I agree, You should be looking at something like 'Kiftsgate', 'The Garland' or 'Paul's Himalayan Musk'........a BIG rambler. An ordinary climber will just get lost in the apple's foliage.

Thank you both for the recommendations. I have heard that ramblers such as Paul's Himalayan Musk can become monsters and really take over a space. Do either of you have personal experience with growing a big rambler and would trying to control it just become a losing battle?

Forget GardenGal's specific recommendations. Those aren't hardy.

I've got Baltimore Belle and species R. setigera on a split rail fence, and volunteer R. setigera growing up a dead ash. You don't really 'control' a large rose. You put it somewhere it can be itself, and provide 'suggestions' on how it should grow. Growing a rose up a tree mostly consists of getting the rose started, then standing back. The canes are flexible enough that they cascade down on their own.

The elephant in the room in this discussion is going to be that most of the roses commonly discussed are not hardy enough to begin to climb up anything taller than a cinder block. So you are automatically out in the wilds. If you want a rose that is going to be only about 10 ft, I'd look at the tamer Explorers like Captain Samuel Holland, but those aren't going to do much against a tree.

" Forget GardenGal's specific recommendations. Those aren't hardy. "

Don't know why you would say that. They are certainly hardy in zone 6 and there are numerous reports of Paul's Himalayan Musk being grown in Chicago, northern Michigan, Iowa and Ohio (all zone 5) and Crown Point, NY (zone 4b).

And many reliable reports of it dying :-)

Funny that I could find none. And equally as funny that many extremely reputable rose sources routinely rate it to at least zone 4b (-20F).

I have lived cold and madgallica is correct. I gardened in Minnesota and Alaska.

I am having trouble here with Lady Banks dealing with Spring freeze thaw cycle. I think Baltimore Belle would have been a better choice for my pergola. I am not in Arizona. The zone eventually matters.