Did you consult the photos on HMF? There's a common climbing rose here that I think is PS, but I see it as nearer primary red rather than the bluer red I see in your photos; but the photos I see on HMF look like your rose. In short, I dunno, but I'm curious as to what others will say. By the way, as far as roses go, the Spanish sound a lot like the Italians. Is 'Cocktail' popular in your area?

Hi Melissa, yes I had a look on HMF and it could be a match, but I just can't say for sure. The blooms were more primary red in reality, aging to cherry red as described and everything else seems to fit. I haven't seen cocktail, but not that many climbers are sold or grown locally.

Heather, that's interesting you describe your dark holly-like leaves, enlarging your photo the foliage does look a little different, plus ‘mine’ had very large clusters bobbing on the ends of the laterals so ours may not be the same rose. Be interesting to hear what others say about yours too!

Thanks Comtesse for the suggestion. Dublin Bay's blooms look more velvety and substantial, plus it's described as having thick, armed canes so thats not a match either. Probably too much of a thrusting newcomer for here, lol.

The choice of roses is increasing of late, especially as Spain catches up with the rest of the world with online vendors, but this one has been there a long time, I think. I pass it on my regular dog walk so will try and take some better close-ups.

Mine actually does have large clusters on the ends of the laterals but they are not blooming all at once. Looking at your pictures again after my coffee they do seem a bit different if similar though. Hopefully someone with more experience can chime in! I had also checked out Dublin Bay but the leaves are too shiny for my rose.

Well I went on the evening dog walk and someone has chopped this rose down! All those long canes, gone! This was the first year I had really noticed it because it was spectacular - before it was just a mithering, water-starved misery. God save us from ignoramuses 🙄

I managed to snaffle a couple of remaining leaves and spent heads, the receptacles are smallish and oval. Heather, there is a definite hump in the middle of the leaves - on their way to curling back, maybe. OK yours has large clusters too. Slight differences could be just down to climate, soil (very alkaline here) etc., so I’m swinging back to thinking maybe they are the same..

Another picture of mine showing the clusters of buds. It’s very cool here this year and during our cooler springs I find my roses with clusters like this don’t bloom all at once. my soil is also on thr more acidic side which might account for some variation in color. I still feel like our two roses are very similar but my rose might show more serration on the leaves but even on mine that varies a bit. If you zoom in to the picture below you can also see the sparse small prickles. I still don't know if its PSC but it’s currently my best guess so far.

If those were in UK, I'd say both those roses are Paul's Scarlet... you can see the similarity with both the foliage and the hips..

hmf

hmf

It's been a long time since I had it, but from your descriptions and photos, that would be my guess. It looks as I remember it, but I'm in England..

Thanks Marlorena! Looking some more at HMF and also the picture posted in the thread about what to pair with a red climber I’m now pretty confident my rose is Paul’s Scarlet. The photo of Paul’s Scarlet in that thread looks exactly like my rose.

Hi Heather, yes after going goggle-eyed staring at our respective candidates and HMF I was pretty convinced too that both are PSC. Nothing else really fits and Marlorena’s confirmation - thank you - nails it for me! Enjoy your newly named climber.

I’m so sorry that nice climber was hacked down in the one year that it grew beautifully, that just seems barbaric. My Mom’s neighbor had a big old pomegranite tree. One year mom and a friend got permission to pick some of the fruit, they processed it and gave some of the fruit and juice back to the neighbor with the tree. A few months later the neighbor removed her tree. Some people really do not deserve nice plants.

In the US many of the old red climbers are Improved Blave, and it does look a bit like your prictures. But I’m sure you’re more familair with what grew in your area. The only thing I know about Paul Scarlet Climber is that my family saw a pic of it when I was a kid, and we all thought we should grow one because my Dad’s name is Paul, Ditto for Paul’s Lemon Pillar, lol.

BenT, thanks for your suggestion! I’m not normally a fan of these brighter reds and until recently assumed my rose was Dr Huey so I’m really starting from scratch here trying to figure out what it is. Blaze Improved does seem like a possibility for me as well, I’m honestly not sure which would have been more common where I am. Back to Helpmefind and thanks again for the suggestion!

I will say if Nollie’s rose is anything like mine it may just be how they prune it (at least I hope). My pictures earlier are one year of growth after being hacked back nearly to the ground every year for two years while we were removing the ivy and falling down garage. It’s incredibly vigourous, a huge 2 ft branch rooted itself in our green bin while we were on vacation, it’s now blooming in its own pot while I try to find it a home.

A sad lack of understanding of how to prune (or not!) Ben. Mostly grown locally are HTs, which they whack down every year, which is fine for bushes but not exactly best practice for climbers! This one is hopefully a survivior too. I think, on the balance of probabilities, this one far more is likely to be Paul’s Scarlet, but I am not at all familiar with Blaze.

A further update. Thanks to the suggestion from BenT I started looking into Blaze Improved which looks close but the pictures in HMF don’t show the long curved holly like leaves I see on my rose and Paul’s Scarlet. However, Blaze Improved led me to Blaze which does have pictures in HMF showing that leaf characteristic. If I understand correctly Blaze Improved is a sport of Blaze which is a child of Paul’s Scarlet so it makes sense they are all very similar. I guess the next step will be to wait and see what kind of rebloom I get, if any.

Nollie, it baffles me how some folks treat their roses. My neighborhood is mostly excellent about rose care but there are a couple places where I just shake my head every year. Where I am its generally due to the dreaded ’mow and blow’ services that like to cut everything that isnt lawn with hedge trimmers 🤦‍♀️

Hmmm I thought I posted a comment and a photo on this thread, but it has disappeared. Trying again -

Of course you will know if your rose re-blooms all summer that it is NOT Dr. Huey. When I first saw it I thought it was Blaze. Here is a pic of my Blaze taken out of our bedroom window (before we had to take all of the climbers off the house). The white rose in the background is Sombreiul.

Jackie

Thanks, Jackie! That picture also shows me the thorns which do look like my rose. The long canes with laterals topped by a cluster of buds is right as well. I’m pretty confident it‘s not Dr. Huey at this point, there are plenty examples of the doctor in my neighborhood and it is much more of a purple red here and though they have some variation in petal count with some that look similar in form none of them are approaching the red of my climber.

I love the Sombreuil in the background, I’m still trying to figure out where to put mine. Unfortunately the spot with my red climber probably won’t work though I do like that combination.

Heather - I have one bush of Sombreuil, which is about 25 years old at this point. I have grown it as a climber which went on a tall arch 10 feet over to our house, and then up our house for 3 1/2 stories to the roof. Then the Fire Dept said we had to take down all of the roses off the house, so we did. Luckily my S is rooted about 12-15 feet away from the house. I did not know what it would do after we had 85% of it cut off. It just rebounded immediately, and now is a lovely self supporting (canes are VERY sturdy) bush. It still blooms constantly. Mine is about 8-10 ft tall by 12 ft wide, but I think it could be kept shorter and narrower if you want. Here is a pic of it the Spring after we cut it down off the house and it had a chance to recover over the Winter:

Jackie

That’s very helpful Jackie! If it can eventually be self supporting that helps alot. I have a dying Harlequin Gloryblower tree that will eventually come down, I’m letting it take its time as other things fill in. Maybe I can train it up the tree and then let it take over. The challenges of a standard urban sized yard when you love the big climbers 😊

Yes, I know about that challenge - that is why we grew 9 massive climbing roses on our 3+ story house. After we had to take them all down, we re-planted some of them further away from the house, growing up trees, or other supports. It has worked fine.

Jackie