I would go for it! However, I would remove the gravel and see what the soil is like. Three feet is plenty of space especially considering that the fence is open so there isn't a worry about air circulation. How tall is the fence? You may just be able to use some taller narrower roses, as well.

🤩 I would go crazy planting if I had a blank canvas like that, and i have a thing for climbers and vines.

GO HOG WILD! 😃.

=) YESSSS ... I also got super excited to see your great spot. As long as your sun exposure is good (which seems to be), I would check the soil like Vapor suggested and go crazy planting climbers. Add a few clematises to that and you are set. Good luck with your project. I would love to have a fence like that.

edit: Dirt Digger for some reason your post did not show for me before lol. It was fun to see my excitement mirrored.

🤣🤣 im jealous of that fence!!!

Oh boy! Is that ever going to look awesome ! I would love to have a fence like that to grow roses on.

Any idea what you want to plant?

The quality of your soil there is critical to success. What's under that gravel? I dread to know! How about planting climbers alongside the outside of the fence? The soil may be better there, or more easily amended. You have plenty of light. Plan on lots of watering. An in-ground system would be ideal, if not mandatory. Roses are water hogs!

If the soil there, under the gravel, is good, or amenable, getting the gravel out and getting good soil in, into such a narrow space will not be easy, if not nearly impossible.

Let's picture everything done right with climbing roses planted at 10-12 foot centers, plan on them extending 18-20" out from the fence. How will you wiggle into that narrow space between their extended growth,and the rocks to: prune, fertilize, mulch, dead head, etc., on a regular basis, and enjoy the experience. Roses have thorns.

Roses are phototrophic. Their growth and flowers orient to the direction of sunlight. You will enjoy seeing more of the climbers' blooms because your house and porch are south of the fence, although a good number of blooms will still face away from the house for the enjoyment of pedestrian traffic, but you will get the better show.

If you can plant the climbers on the outside of the fence, you're more likely to have far fewer problems, and a more enjoyable time caring for your roses.

Moses

Wow, i wish I had that much space for a climber. It looks like the aspect faces the sun - I agree the rose could be planted on the other side of the fence. I have a nahema which is beautiful but is on the wall of a house that gets shade from mid autumn on. It reaches out for the sun. The flowers are beautiful and fragrant but there would be a lot more on a fence in full sun!

Why not plant the roses on the yard side of the rocks then train the canes out over the gap to the fence then along the top of the fence in both directions. Use black coated wire #14ga for attaching the canes to across the gap. It won’t break and you won’t have to replace it as the canes grow. You end up with a tunnel that you could still navigate for weed maintenance. You may have to crawl but you're down in the dirt where most of us want to be anyhow.... :-)))

Since the canes would be horizontal across the gap and along the top of the fence they will produce more laterals thus more roses….. Have fun….

Jackie your garden and roses never ceases to amaze me. I love that beautiful climber and how delicately it just fits in your space. I know I probably can’t grow many teas in my zone, but would you please share the names of some of your favorites so I can at least try. I planted MAC this year (I guess not exactly the same as a real tea? Still learning about some of those roses. Thank you! I love seeing your garden.

Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions! I don’t think I can plant on the outside of the fence but I will ask. Originally we planned on putting some pencil conifer Trees or arborvitae in that space to allow privacy from the walking traffic. However there is a canal on the other side of the pathway with ducks and geese and as silly as it sounds we really enjoy sitting on the patio watching them. So thought about climbers along the fence, they won’t offer much privacy but a little bit. I have been growing roses for years but I have little experience with climbers. I was thinking of romantic color tones. I have 2 pretty in pink edens ordered to come in next month. I have been thinking about a Florentina, and a Light pink maybe Kiss me Kate and pearly gates? I have been reading old post and I have concerns about Kiss me Kate blooming well.

What suggestions do you have? I like all

colors but tend to gravitate to whites and red/pink for landscaping and soft pinks and peaches for up close or in house.

Jackie~thanks for sharing your picture of your beautiful climber and the space it takes up.

I have about a month to remove rocks and amend the soil. Happy to have a plan and project to work on now!

dianela7bnorthal - I have always gardened in zone 9, which is now evidently changing slowly into more of a zone 10, so I am sorry, but I don't have any knowledge about tea roses which might survive in zone 7b. The best source of info is local people who grow roses - try your local rose society. I am not sure you will find anyone there who knows anything about tea roses, but you might. MAC is a tea noisette, and noisettes are also not very cold hardy, so seeing how it does in your garden will be interesting. If you start a thread on the Antique Rose Forum, along the lines of asking if anyone grows tea roses (all of which are antique roses) in your area, you might get some useful info. One thing, if you do decide to plant any kind of a tea rose, try to plant it in the absolutely warmest part of your garden - South facing, and up against a wall would be great.

Jackie

MAC is one of those roses that's surprisingly hardy at least to Z6. How has yours overwintered?

Thank you very much Jackie :). I will keep that in mind and try some in a sheltered south exposure with my brick to warm it up.

Vapor I planted two one gallon own root MACs, I think I got them from ARE with their thanksgiving special. They are tiny but no die back at all so far. I planted them and mulched them heavily with pine straw. I hope they do well here.

We will have to compare. I ordered one for my friend's chimney and have at least one cutting that I can plant this year. I lost mine from ARE after planting it in my h@ll hole virtual Z5 poor drainage flooded area. Live and learn. I should have repotted it after the deer ate it down instead of just moving it. Live and learn again!!! At least I have well-rooted cuttings. It's an easy one to replicate. On another note, I was THRILLED to see NO die-back on Maggie this year. I can not wait for her luscious blooms. Felicia and Cornelia were equally hardy. In fact, all of my climbers made it through with zero to minimal die-back including Cl.Clotilde Soupert and Cl. Crimson Glory.

Hi Lala. I'm guessing your from Boise, as am I. Do you have a drip system you can run along the inside of the fence for the roses because they will surely need it in this semiarid desert. I usually plant my bare root roses by March 25, so I hope your roses coming aren't bare root. I think Edwards here in Boise may have the climbers you like in 5 gallon pots. They are filling orders online and will have your roses ready to pick up outside the buildings. We need to support them--they are the best, and their prices on the roses, for the size they sell, is great. Go to their website, and click on "roses' for the PDF lists. I apologize if you already know all this. I didn't know if you just moved here, or if you have been growing roses in Boise for years. Welcome to the forum--but maybe you've been posting here for a while, and I've somehow missed you. Good luck. Diane

I think I'm better known as nanadoll, but houzz killed her off a while back. Diane

I was hoping you'd pipe in, Diane. :-D Lala, pay attention to what she says. If you've seen her roses, you'll understand why.

Lala, those rocks might prove very useful if you can stand on them to prune those climbers.

As for MAC, I believe Cynthia grows it in her cold zone. Mine didn't make it through it's first winter in the garage waiting to get in the ground. I want to try it again someday.

I am just wondering, when you have nice thick bushy thorny climbers in that space, how do you squeeze in between them and the rocks to safely remove weeds from the bottom. It seems like a management nightmare to me.

We usually want our climbers to have foliage and blooms all the way to the ground, but in this case, it might be easier to maintain if these climbers have bare knees with most of the bushy part toward the top.

Perhaps she could focus on finding low thorn or thornless roses such as climbing Pinky, Peggy Martin, Rend Violette Etc.

Is the fence yours to do with as you please?

Seil~ Yes I can plant on the fence.

Diane~ I live in Meridian and I do shop at Edwards. Trying to decide what climbers to add from them. I am not seeing anything available that I want for a climber on the list really....

I have some Roxanne Veranda‘s ordered from them to place in the front yard.

Phillip~ I am wondering about managing them as well. I will probably get four of them and see how it goes. I suppose if it’s a nightmare I can remove them, but hoping they will workout. I guess time will tell.

thank you all for the input.

Lala....I think roses on that fence would be so beautiful! There is a fence very similar to that at a garden I visited recently, and they had climbing roses trained on it.

Here's some pics for inspiration! (I know the varieties probably wont work in your zone, but it's just fun to see how beautifully they've been trained).

Great photos, Rosylady! I think one of the wonderful things about climbers is how adaptable they can be. Unlike some shrubs, they can be trained to suit all kinds of crazy, challenging locations. I think you could train them to the top of the fence and frame out whatever views you wanted to keep, and still create some privacy.

Can’t wait to hear about what you plant! 😊

RosyLady: thank you for sharing those beautiful roses! Great for inspiration. I remember years ago someone on this forum posted a bunch of climbing roses that filed an iron fence and they were gorgeous. I will never forget that picture, but unfortunately I can’t find it now. I think she was from the northwest not sure.

thanks again for the pictures I love looking at inspiration pics.

Wow !! I love this space . Excellent advice from everyone!!! I bet if you mulch thick enough weeds won’t be too much a bother . I love Jacqueline advice , not to let the perfect get in the way of good . Solid life advice there !!!

I bet the view is very special , please share if you feel inclined !!

Lilyfinch: the view really isn’t pretty, unfortunately across the other side of the canal is more subdivision back yards. That is one reason we wanted to plant privacy trees but I think the roses will be stunning and I guess I am getting used to looking over yonder to others back yard haha!

Lala Idaho, here is a pic of some Zeffies on a fence....

Toolbelt68: wow stunning!

toolbelt....I love your picture so much! Using one variety of rose makes stunning impact....beautiful!

Toolbelt, your house must stop traffic. How do you prune and dead-head them?

Toolbelt is that your yard?

That's the front yard fence. I only prune out the dead stuff, when I get around to it. I have a rule that I follow. Grow or Go! I don't worry about them at all. They have been here for millions of years and will be here long after I'm gone.

I have 60 or so of them all over the place. AND yes they get black spot -- whatever that is-- and they lose their leaves. That's when I cut out the dead stuff. Dead heading is up to them as 60 plants x 100 roses per plant = just too much work......

Here are a few more:

This one says it all....

I like your philosophy Toolbelt. If I ever have a place to grow gigantic roses they will have to do some self maintenance.

Your yard is absolutely incredible!!

Yes, toolbelt, just gorgeous! They clearly respond well to your tough love!! 😊

Wow toolbelt!! Why did you decide to go with only one variety of rose? And why did you choose Zepherine?

Oh my goodness, your place is so so beautiful. I would just want to plop my self down in a chair and enjoy that view all day long. Do you Have a good bloom later in the summer? I read about Zepherine rose and it sounds like a great climbing rose hardy, pretty and almost thornless!

I ended up ordering four climbing roses for this fence. I have a Pretty in Pink Eden, Nahema, Florentina and Pearly Gates arriving next month. It was hard to narrow down ones I wanted; hopefully these will grow well for me. My mom has the most beautiful Sally Holmes I have ever seen so that was one I was really tempted on getting but ended up ordering the other four. My fence is 60 feet long. So we’ll see in a few years how they turn out. I imagine in my zone they will not get gigantic as in other warmer climates.

Sounds wonderful. I'm going to predict you can add a couple more over time as that's quite a long fence. Nahema and Florentina and PinPE are tip hardy at 12F. We do get to -10 at which temp Florenting remains completely hardy. I can't comment on the others as they are newly planted 2019.

Sounds like those should be some great roses! Of those four that you ordered, Nahema and Florentina are relatively the most hardy and bloom pretty steadily, Pearly Gates is OK for me but appreciates zone 6 better, and Pretty in Pink Eden really wants to bloom in zone 6 or warmer. If there is a relatively more protected part of that fence, I might put PiPE there. Of course in zone 7 you're not worried about survival like I am, but if you want them to climb you want to be a zone or two above survival range.

Vapor is right that I grow Madame Alfred Carriere in zone 5 (but my virtual zone 6) and I'd be cautious about her for a couple of reasons. First, in my zone she only blooms on old wood so I often don't have surviving cane. You shouldn't have that problem, but the second issue for me is that she doesn't rebloom later in the season. Ever. Others in warmer zones call her pretty constant blooming, but that is so not true for me. Last reason is that she is a monster and liable to swamp the other climbers that are indeed better rebloomers. She gets to 15-18' for me and I shudder to think of the house eater she'd be in your zone.

One notion to ponder as you plant your climber is that the times when they look really impressive may only be scattered times in the year. We all post our glamour shots of roses and you'd think that people are always enjoying that level of splendor. In reality, climbers occupy so much real estate when they're happy that you really notice it when they take a break. That's just the nature of climbers, but you want to brace yourself and temper expectations accordingly.

Also remember that climbers take at least a year longer than other roses to establish and bloom well, so be patient. I don't expect a climber to show off until about its fourth year. If it doesn't bloom much the first year, then you applaud it putting down roots.

Have fun - those should be great climbers for you!

Cynthia

Great information Cynthia. I would note that my Florentina from ARE which was a large OR plant did not bloom at all until its second year which was its first in the ground.

Glad you all like the Zefies,

I went from a yard that was about 18x20 in size, that only had room along the two sides for flowers to our present place. After having to deal with two Blaze climbers with their nasty thorns I wanted thorn less ones for the new place. Found the Zephy’s in a Jackson & Perkins catalog and ordered a few. Safe to walk by when mowing the grass, liked the smell, and they really produced roses. The plants I received were very large. I think J&P was getting rid of their old stock. I added a drip system and forgot about them for years. Being part farm boy I like flowers but not to the extent that most of you folks do…. it’s either grow or go for me.

We do set in the swing and enjoy the roses. We also watch our robot mow the lawn.

Cynthia thanks for the words of wisdom. I will be patient. Good to know that I should plant the PiPE in the most protected part of the fence, I will do that. My sister lives near Me and she has a Pearly Gates climbing rose that is so pretty and I was inspired by hers. so it seems to grow pretty well here, however we have had fairly mild

winters lately.