Of the long list of climbing and pillar roses available, practically all of them are a success somewhere.
However, as we move northward into the colder areas, the list of successful varieties continuously becomes smaller.
Recommendations For Successful Winter Survival
After many years of testing almost innumerable kinds of climbing and pillar roses, and for the benefit of other gardeners living in northern regions, I’d like to present a list of varieties that have proved outstanding in their ability to come smiling through the winters we get in this part of Canada.
Sometimes, we get little or no snow; sometimes, we get heavy snow, which usually does not last very long. Our low winter temperatures range from around zero to 15° or 20° degrees Fahrenheit below.
But before going into the matter of varieties, I may say that the common practice of manuring climbers after they have killed back badly should be avoided.
As they will produce little, if any, bloom, they will grow strong and well-ripened if they are merely well cultivated, watered during dry spells, and kept free of insects.
Another point I’d like to emphasize is that, in the case of budded plants, special attention should be given to seeing that no suckers start from below the union.
Very often, the plant’s growth during the early part of the season is insufficient to assimilate all the food the uninjured roots can supply, and as a result, suckers develop; these, being nearest the source of supply, get the best chance.
Suckers should not be removed by cutting, as this will leave a stub that will break out again; rather, dig down until the base of the sucker is fully exposed, then with a quick pull, remove it entirely.
I prefer own-root climbers, but since this means a slower propagation rate, all new varieties and most of the older ones are supplied as budded plants.
Varieties For Canadian Winters
Among the old roses that seldom seem now is Queen of the Prairies, a Hybrid Setigera variety and one of the strongest growing and hardiest roses I know.
I have a plant that records show is nearly a century old and grows as vigorously as ever.
It is of the true climbing type, throwing up huge canes as long as 20’ feet, which break and grow steadily higher.
When covered with its large, pink, fully double flowers against a background of large, luxuriant, disease-free foliage in June, it is indeed a wonderful sight.
Hardy Pink Varieties
Other outstandingly hardy pink varieties are:
- Jean Lafitte, a fine, large-flowered, double-pink pillar
- Gerbe Bose, an excellent double pink with shiny foliage and usually recurrent
- Miss Flora Mitten is a vigorous large plant that loads itself with huge clusters of apple blossom-pink, single flowers, followed by very showy seed pods or hips
Frau Berta Gurtler, a Hybrid Multiflora with clusters of double, bright pink blooms, seems immune to mildew and will withstand 30° degrees Fahrenheit below zero with impunity when even the old Crimson Rambler kills to the ground.
Dorothy Perkins is usually quite hardy, but in late years, it has mildewed so badly that it is generally being discarded.
I can unhesitatingly recommend New Dawn. Although hardy most winters in the peach belt, it occasionally kills back rather badly; however, with their new growth, the plants are soon in bloom again.
Even on our western prairies, where it invariably winter-kills, it shoots up strongly from the roots and again blooms profusely.
Plants should be on their roots and propagated from blooming wood when they often bloom on young cutting plants. New Dawn sets seeds freely, but these should be removed, or they will quit blooming.
The old Baltimore Belle is certainly recommended among whites and near-whites, being almost as hardy as Queen of the Prairies.
Ida Klemm is a snow-white duplicate of Crimson Rambler with even larger flowers and clusters. The recently introduced variety Polaris is a lovely white cluster rose promising to prove hardy.
Hardy Red and Yellow Varieties
In reds, the Multiflora variety Papa Foucault is a mildew-proof Crimson Rambler, just as hardy and a strong pillar.
Among large flowered reds and yellows, I so far have found none that can be depended on to withstand 20° degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
Both Thor and Paul’s Scarlet, when well matured, will stand down to 10° degrees Fahrenheit below, as Doubloons and Brownell’s yellows. American Pillar and Climbing American Beauty seem about as hardy.
Alternative Winter Protection
Several years ago, I accidentally ran across a new wrinkle in bringing somewhat doubtful hardy climbers through the winter without laying them down and protecting them. A friend’s garden had a lattice fence covered with climbing roses.
The plants facing south on the lattice winter killed badly, while the same varieties or ones of similar hardiness on the north side, shaded by the lattice, suffered very little and bloomed profusely.
In addition, the flowers were more lasting, as they developed more slowly and were of finer quality. Also, as the roots were largely sheltered from the hot sun, growth was much more satisfactory.
44659 by Chester D. Wedrick