One other thing you might consider is climbing hydrangea--Martha Stewart grows them up her dead tree stumps to beautiful effect: https://www.marthastewart.com/1502838/secret-behind-marthas-gorgeous-climbing-hydrangeas

Climbing Hydrangeas is beautiful when it’s in bloom, one of my old neighbors has one on his fence, It’s a once bloomer though. I’d lIke to try a few this year.

Grafted plant would have a fast start. But MAC is a fast grower. I ordered 1,own root MAC from ARE last summer, very happy with the size.

I love climbing hydrangeas and have four on the property so far and lovvvve Martha's collection. Thanks summersrhythm, I think I'll go with the own root! I was thinking of trying to find a large growing non invasive clematis for the tree. The roots of the dead tree are extremely extensive, so it needs to be able to grow BIG to reach the tree.

I planted a grafted Mme Alfred Carriere in the worst possible place, in between two plum trees. They were only 3 feet apart and I had to saw through some of the tree's roots to squeeze the rose roots in. For the first two years it just sat there in the deep shade and only produced a few flowers. Then in the third year it started climbing and has never looked back. Now it adorns the plum trees with blooms all year round and I have to hack it back occasionally.

Daisy

I have a grafted one and an own root one. The grafted one grew much faster and was beautiful and big for a long time but ended up declining. The own root took forever to put on size ...it was only about 3" tall, but now is a much bigger plant than the grafted one was. Probably a big own root plant like from ARE or Roses Unlimited would not take so long to grow.

I'd be careful about the dead tree. I have some tall stumps without branches that I used as pillars, but I'd worry a bit about any heavy branches that might fall off eventually.

Thanks Daisy and Erasmus. The tree was 110 ft tall 100+ year multi stem norway maple that has been cut down to a 25 foot three prong stump. Each remaining stem of the tree are probably larger in diameter than most people's really large trees and they're not going anywhere for a long, long time!

That is going to depend upon your climate and conditions. I know in Southern California, budding MAC is a waste of effort and root stock. I collected the bud wood for the original Ashdown crop of MAC and I saw the bare roots in the fields in Wasco. Paul Zimmerman and I remarked to each other upon observing them that there was NO reason to bud her as she was HUGE, MASSIVE compared to all of the other varieties in that field. The stock was Dr. Huey, BTW. She roots well enough and, in our climates here in this end of this state, grows quickly enough to overwhelm nearly any area you try to limit her to. Of course, in a shorter growing season and a harsher winter, that extra "oomph" from a vigorous stock, suited to those conditions, is likely to be preferable.

Not a great photo (below, from 2 years ago), but gives an idea of what an own-roots Madame Alfred, allowed to run amok, looks like in Zone 9. As Kim says, waste of root stock here! Will be interested to hear accounts of it in Zone 7.

Anyway, a situation I've ceased trying to control (likewise the 'Jaune Desprez' climbing up a bay laurel tree nearby...don't even ask). She goes where she wants and is something more than 30' up into that California pepper tree (Schinus molle). The miniature pink flowers mixed in nearer the bottom belong to a climbing China that was sold to me (by the Uncommon Rose in Oregon, now defunct) as the shrub form of 'Old Blush'. It is certainly not that, nor have I been able to match it to any named miniature pink climbing China. It only climbs about 15' and blooms can be found on it any month of the year -- a very nice rose, actually.

That's what I encountered when I attempted to use MAC to cover the wall Annie Laurie McDowell grew on in Valencia. MAC was own root and tried to become what you pictured (which is GLORIOUS, BTW!) regularly. I fought her for several years before shredding myself trying to rip and dig her out. Never again. She's gorgeous, but she demands REAL ESTATE.

MAC is great here own root.

15'x20'x20' here in zone 8. Perched on a hunk of rock with terracing, sixteen years old, never fertilized except with her own detritus, never watered. A monster. Our December heavy snow brought down the pergola on which much of MAC grows, which gave me a reason and the opportunity to give her a good cleaning up. I hauled armful after armful of aged canes and twigs down to a site that needed organic matter, and am looking forward to this spring's bloom.

N.b., another plant of MAC from the same batch was planted out in heavy clay and full sun, and has never thriven, as warm climate roses generally don't thrive in my conditions. Here they do well only in terraced beds with heavily amended soil, not in anything like the almost pure clay of the bulk of the garden.

P.S. I forgot: this is an ownroot rose that I propagated; in my experience it's easy from cuttings.

It is possible to contain MAC to relatively orderly confines upon an arbor (method and results illustrated below), as I have done for some 17 years now with my other plant of MAC (the first one I bought). However, it is not something I could, in good conscience, recommend to anyone with better things to do and/or more than half a brain (about the amount of brain I had when I chose MAC for this particular purpose -- but I didn't have any experience with tea-noisettes then, I had one at hand, and, as the saying goes, fools go where angels fear etc. etc....).

The photos of MAC in bloom are on the original arbor my husband built, which MAC pretty much blew apart and destroyed after 15 years with the strain and stress of carrying the burden of a thoroughly over-exuberant rose. Like when the guy in "Jaws" says, "You're going to need a bigger boat,", with MAC it seems inevitable that you're going to need a bigger, or at least better, arbor, or whatever. So, DH built a much sturdier arbor (shown in the photos of the recently pruned/trained MAC). In any case, to do this requires a ruthless amount of pruning every year, and then some, which, despite the warning on HMF ("Do not prune."), MAC seems to handle well. For example, I removed fully half the plant to facilitate installation of the new arbor, including some large trunks -- not that MAC noticed much; she never seems to notice much, just carries with her quest for world domination...

Bending the long uprights over like this, secured with a band of wire, of course causes new uprights to sprout along their lengths which, after the first glorious flush start to look a bit wild and crazy by the middle of summer. Bending those over, too, creates another nice flush in autumn. Then, in winter, all the dead brush created by doing this needs to be cut out from underneath and the new uprights bent. Overall, this MAC doesn't bloom quite as often as the one running wild in the pepper tree and is certainly more work. But, it can be done, and it does make a nice bower of luscious, highly scented MAC flowers closer at hand, over a number of weeks, as payback for the effort.

April 2015

April 2017

February 12, 2021 -- pruned/trained a couple of weeks ago. From one side (excuse the bags of compost waiting to be dispersed):

From the other side:

Wow! What a grand MAC! It’s so beautiful! I wish I could have a big MAC like that in zone 6a. I think your neighbors would want some of your MAC too! :-)

I can't imagine grafting MAC unless you wanted to slow her down. In fact, she might make a vigorous rootstock herself! I've grown her in two gardens now, and she will always be a favorite. Quick to reach good size and once she has developed good roots, she is rarely without some bloom (even in winter!). I grew her along a fence and across the front of a shed in my last garden. Neither the fence nor shed were sturdy enough to support her in her full size, so each winter I cut her back to a handful of few new canes produced the previous winter. She always recovered with vigor, blooming all summer and usually requiring some summer pruning.
Some wise soul (probably on this forum) once compared her growth to that of an indeterminate tomato plant, and that comparison has always stuck with me and informed my firm pruning of her. To say she is forgiving is an understatement. She barely seems to notice she has been pruned and rushes to fill in the gaps!

Well, turns out I ended up tacking her on (grafted) to my DA order, which helps me not have to pay multiple shipping charges finding her elsewhere. I can always take cuttings and get another one own root. What do you feel about bothering to deadhead? Also, I've read conflicting reports about how to prune her, aside from controlling her size or dead/crossing canes. Does she get pruned like any climber? Thanks so much everyone! Nothing better than dreaming of summer flowers in dreary February. Haven't had this much snow in the city in years!

MAC drops her petals quickly and cleanly once they are done and repeats no matter what, so deadheading her (even if possible!) is not something I do. Only a few, "select" plants among the teas, Chinas, or tea-noisettes here get that honor: either because, unlike most in their class, deadheading actually does seem to make them repeat faster (e.g., 'Lady Hillingdon', 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux') or ugly, brown spent blooms cling for what seems like eternity, making the entire plant an unbearable eyesore ('Souvenir de Pierre Notting' and 'Etoile de Lyon' come immediately to mind for that).

Such beautiful photos, @catspa_zone9sunset14 and @erasmus_gw!

Wow! Beautiful! Like a fairy land!

John, I think she would be a good rootstock here in FL too. She is very vigorous and blooms alot.

I just planted a one gallon MAC from Heirloom Roses. It's taking off. But I need it for screening, so I tried to make something for her to climb. These notes are making me nervous! But I think I'd rather prune the screen than not have the screen... Good luck!

I cant image in how large she must get in zone 10!