I am new to rose gardening and have no experience in pillaring, but I have seen a couple of the roses above in growth.

A fellow gardener has a mature John Cabot, it appeared quite bushy, tall and vigorous to me. It was approximately 4 feet high.

I planted Quadra last year, so it is young, but the growth of the branches are rather horizontal and somewhat flexible, I can see it easily being a climber. I have yet to see how vigorous it is.

I have not seen William Baffin, but I have seen a very established William Booth at a horticultural collage. It had tall arching 6 ft straight canes, very thorny, and vigorous. This was late in the season, and it was one of the few roses that was still generously flowering.

Hmmm...William Booth isn't available where I get my rose. So that's out.

Quadra might be a good choice then.

John Cabot sounds like it would be too short.

Hmmm....Quadra. :)

Thanks for your input.

Carol

The 'Quadra' planted at the prior location of Hole's Greenhouse had grown to be about 5 feet tall, though in my protected backyard it dies back close to the snowline.

I relegated 'John Cabot' to the back boundary where his nasty thorns can't grab and tear into me nearly so often, he's now become a neglected short sickly thing in need of TLC.

I've seen some very large sprawling specimens of 'William Baffin', though I've never been terribly keen upon the simple looking blooms, maybe I'm being fussy. I can't comment on 'William Booth'.

'John Davis', requires deeply dug fertile soil, otherwise it often fails to grow past the shrub stage. Though, with some pampering, mine had obtained a towering height of 11 feet in the fall of 2013, but then died back somewhat. Problem wasn't due to lack of hardiness, though rather the plant having desiccated during warm winter conditions. I always must protect these roses from grazing deer and moose and had tied the canes together with twine and pulled them towards the veranda. Then in January of 2014 came some really sunny warm temperatures up to 14 C and the heat near the house was intensified and reflected upon the rose and the uppermost tops of the canes had dried up. When you can sit and sun yourself in the cozy warmth of a January's day, you just gotta know the conditions are not good for plants prone to desiccation. Anyways, despite the very mild winter we're now experiencing, the rose is looking good cause I had leaned the plant away from the warmth of the house.

I'm looking forward to trying the 'Above and Beyond' rose and hope it proves reasonably hardy.

'Above And Beyond' rose

Above and Beyond looks very pretty - although it says that in really cold zone 3 weather it may freeze to the ground.

Five feet isn't all that tall so it wouldn't be able to pillar, I guess.

William Baffin sounds good. I like the look of the blooms. Never seen them in person though.

I have John Davis in my front yard, although like I said above - I wasn't able to see how to get it to climb. I need something with obviously long canes that I can work with and visualize how to get it to climb. I would love, love, love to have an 11 foot John Davis - it's a really wonderful rose. How did you get it to climb. Do you have any advice? If I could get John Davis to climb - that's the one I would get.

Thanks so much!

Carol

Carol, I had very deeply dug the soil about 20 inches deep by 30 wide and incorporated lots of peat moss and about a 1/6 th total volume of well rotted manure and this really did the trick to kick the 'John Davis' roses into gear. Each spring, I also give them a good sprinkle of triple 20 or something similar.

Okay, I've never tried manure. I guess I'll give it a go. Thanks!

Carol

Hi Carol,

I'm late on this thread but thought I'd chime in anyway ;)

I have William Baffin & I've found his new canes to be very flexible, enough to pillar, I would think. But, once laterals have bloomed, the canes aren't as flexible.

Also, I'm rather fond of Baffin's tomboyish blooms ;) I've had mine two years & have done more pruning than I expected to keep him in line, but he's also in a tight spot considering his vigorousness, so I'm heavy with the pruning. Yes he can be a beast, but from what I've read (haven't had mine long enough to say personally), good early spring & summer pruning, he can be contained. I guess it just depends on how much time you're able to give him & how heavy you're willing to prune ;) Luckily I had practice on my backyard grapevines before getting into climbing roses & got over the fear of cutting, ha!