Where are these roses going to spend the winter? Large pots are hard to move, and if they cannot be moved to a warmer place for the winter, the roses will have to be considerably hardier than zone 6. The usual recommendation for plants to be left outside for the winter is two zones hardier.

Wow, thank you for the instant and thorough reply! TMI is good, I am here so I can get it right :) mad_gallica, I am not looking to bring the roses in, as you said, it will be quite the mission. They will have to spend the winter outside, I can mulch and wrap the container for a bit more insulation. Cane and root hardiness is a big concern. John, the container each rose would be is a half whiskey barrel - something like 25" wide and 18" deep. I will amend the soil regularly and try to get the best nutrition in. I realize I need to be looking at options a couple of zones lower to be on the safe side. That brings me to zone 4, but I think I should be able to get away with zone 5, because the location is sheltered from winds, and there is some heat reflected off the side of the house. I have a young Don Juan that has made it through two winters there, it shouldn't really be that hardy, but then again it is too early to tell if it will make it down the road and put on significant growth. I've had New Dawn grown the same way in the past, it grew happy and big, but it was a once spring bloomer for me. I've read good things about Quadra now, but it is red, I am looking for the white/pale pink alternative to that... The roses I mentioned (climbing Iceberg, Jasmina, Jeanne Lajoie, Viking Queen) are all listed to zone 5, but I will wait the see what the folks with cold weather experience have to say about them, or any other light colored vigorous alternatives.

For this situation, I think Clematis would work better. You could put one in a barrel, then plant annuals around it to fill in more. If you go with a Type-2, you'll get one wave of bloom during "rose season", a pause during the middle of Summer, and then some repeat in late Summer into Autumn. If you go with a Type-3 large flowered, you'll get one long bloom during mid Summer. If you go with a Type-3 small flowered, they typically bloom late Summer into Autumn. If you're trying to maximize color, you could go with one of the Type-3s and plant some Sweet Pea seeds at the base every year, and they'll bloom early and fade as the Clematis gets going.

If you're not a fan of Clematis, another option would be Wisteria 'Blue Moon'. Planting it in a barrel will keep it from sending runners through the garden. You can still plant annuals around it for color at the base.

:-)

~Christopher

A repeat blooming climber listed for zone 5 is a rose that dies back over the winter, but comes back and reblooms. Extremely few of them are hardy enough to climb. So most zone 5 rose growers don't do much with climbers. Explorers will handle the conditions, but they aren't all that big. 15 ft is big for an Explorer. The rose that immediately leaps to my mind for what you want is a once bloomer, Baltimore Belle. It will, however, probably eat those containers for lunch, and then start looking for dinner.

There is a big difference between insulation and heat. The only thing insulation does is slow down temperature changes. So an insulated container cools down more slowly at night, but then heats up more slowly during the day. Sometimes things close to the house are heated by warmth escaping from the house, but that is something different.

Excuse me chiming in here from my sub-tropical climate [joke].... but a rose that might suit your situation would be one I've grown in the past here in England, which is much hardier than needed for this country..... a Canadian explorer rose, a type that's been mentioned by mad gallica above, called 'William Baffin'.... it's a pretty pink, not much scent and it climbs...but with a shrubby type habit - it's not rampant... I grew it on an arch.... it flowers repeatedly, and I found it quite floriferous. I would imagine a rose such as this would survive your half barrel outdoors in your zone.

Here's a link to my local UK site for this rose if you want to have a look...
W Baffin

The rose 'Jasmina' I would declare as being quite unsuitable.... besides being very coarse and thorny, it's not what I would call a blooming machine, and most of the clusters are at the ends of the long canes. I fell out of love with it rather quickly...

Siana, one thing that I forgot to mention/ask is whether the containers are actual whiskey barrels, or if they might be the imitations of plastic. The wooden ones offer more insulation from temperture swings, but they are notoriously short-lived, and THEN you're stuck with re-potting, which is not something you want to do with an 8' thorny monster (don't ask me how I know, lol). Now, that aside, I've really wracked my brain to come up with a few roses that might work, but there's a caveat in that I haven't grown all these (and even so, my disease pressure and zone is different from yours), and none meet ALL your requirements/wants. The main thing is that none will climb much higher than that 8' I mentioned. I just don't think the amount of soil will support a rose as rampant/vigorous/robust as you'd need to reach and arch over at the second story level.

Colette is one I haven't grown, but there are a couple of people on the forum that grow it with varying degrees of success in Z5. John Davis is one of my personal favorites, not too thorny, a pretty clear, cool pink, not too broad. Viking Queen I had, but lost to RRV. It MIGHT be too vigorous (it likes to grow OUT and broad, too) but it's a gorgeous, full, high-centered flower, and bloomed all summer for me if I tip pruned after Spring flush. Clair Matin is a warm pink; she was never very vigorous for me, but did throw some long canes. The problem is she's rated 6b, so someone else needs to chime in on her hardiness.

Colette
John Davis
Viking Queen

Clair Matin

As a last resort, you could take Christopher's advice and go with a vine, either a haardy one or a tropical throwaway: clematis, allamanda, mandevilla, etc. (Of course they're all a poor substitute to the heart that's set on a rose!)

Oh, I meant to mention that Marlorena's suggestion of Wm Baffin is a good one, though for me he grew as broad as tall. I don't have him anymore, but it was a good rose.

I have W Baffin, 3 of them, they're huge but not much repeaters. Clematis is a good one. There is a red one called Rebecca repeats more. I tried last winter with Cl pinkie in a huge pot outdoor, it didn't make it.

The Home Depots in my area carry resin barrels that are made to look like wood. They're 22 1/2" in diameter at the top, narrowing a bit to the base, and about 15" tall. See link below -- they're only $20 each.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/22-1-2-in-Dia-Rustic-Oak-Resin-Whiskey-Barrel-Planter-with-Iron-Band-HDR-023395/205626595

:-)

~Christopher

Thanks Chris! The pot I have is a 20-21" big pot, it didn't work for Cl Pinkie. It's too cold here. Want to come back to this lovely ice hole?! :-) Next Sat will be high 9F, low 1F, great for BBQ on the deck. :-)

Yeah, no thanks.

:-)

So far here, the lowest temps have still been above 10F for a few very cold nights, and most days are above freezing -- at least, at some point. We had just one major snow "incident", and may get another couple of inches in a few days, but overall it's been a much milder Winter than last year and the year before. I should be able to bring my potted roses outside at the end of the month. And since they don't look like they went completely dormant, I just may be getting blooms from them much earlier than from the ones in the ground.

And even though this one has been a touch milder than normal, I still hate Winter.

:-/

I'm going to try again with leaving roses out in the barrel pots for Winter next year, but this time I'm sticking to Damask Perpetuals, Hybrid Perpetuals, and repeat-blooming old Mosses. Since they're generally hardy in zone 5, I'm thinking they'll be a safer bet than the HTs that bit the dust after enduring Winter 2014-2015 outside. I wanted a few more, but there's no more room in the ground -- so potted they will be.

:-)

~Christopher

I grow some climbers in pots here in zone 6 NJ (I don't know if I am 6a or 6b). I do not have a garage to store them in, so they stay out all year. However, all my potted climbers are grown right up against the house, so I imagine they get some warmth and shelter in that way. I have experimented with protection - I used to mound the entire thing, pot, plant and all, with straw - however, one year a vole or something got in and damaged some canes. So for the past 3 years all I do is mound straw around the pots; the roses themselves are not covered, though I added a bit of leaf mulch to the surfaces. Here are the climbers I grow - all have survived at least 3 winters in the conditions I describe (including the past 2 very rough winters):

Party Hardy; Cape Diamond; Felix LeClerc; Falstaff (doesn't really climb for me); and Weeping China Doll.

With the exception of Falstaff, all of these roses repeat really well. Felix LeClerc is especially nice because he's not at all thorny, so is good right by my front door.

Note that all of these except Weeping China Doll (which is, I think, zone 6) are very hardy roses; that's why I chose them for this purpose. Also, none are too huge - I wouldn't try to grow a really big climber in a pot. As for Weeping China Doll, this was an experiment; I love this rose so much and really wanted one growing by my bedroom window, so decided what the heck, I'd try it. So far, she has done really well! And as I said, made it through the last 2 brutal winters.

Hope this helps!

Better drop your color preference... you can get excellent repeat, the height you desire plus cane and root hardiness with Quadra or Ramblin' Red!

Now there is this found rose named Champagne Arches that is supposed to be zone 4 hardy and meets your color preferences, however I do not know if it repeats well and that information does not seem to be available anywhere reliable.

Ha Chris! Winter is going after you, and you have nowhere to hide! :-) You might need to cover up your zone 7 roses this weekend. This coming Sat we will have low temp around-5/-6F, you might have 1 / 2F, not much warmer than here.......

Yes, and I'm not looking forward to it. But last year and the year before we got down that low -- even a touch lower, as I recall a night or two each year that dipped just below 0F -- and only two died outright. Those were 'Jaune Desprez' and "Secret Garden Musk Climber" after Winter 2013-2014. I replaced SGMC with a gallon-sized plant, and that one survived Winter 2014-2015. I gave up on the pipe dream of having a Tea-Noisette growing out in the open on my dying Japanese maple, and stuck 'Baltimore Belle' there instead.

Many things had damage, but rebounded after I cut out the dead bits. Of course, the ones with little or no damage were the OGRs with little or no China/Tea in them. But even "Bermuda Spice", which had to be cut back to under 12" inches the last two Springs, rebounded to about 5' X 5' by the end of each season. I was hoping to see what it does when starting Spring with something more like 3', but this weekend may keep that from happening. Meanwhile, my potted roses look frozen in time -- few leaves dropped, but no active growth, and no discernible damage. They're hanging out in my enclosed unheated back porch, getting some sun from the windows.

This cold blast is an anomaly this year, coming as a brief interruption in otherwise mild weather. I'm hoping that such a short dose of intense cold followed by temperatures in the 50s a few days later won't kill anything. The Chinas and China-Teas I planted in the ground in 2015 are mostly in a protected spot against the house and facing south. The few I put in my tiny front yard are a bit more exposed, but I planted them deeply.

We'll see in just another month or so, when I start pruning. Being a zone-pusher, I realize I take risks -- but how else do we learn? And frankly, considering the more tender Chinas and Teas keep blooming through our hot and humid Summers, they're worth it.

:-)

~Christopher

Good luck to all your roses Chris! Hope you won't lose any from this cold weekend. I put mulch around all my old garden roses, DA roses, they should be ok with one night down to -6F. I covered Annie with a big garden pot. I might cover Renae tomorrow with something, it finally has a cane about 3' tall, not sure what to use yet, may be a blanket......

Try Christmas lights -- as long as they're not the newer LEDs, which don't give off much heat.

:-)

~Christopher

Good idea!! Will do. :-) Thanks!!

Of course there are rose options that will work if the rose could be place in the ground. Then plant a complimentary plant in the pot. Perhaps there is not soil available in that area.

The cold coming this weekend is bad, but not nearly as bad as we had last winter or the winter before. I too lost my Desprez a fleur jaune last year - but since DH and I both love this rose so much I'm going to try it again. Only this time I'm trying an own-root (my previous one was a graft) and I will resign myself to protecting it every winter (I got complacent, because I had had the grafted one for many years).

For me, its important to find roses that will survive in pots, because I really do have areas where its just not feasible to plant them in the ground. For example, right up against our new bedroom addition, the ground literally is nothing but gravel! But I really wanted climbing roses around the windows, so it had to be pots. I think with proper selection, you can really make a go of it. I hope you like some of the varieties that people have suggested, and that it works out for you, Siana!