Cold-hardy climbing roses decorate or hide their host all year.
Climbing roses add both color and distinction to garden trellises, arches and pillars. They can direct the eye toward a garden's arrangement or encircle a sun dial or bird bath and protect them from outdoor cats. Climbing roses can also be trained to grow over unattractive bare walls or rocks. Cold-hardy climbing roses do not retreat from their covering mission over the winter months. Does this Spark an idea?
John Cabot
Slightly fragrant, semi-double John Cabot roses bear an average of 40 petals and come in clusters of three to ten. They perch above dense foliage and start opening to 3 inches in June. Their color changes over the course of the year: from orchid-red or fuscia pink color to mauve. A Kordesii hybrid bred to be hardy and disease resistant and one of the 22 cultivars of the Canadian Explorer series, John Cabot roses can endure winter to hardiness zone 2b, which includes the northernmost sections of the United States bordering Canada and most of Alaska. John Cabot roses can easily be trained to climb. Their strong arching canes grow from nine to 10 feet where they take root.
Golden Showers
Sweet-smelling, ruffled and double-blooming Golden Showers roses open as wide as 5 inches. This prolific bloomer has strong stems with few thorns that can climb from six to 10 feet or stand on its own untrained as a shrub. Golden Showers roses start off daffodil yellow in May and fade to cream come fall. Almost as striking as their yellow blooms are the glossy dark-green leaves behind them. Like the John Cabot, Golden Showers roses are long lasting but can only thrive in winters as cold as zone 5, or approximately as far north as Pennsylvania and Iowa. They can tolerate poor soil and poor shade but produce more blooms with full sun.
New Dawn
Plump 4-inch-wide bluish-pink petals adorn the New Dawn's stems, which can grow up to eight feet in its first year and up to 15 to 20 feet in the following years. Attentive training will keep this vigorous grower focused. Double-blossoming New Dawn roses start bursting in June, emit a light sweet aroma and fade to white over the course of the summer. Cold hardy to zone 4 (as far north as Minnesota and Nebraska), New Dawn roses do best in full sun and in areas that have good air circulation but will tolerate some shade and poor soil. The New Dawn rose plant also has historic importance: It is the first cultivar to be granted a plant patent under the Plant Patent Act of 1930.
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