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The rose is the unsurpassed queen of flowers, which has remained a symbol of grandeur and beauty for centuries. She is the object of worship and fiery love. So many legends, perhaps, are not composed of any other flower, poets sing about it and artists perpetuate it on their canvases. We also love roses, because for all their sophistication, they are able to bloom all summer and are not particularly difficult to care for even for a beginner amateur grower. True, there are rules of content that are better not to be violated. But even with a careless attitude towards itself, the rose will not die immediately, it will send us distress signals for a long time, and when we respond to them, it will quickly recover. Climbing roses are worthy representatives of their species – they are charmingly beautiful, gratefully respond to good care and decorate any site with their presence.
A little about the classification of roses
Roses are loved by amateur gardeners, landscape designers and residents of megacities, who enjoy admiring them in city parks, on TV or computer screens, in lush fragrant bouquets. These flowers are loved by breeders of all countries. Through their efforts, so many varieties have been created that it is impossible to count – from 25 to 50 thousand.
The garden classification of roses has already been discussed in one of our previous articles.
It is constantly changing, since it is not based on the species of a particular variety – this is simply impossible due to centuries of selection, repeated inter- and intraspecific crossing. Most roses today simply cannot be traced back to their wild ancestor, one of the 400 wild rose hips.
Therefore, stable garden signs were taken as the basis for the classification of roses – biological and decorative features of varieties. Now it is customary to divide roses according to their use in design. The classification is constantly undergoing minor changes with the advent of new varieties – breeders do not adhere to the framework, they just create a beautiful flower and they do not care that it does not fall into one of the groups.
On a global scale, all roses are divided into three huge sectors:
- Species Roses – wild (botanical) species;
- Old Garden Roses – old garden roses, preserved without improvement, that appeared before 1867. This year is remarkable in that the first hybrid tea rose “La France” appeared, which marked the beginning of the history of modern roses. Varieties of the old selection are much inferior in variety and decorativeness to modern roses, but they are all beautiful and deserve special treatment.
- Modern Roses are modern garden roses that appeared after 1867.
As you can see, when we talk about roses by modern varieties, we mean even those that appeared a century and a half ago.
Curly and climbing roses
Today, both climbing and climbing roses are categorized as climbing roses. Strictly speaking, climbing roses do not exist in nature – not a single type of wild rose or variety of roses is able to curl. They can only cling to the support with their thorns, but for this, someone must direct the shoots and fix their position.
A large group of climbing roses is divided into two subgroups: large-flowered and small-flowered roses, which differ from each other in appearance.
Small-flowered climbing roses
These are exactly the plants that are commonly called climbing roses. Their shoots are flexible, long, arcuately rising or creeping, necessarily in need of support. Most often they grow up to 5 meters, but there are varieties with more elongated or relatively short lashes. Curly roses most often have huge racemose inflorescences, consisting of small, 2-3 cm in diameter, flowers that do not have a very strong aroma. If the plant has overwintered well, its shoots during flowering are completely hidden under flowering clusters.
Their disadvantage is that the bulk of the varieties bloom once a season, however, abundantly and for a long time – up to 6-7 weeks. Modern selection of climbing roses is moving in the direction of creating re-blooming varieties, increasing the size of the glass and enhancing the aroma. Ramblers also belong to this group – most often they have not so long lashes, but their flowers are much larger.
A distinctive feature of a small-flowered or climbing rose is that it blooms on overwintered last year’s thin shoots. This makes it difficult to grow in northern regions. The plant overwinters well, only thin, tender shoots often freeze slightly, and although new ones grow very quickly, flowering turns out to be flawed, and sometimes it does not occur at all. But if a climbing rose is well covered, with its lush beauty it will easily outshine friends with larger flowers.
Large-flowered climbing roses
Very beautiful, large-flowered roses blooming all summer have powerful thick shoots, sometimes growing up to 4 meters in length. Their flowers, collected in a few loose inflorescences, are large in size. Flowering occurs on the shoots of this year, therefore, last year’s frozen branches have absolutely no effect on the appearance of buds. Since the growth of the stems of this subgroup of roses is very intense, even a thoroughly frozen plant will grow a new shoot of 1,0-1,5 m in a season and bloom.
Climbing roses, whose shoots do not exceed 1,5-2,0 meters in length, usually do not require support, they can be grown in the form of a sprawling bush or hedge. But this does not mean that they cannot be tied up or planted on supports – it will just be a little more difficult to do this than with climbing roses.
We talked about climbing roses in detail in our article.
Forerunners of climbing roses
The origin of climbing varieties is associated with two wild species – Multiflora and Rosehip Vihura.
Multiflora
Rosehip multiflora or multiflora comes from Japan, Korea, from the island of Taiwan. It has long flexible shoots up to 3 meters long and numerous white or pink flowers about 2 cm in diameter with a faint aroma of cinnamon. Once in Europe, this wild rose was enthusiastically received, and even now it is found in parks and large areas. It is often used in the creation of hedges. Differs in magnificent plentiful blossoming within a month.
Briar Vihura
This wild rose came to Europe from China, Korea, Japan, the Philippines. At home, it forms picturesque shrub thickets. The prostrate bushes can reach almost two meters in height, but almost 6 in width. It differs in white or pink fragrant flowers that are quite large for wild rose – 1,5-3,0 cm in diameter.
Formation of climbing roses
Another article will tell you in detail about the formation of climbing and climbing roses. We note that climbing varieties definitely need support, since their selection was carried out in such a way that their shoots were as long as possible, flexible and easy to tie up. Only some varieties have powerful, not too long shoots. They were not assigned to another group just because they bloom, like all climbing roses, on last year’s branches.
Most often, climbing varieties are grown in the form of a fan – the main and skeletal shoots are placed horizontally or in a fan. They are tied to a strong support, braided in plastic with wire.
From horizontally located thick shoots, thin vertical branches will grow, on which flowering will occur.
It is climbing roses that are planted next to the arches. Watch a video about planting options for climbing varieties:
It is important to remember that you need to form climbing varieties right away – they grow very quickly, if you miss at least a year, it will be very difficult to put the shoots in order.
Varieties of climbing roses
Nobody argues that all flowers are beautiful, but the topic of our article is climbing roses. Photos of varieties will help you appreciate their beauty, perhaps even choose a new plant for your garden.
Excelsa
One of the most famous climbing varieties in the world. Fast-growing lashes reach a length of 4 meters. Terry flowers with a diameter of 3 to 5 cm have a slightly sweet aroma and are painted in raspberry color. The variety is frost-resistant, moderately resistant to diseases.
Super Excelsa
An improved version of the “Excelsa” variety. Differs in repeated flowering and greater resistance to diseases. The variety can be called super winter-hardy, although it also grows well in hot climates. The bush is less vigorous than the original variety – its shoots grow up to 1,5-2,0 meters. The flowers are crimson, 3-4 cm in diameter, collected in clusters of 5-10 pieces, with a weak aroma.
Dorothy Dennison
The most famous climbing variety in the world. Shoots with rare thorns and large leaves grow up to 3,5 m. Semi-double flowers with a diameter of 4,0-4,5 cm are pale pink in color, collected 7-30 pieces in inflorescences. The variety is winter-hardy.
Amethyst
Single blooming climbing variety. Shoots equipped with large spikes in length reach 3 meters. Terry flowers, collected in a brush up to 40 pieces, have a pink-purple color, a weak aroma and a diameter of up to 5 cm. Winter-hardy variety.
American Pilar
This variety is not just popular – it has been mega-popular all over the world since its inception. It blooms once, but blooms very late, when the rest of the roses have long passed the peak of flowering. Raspberry spherical non-terry glasses of bright pink color with a light middle and large golden stamens. The lashes grow up to 3-4 m in length, are equipped with large red spikes, the leaves turn red by autumn and decorate the garden for a long time. Looks best on a trellis.
White Flight
It blooms once, but the flowers of the variety are of extraordinary beauty. The buds are pink, but when opened, the flowers are pure white in color, as they age, they become greenish in color. The size of a semi-double flower is 3-4 cm, petals with wavy edges. Shoots grow up to 3-4 m. It has an average resistance to diseases.
Blue Magenta
An absolutely delightful variety with velvety purple-violet densely double flowers up to 7 cm in diameter. It blooms once, the length of shoots almost devoid of thorns reaches 3-4 meters. Average resistance to diseases, frost resistance – good.
Snow Goose
Re-blooming variety with small white flowers, about 4 cm in diameter. Gustomahrovye flowers have petals of various lengths, resemble daisies and are collected in brushes of 5-20 pieces. Few prickly lashes reach a length of 3 meters. The variety is very hardy and disease resistant. In hot climates, it blooms continuously, and shoots can grow up to 5 m.
Bobby James
One of the largest and most abundantly flowering white varieties. Prickly shoots grow up to 5-8 m in length. Semi-double flowers with a strong aroma, white with a cream shade, are collected in large brushes. It blooms once, but for a very long time, and the bush is almost completely covered with flowers. It has good frost resistance.
Marvern Hills
Re-blooming variety, reaching a height of at least 3,5 m. Flexible thin shoots are not suitable for growing as a single plant, but will look great on a trellis. The flowers are about 5 cm in diameter, medium double, fragrant, pale yellow in color. During flowering, the bush is almost completely covered with flower clusters. Disease resistance and winter hardiness are ideal.
Conclusion
As you can see, climbing roses are varied and very attractive. Everyone will be able to find a variety to their liking. In addition, in vertical gardening, not a single flower can compete with them.