To be honest my experience is the same as yours, though I just love the flowers. They are beautiful, distinctive, lasting when cut, and fragrant even when dried. Graham Stuart Thomas memorably wrote that the supports for a proper trellis for climbing roses should made of brick and 12" square. I am afraid he is correct. I don't have a wall: my store-bought metal arch is tilting precariously. The bitter reality is that my garden is to small and shady. (not small enough, alas, as I am getting too old and creaky to care for it properly.) I suspect that James is probably only good as a new, young plant. I bought an electric saw and this year I am going to cut him virtually to the ground in late winter and see if I can keep whatever grows back smaller. Otherwise out he goes. There is no perfection in the real world.

A bit of an off topic veer but I have stayed away from James for lack of fragrance. Do you both find it fragrant?

I find it fragrant when you stick your nose in it. Deliciously fragrant, in fact, but not wafting.

I would say there is perfection in the rose world and it's James Galway. JG promises to be a moderate height vase shaped plant and it is. We don't have to train it, it knows how to be that shape without our fussing. Mine was excellent for five or six years and got rose rosette. Now gone and missed from the corner of what's left of the rose garden .

I trained mine horizontally on a wired fence that is reinforced by metal posts. The wired fence is in parallel to the wall, but stand-alone and not supported or touching the wall. My gardener installed the fence for me. The reason I did not have the wired fence placed against the wall is that there is concret beneath the wooden wall, so I cannot secure the wired fence if it was close to it. Therefore, you can do the same even if there is no wall nearby.

My James Galway bloom from bottom to the top - I think you will have to train the canes horizontally for the rose to not bloom just on the top. It will be fine to train it using an obelisk or trellis as long as the canes don't grow straight up.

The location I have for James Galway is not ideal. The space has some considerable shape in the afternoon. Mine is about 3 years old, which is still young for a climber. It blooms only once a year but that's true for James Galway in general. I am not unhappy about this as the location is difficult for roses.

Below you can see the fence which does not touch the wall, along with James Galway.

It's a great idea to train him like that!

Thank you all so much. Rose Lai, I would like to try something like what you are doing. How tall is your wired fence?

Oursteelers, scent is not a big thing for me in general. But I just went out and smelled a flower on my potted JG; very faint scent,but it's also cool and grey out...

Hmmm….I got a gift card to DA and have been struggling with who to put on the list and I am thinking maybe I shall try James

@User

My wired fence is 6 feet tall.

My JG has been in the ground for 2 years with few to no blooms, the two blooms I did get were diseased for some reason. JG also has stiff canes, and slow to no real growth. Im thinking to move it this fall to another location; thought it does receives full day of sun. Not loving this Austin.

Thank you, Rose Lai. Haku, I'm sorry JG is so poor for you. Could it be that you got a dud? The stiff canes I can see, but the lack of vigour just doesn't sound right...

This year, I ordered/received and potted up a JG. Austin site notes that he's good for large arch or wall - meaning stiff canes. My JG has grown from bare root to about 4' high right now, And will be moved to his final spot once the free standing trellis goes in the ground. Yes, as someone already said, the main canes need to be horiontal or almost horizontal in order to get blooms along the length. True for any climber actually. From what I've seen with my JG, I will have to stay on top of tying him into place. When the canes are young is best. (I have about 16 climbing roses in my front garden: OGR, Chinas, Noisettes, Austins, Arborose).

I have another stiff caned climber (Tess of the D'U) that acts the same way for me. I've got her on an 8' obelisk and she shot up so fast, that I couldn't keep up with her. lol. Literally went to 8 or 9' tall and arching. Shady afternoon spot too so she has not bloomed as much yet. Partially because she's not wound around the obelisk like I'd intended. I broke a main cane attempting to bend it and so learned how far her canes will flex in the process. For this year, I'm letting her shoot straight up the obelisk and then arch over like an umbrella. She seems to like it that way. She holds the primo spot in the herb garden and seems to like it there.

It's great if one can accommodate these plants. I think James Galway is a once bloomer for many people, esp. if you have a partially shaded situation,

@User - Possibly.. Im going to move it to another location this fall/winter. Before I had it it in a pot by a post on the patio. Possibly too much shade there for it. Then I moved it out to the yard in full sun; still nothing thought when i checked it this afternoon looks like it had been attacked by some bug.

my grafted jg that i planted this spring bloomed in flushes all year. only got about a foot high but plenty of big, beautiful flowers. looking forward to how it matures in the years to come. it's under the roof so gets plenty of runoff from the rain. it did blackspot pretty bad but bounced back quickly.