I second Madame Alfred Carriere for size, health, fragrance, rebloom, and it is not that thorny. Crepuscule would also be big and healthy and will rebloom. I don't grow it but Mel's Heritage sounds big and healthy and beautiful.

Jacqueline in CA grows some huge roses on her house and would be a good person to ask about how to protect your house from a big rose. I am thinking she has trellises to keep them directly off of the sides of her house. I don't know if you'd get roof damage if a rose held too much moisture against your house . I know I got roof damage from ivy but it clings tightly.

Climbing Pinkie reblooms well, is pretty healthy, and low thorn. Gets bigger than this. I don't notice much fragrance.

Zepherine Drouhin in a tree...this color is off, it is more of a deep pink , not purplish. It is very fragrant, reblooms, can get tall, and has no thorns. Will get some bs.

This is the true color:

New Dawn could eat most of your garage. If you plant 1 on each side, you'd be all set. :-) It has monster thorns though.

Do you have hornets, wasps problem in your yard? We have a huge problem in PA, they are everywhere, we have to kill them for our own safety. DH had to visit doctor a couple times last year for hornet/wasp sting treatment. I can't tell the difference between them.

I forgot about Mel's Hetitage. That is an excellent one here so far. Bees do like it too!

Here is a lovely picture of 'Mel's Heritage' with a bee. Most of the pictures show very full flowers with no pollen showing, however. Needs full sun, according to Helpmefind. https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.349986

Must it just be one rose? Maybe MAC could mingle with hybrid musk Kathleen? Or you could put New Dawn to climb the garage and plant a couple other single or semi-double roses near its foot? Or you could plant two or three once blooming ramblers, trying to hit a longer season overall? Or two reblooming climbers? Mel's Heritage and Renae? Apple Blossom is one that you might look at. It just seems like the sort of thing bees would like, but I don't know about timing of its blooms nor its disease resistance.

Climbing Cecile Brunner https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.891.8

Mel’s Heritage

If you were open to a once bloomer, the native Swamp Rose attracts a lot of pollinators, and there is a semidouble kind. I think it is very beautiful, myself. Most of the ramblers bloom later than other roses, so they contribute to succession of bloom right there.

Many of the once blooming ramblers could meet many of your criteria. I do not know their blooming time where you are, here the ramblers I have bloom a bit late in the spring. Most of the roses with lots of petals won’t be very attractive to bees as they can not really access their pollen. A lot of the healthy, house eaters also have wicked thorns as is the case with Mermaid. One great rambler that hasn’t been mentioned yet is Veilchenblau. It is a once bloomer with a gorgeous color, probably considered a semi-double, very few thorns and excellent health.

Like someone already said Mixing a couple different roses with different style blooms and blooming times would be a great option. A single style rambler with a large flower rebloomer would give a huge spectacular display in spring plus rebloom through the rest of the season.

Here are súper excelsa (darker ) and supper Dorothy. Full bloom May 16 zone 7b. My other roses were in full bloom 2 weeks before. These two ramblers (specially Super Dorothy) are healthy with moderate thorns and super vigorous. These were planted 3 years ago from bands I got from Heirloom roses. They are planted in heavy clay like what you see at construction sites for new homes with zero soil prep. They are not singles but would combine great with something that is.

Mel’s heritage is definitely a house eater with the most perfect health and good rebloom. The blooms are not simple but I have seen carpenter bees all over it. This one is one of my absolute favorite roses in the world.

Olivia is at the front

Francois Juranville (glowing pink) is not remontant, but it's definitely a house eater, light on thorns, and is stunning in bloom. Smells vaguely of apples. Disease free for me, and it's in partial shade (climbing a tree). You can say the same about many of the hybrid wichurana climbers.

Climbing Cecile Brunner (baby-ribbon pink), which Lynn suggested, is DEFINITELY a house eater. No scent here, but also healthy. I have seen maybe 10 blooms, total, over 20 years, that were outside the Spring flush, lol.

Glenn Dale (cream to pure white from yellow buds) another once-bloomer, is completely healthy, smells of green apples (and soap!), and will climb 20+ feet.

Mel's Heritage is a great rose. It re-blooms. I don't have it (yet), so I can't vouch for its disease resistance. It supposedly smells of apples, too. I know in California it's spectacular. The problem with MH is that it is so double that I doubt it would attract pollinators.

Of all the other suggestions, I think MAC is probably your best bet. It is white touched with pink, re-blooms, is lightly thorned (mine had few to none), and will climb as far as it can find support.

A word to the wise: though I love, love, love my New Dawn(s), and it is rightfully one of the most popular climbers ever...my nephew calls it New D*m* because of the vicious thorns. He helped me prune one year, but never again.

Did I say vicious? More like vampiracious, lol.

EDIT: I didn't see before I posted that Dianela said Mel's Heritage attracted bees. I assume the petals are so short that the stamens are still exposed?? In that case, I would move it up my list to just behind MAC, lol.

Many doubles open, then relax a bit so the pollinators can get in. some of the really tight doubles with tons of petals dont get as many

pollinators, at least in my yard.

I just ordered a New Dawn. I heard it was thorny but didnt know it was so evil lol. Great another evil one. I was gonna put it where it can climb near the goat barn but out of their reach.

I got a climbing Iceberg to go with it.

Is Iceberg really thorny as well?

One I'm interested in is Kew Rambler. https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.194307 It's a once bloomer, but oh, my goodness!! I've seen it in person at Rosarium Garden Center in Spokane, WA and even my husband gasped and called me to come look. Delicious scent.

My son in Thousand Oaks, CA grows Cecile Brunner. Wonderful perfume and it reblooms. I'll post it below, but here's one from HMF. https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.145203

He trims it throughout the year to keep it this small.

Fig I had never heard of Glenn dale before and after googling it, I am in love.

I am not certain if the bees can actually get pollen from Mel’s heritage or if they are just checking it out and walking away due to the many petals. I have several singles (not climbers) in the area that could be a big factor at bringing them in. It is a magnificent rambler to grow with excellent disease resistance and I think you will def love it.

flowers I LOVE seeing that beautiful beast of a rose. I actually purchased 4 of them after seeing your picture a while back and planted it around trees in my property. In my mind I was going to have a magical forest of roses, but the deer have never let them grow more than a few inches of the grown.

@dianela7analabama I've been on a bit of a mission the past few years to spread Glenn Dale around. When I was a child, it was EVERYWHERE in E. TN. Any place where there had been a house that was built in the 30's, you could just about count on GD growing up a tree...even if the house was long gone. That's a testament of its vigor. Unfortunately, due to development and construction, all those lovely white roses dripping down from tree tops are gone.

This rose is effortless. Prune out old canes every couple of years, and you're done. Also, cuttings root extremely easily, and if you're just lazy, lay a cane on the ground, put a rock on it about a foot from the tip and in a year you'll have a rooted layer, lol. That goes for most of the wichurana clan. They typically all will self-layer easily when they touch the ground.

I don't know of a commercial source for GD, but if you have to have it, let me know and I'll root one and send it to you for postage (which is pricey for a one gallon pot, unfortunately).

John

EDIT: I just checked HMF, and Rose Petals carries GD, and it's in stock. The photo on their website doesn't look typical of Glenn Dale, but I'm pretty sure it's the real thing.

Glenn Dale at Rose Petals Nursery

Thanks a million John for offering to root a cutting. I love how charming this rose looks and It is such a shame many of them are gone now. White is my absolute favorite color on roses. I have a 6 week old baby boy right now and won’t be able to care for my roses this spring so I will write the name down for next year. If I can’t find it available when the time comes I would love to take you up on that offer (I certainly would be more than happy to pay for any required expenses). If it does well on E. TN :) I expect it will do well here. Thanks again for your generosity.

dianela

I wonder if Secret Garden Musk would fit the bill? Big climber with repeating single white flowers.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3219773/secret-garden-musk-climber

I was just reading about a rambler called 'Apple Blossom' which looks really nice. The multiflora ramblers tend to bloom later than the others, so maybe pairing with an earlier blooming variety will give you an extended bloom period.

https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.312

-Chris

Katherine, I looked back at your original post, and bees seem to be the first requirement. So, I would AVOID any rose which does not show pollen when fully open. I know there are some enterprising bees which will burrow into rose blooms, but in my garden it is the singles and some semi-doubles which attract the most bees.

Re-bloom also seems important to you. So, here are my recommendations. I have grown both of these roses for over 20 years, and one is a single, and one a semi-double.

Madame Alfred Carriere blooms here in my garden (zone 9 in Northern CA) 11 months of the year. Mine (I have 3) are mostly growing up trees (with their first 10 ft of growth in shade) away from the house, so I don't usually get close enough to the blooms to notice bees, so I can't tell you about that. It is semi-double, so it should work. It will definitely be happy to eat your garage - especially in full sun and good soil! HMF says it is hardy to zone 6b. Easy to train, and not too thorny.

The other one I strongly recommend (pics below) is 'Summer Wine' (NOT 'Summerwine' - a totally different rose). It is a single, and very large, and in my garden it re-blooms all Spring and Summer.

HMF says it is hardy to zone 5.

If I were doing it, I would plant BOTH on your garage, maybe on opposite sides. They would definitely intermingle, which would be lovely.

Summer Wine:

Summer Wine and friends: I took this pic looking down on the roses from a second story window. The old ratty looking garage is our next door neighbor's, and the roses are my attempt to soften the view of it from our yard. Sumer Wine's buds are almost red, then they open to a dark peach, then fade to pink - lovely, and I think would go great with MAC's blooms.

Arrggh! I just tried to post a long comment, but it disappeared. Shorter version:

I would definitely recommend that you stick to a single or semi-double rose which shows pollen when open - bees don't like the blooms where they cannot get to the pollen.

If I were doing this, I would definitely plant MAC, and also another rose called 'Summer Wine' (NOT Summerwine, which is a completely different rose).

I have grown both of them in my garden (zone 9 in Northern CA) for over 20 years. MAC blooms 11 months of the year here, and Summer Wine repeats all summer.

I think one of each planted on your garage (perhaps on opposite sides) would look lovely. MAC is said by HMF to be hardy to zone 6, and Summer Wine to zone 5.

I will put pics in different comments below, since Houzz is so grumpy right now.

Jackie

Here are pics of Summer Wine, which is growing on a fence between our house and the ratty very old garage which is our next door neighbors. Second pic was taken from a second story window:

Jackie

OK, evidently Houzz did not like the second pic, so trying again:

This is hilarious - my long comment mysteriously appeared, after I shut down this thread - sorry for the repetition! Anyway, I did find a pic of a very young, baby MAC growing in partial shade from years ago (before it ate our ancient garage):

Jackie

Why not just plant some Dandelions? Bees love them….:) After a while the whole neighborhood would be providing bees then you could remove your Dandelions……

Here is a youtube of New Dawn. Jasmine, make sure you have enough room for this monster. Lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkQyt4QxtuM

Summer Wine is becoming a must have. I feel like I had it in a basket at one time this winter but it never made it to the final order...I’m going to have to rectify that!

I want to apologize for suggesting the hyper-thorny monster 'Mermaid', because your requirement for a climber with fewer thorns didn't register. Should have carefully re-read before posting.

I just wanted to reiterate that 'The Generous Gardener' is specifically recommended by David Austin and others as good for bees and for use as a climber.
https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.323452

Laurie Lewis, who keeps bees (or did) highly recommends it: .
"Highly perfumed flowers, glossy, disease-resistant foliage. Blooms in flushes from spring to frost and can be trained to a lovely shape as a climbing rose against a wall. Hardy to zone 5b. Produces large hips which persist well into winter. This is a rose I most often recommend to gardeners looking for a fragrant, pink climbing rose."
https://hedgerowrose.com/rose-gardening/2019/01/27/celebration-of-roses-january-27-the-generous-gardener-ausdrawn/

@jacqueline9CA Hey, Jackie. How tall/big would you say your Summer Wine is? HMF says "..up to 14.75 feet", which I feel like is a really weird, arbitrarily specific number, lol. Not 14 1/2, or 15, but 14 3/4. PRECISELY 14 3/4, lol.

I've had S-W on my list for years, but haven't taken the plunge for some reason. But you've reminded me how much I love it.

John

I've been comparing Summer Wine to Clair Matin today. Both can have some apricot to coral shades. Summer Wine looks like it might be brighter in color. I read somewhere that SW is pretty thorny. Clair Matin is known to be healthy, vigorous, and fragrant. So far my plant of it has very few thorns. Sounds like SW might get bigger but Clair is no slouch. Maybe someone who has grown both will comment.

My first thought was MAC. My second was Darlow’s Enigma. I haven’t grown either but I would love to have either.

https://www.heirloomroses.com/darlow-s-enigma.html

i see it has thorns/prickles.

OT - Dianela, I wasn't aware your baby is already here. Congratulations!! I trust everyone is well. You must be ecstatically happy - and busy. I'm thrilled for you.

I'm so sorry the deer have been such a nuisance. None of my roses were more than a few inches tall before we put a permanent stop to it. I was shocked to see deer in my rose garden last week. We found a very small opening in the fencing that didn't even show. They ran right to it when my husband went outside. They must patrol the perimeter on a regular basis. They're smarter than they're given credit for.

John - we have Summer Wine growing sideways on a fence, not straight up like many of our other climbers, so I don't know how tall it would get if it was growing straight up. However, on the fence it goes about 15 feet sideways, and is 6-7 feet deep. That is in partial shade under a 40 ft tall very dense tree (eugenia), so in full sun in our climate (where all roses always grow WAY taller than they are "supposed to"), it would probably be larger. The 14.75 ft in HMF is indeed weird, LOL. Perhaps it was a rounding off of a metric number HMF picked up from some database somewhere, or from Kordes, who hybridized it?

Jackie

I just wrote a world-record contender length post replying to absolutely everyone and...it’s gone?! HOUZZ HOW DARE 😂 😭

I‘m going to sum it up with ... what about MAC, Renae, and Mel‘s Heritage all together? Three house eaters hanging out? Is that insane? The only thing I’m worried about is I’ve read a couple of places that MAC can blackspot pretty badly, but I haven’t tried her yet.

Also, I ADORE Secret Garden Musk climber but there’s so many reports of it defoliating from blackspot that I haven’t ordered it.

I’m in the middle of finalizing an order with Burling that has Renae on it, I’ll check her list for MAC, I know she doesn’t have Mel’s Heritage in stock right now, but if this idea isn’t totally insane I can ask her about getting on a waiting list. I have one MH already at the front of the house in a much more exposed spot, I’m still waiting to see what it does after the vortex, not many signs of life happening in the front garden at the moment. I really hope this posts, I’m loving everyone’s responses!

On my way to google Glenn Dale and Appleblossom right now! Also I have the generous gardener, it will be in its “creep” year for me this season if it survived the vortex, so I don’t know what I think about it yet but I love all the photos I’ve seen of it.

Oh! And I LOVE the idea of species roses, but thought swamp eater got big but not roof-climbing big?

Ahem. Curb your enthusiasm I suggest. My 'Mme. Alfred Carriere' is roughly 20'x20'x15', this without water or fertilizer and in a poor spot: do you have enough room for such a rose, and two more big plants?. Two reasons for caution: pruning and tying, and thorns. I mentioned pruning in my first post because roses are quite variable in how much and how frequently they need to be pruned. Some can be almost completely neglected for years; others require a pretty stiff pruning every year or two. Multifloras require frequent pruning in my garden as they suffer a lot of cane damage, but I think they're poorly adapted to my conditions and are likely to do far better in the U.S. About multiple roses: pruning is also more difficult when you have plants growing together.

'Summer Wine' and 'New Dawn', to offer two examples, are thorny, and you'll be dealing with those thorns every time you pass and every time you prune.

My apologies if I'm pointing out the obvious. I just know what it's like to plant a six inch rose that turns into a mighty climber; and I also know what a job the annual or biennial pruning of climbers is like.

About disease pressures, and also what roses grow well in your conditions, you really need, if possible, to consult local knowledge.

Good luck!

P.S. @John and Katherine, I believe I have 'Glenn Dale' in my garden. I can't swear to it because it came to me under another name, which I came to doubt the correctness of, and then I saw 'Glenn Dale' in photos, and I said, "That's my rose." It's a genial plant, like so many Wichuriana ramblers, a group for which I have a weakness, and I agree it would make a lot of gardeners happy.

It's true, swamp rose is rather broad than tall. But it contrasts nicely with other roses. -- if you have room. http://sweetbay103.blogspot.com/2012/05/rosa-palustris-scandens.html.  :)

I just want to add "Cornelia" which Hedgerow rose says the bees love and which is pretty bullet proof and has a wafting fragrance. Might look nice in contrast with some of the blander colored roses I have Cornelia and like it more and more every year.
https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.329150

Finally, I don't know if your climate is warm enough for Crepuscule, if someone hasn't mentioned it before. It's a semi double.
In short, you are spoiled for choice. Good luck.

https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.294239.  

Angel gardens, you will either have to contact by phone or email, I think she is still working on her site, and RVR has Mel's Heritage in stock, and Rose petal Nursery did, not sure if they still do. Best of luck with your choice's and if you are wanting to try more than one, maybe you can find other areas for them 😁

Paul's Himalayan Musk. It will eat anything within its path and is a beauty!

Rambling Rector meets your requirements. I haven’t personally grown it because I don’t have the structure for such a vigorous rose but it is gorgeous when in bloom. Bees LOVE it. I saw a video featuring this rose in which you could hear the buzzing in the background because there were so many bees. And it will eat anything.

Here is more info and a picture of this rose:

https://www.southernliving.com/garden/grumpy-gardener/dont-suspect-her-rambling-rector

Katherine..re the Houzz shenanagins: I write a shorter message or just add one or two Pics then submit and go to edit and add more. That way all my work and uploading doesn't end up deleted 😹

I just bought Mel’s Heritage from Rogue Valley Roses because RPN didn’t have it. I think they still don’t. I couldn’t even find it listed, but that could have been user error.

@suncoastflowers What nursery did you buy 'Mel's Heritage' from??

@User I had to go check my email to see, I ordered it from Rogue Valley Roses! Sorry for the confusion. I’ll update my post.

I might also take a look at Malvern Hills and Ghislaine de Feligonde.

@daniela7bnorthal Congratulations are certainly in order for your new baby!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess you don't have much time now to go onto this forum,but I must say that I wish I could get my Super Dorothy and Super Excelsa to bloom in May. Mine only start towards mid- June at best, when it's already too hot to enjoy being outdoors; if they would start earlier they'd be much, much better for my garden...

A couple of people mentioned Apple Blossom. I inherited a bush of what an expert (Anne Belovich, who wrote the book on Ramblers) tells me is Dawson's Apple Blossom, 1890. It has clusters of teenie pink blooms - pics below. It does send out long, very thin canes, which climb all over my flowering crab apple tree, and I used it on a round trellis to cover a huge tree stump. However, it is more lacy, and less of a "house eater" than some other roses. Blooms once in the Spring. Survived at least 25 years in our garden with no care whatever (when the house was a rental, before we moved in). Lovely to see it each Spring. Pics below.

Congratulations Dianela!!! :-)

For those of you who are losing your posts why not create a text file of your post, then copy and paste it in the comment field. That way, should Houzz delete it you can copy and paste it again….. nothing lost. You may have to do the pictures over.

Yes, congratulations dianela. That's wonderful news

Summer Wine is gorgeous. I wish it were available here. I'm looking for a pinky orange rose to replace Westerland, which has been an absolute dud for me.

Katherine, it's not a climber, but wonderful for attracting bees, if you have some other room near your veggie plot- Scabrosa. And requires no care.