much good cane you have left. You can protect the canes somewhat with wrapped burlap, but you probably wouldn't like the way it looked since it is right in front of your house. I've run tiny twinkle lights through climbing rose canes for the winter - it looks like those tiny lights on grape vine and doesn't seem to generate any heat that would hurt the cane. Here in zone 5, I would plant it in early spring, but you could prepare the soil this fall (I use the top l/3 of the soil from the holes I dig, l/3 peat moss and l/3 compost). Good luck! Let us know what you decide to do.

Ramblin' Red is an exceptional rose for our zone. I'm not sure about your area, but I'm in southern Maine so you can imagine what our winter winds are like.

I really didn't protect RR, and of all my roses, it experienced the least winter die back. In fact IIRC, all I did was dead head the hips in spring, and she bounced back from winter like a champ. She sits about 5 feet from Henry Kelsey who is a black spot magnet, & RR suffers very little.

I planted RR about 12" from a fence. For now, all I'm doing to train her on the fence is periodically looping her long canes through the posts. I'm training her horizontally so this has been very easy. You may need to tie her canes upright with old panty hose to keep her on the trellis and columns.

RR is in an area in the yard that is hard hit by beetles though they prefer Henry Kelsey & Mary Rose. That's not to say, they're not feasting on RR. It's just not as bad.

Also, my RR is in a area that I rarely water. This is her 2ns year in the garden, and she's had to fend for herself water-wise. I've seen no problems.

I do not think her red blooms will clash with your house. I had a similar concern because I have a red door, and no flower matches that. Now I just ignore the door.lol I know you didn't ask, but at some point I'd consider painting that red part to match the rest of the house. I think as it is, it kind of stumps the top of the house. It's a beautiful house. I just don't get that part.

My other concern is that tree planted in the front. Will that eventually shade the front? Is it a maple? Maple roots are said to suck up every drop of water in the soil so it's not a great tree to plant near roses. Having said that, I have a smaller maple near my RR, and so far it's been OK. I imagine in about 5-10 years I may have an issue however.

Good luck!

Thank you all for the advice. I think I'm going to try growing one in the backyard next spring, before I venture out into the front yard.

I planted a potted Ramblin' Red a few days ago. Seems to be doing fine.
When planting in front of a house wall, put the rose a couple of feet out from the wall so it gets some rain water and isn't right up against the foundation.
Another red climber you might try is Quadra.