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This is the front of my house in Pacific Northwest and you can see the red rectangle frame was there before:

enter image description here

I was told it was built for climbing plants back in the 70s. Now I want to grow this climbing rose:

https://www.davidaustinroses.com/us/the-wedgwood-rose-english-climbing-rose

The front area only get morning sun (it's East facing).

Questions:

  1. If I start bareroot, do I support the rose body with anything vertical? Or do I just "staple" the rose body to the wall?

  2. Does that rose above work? Or do I have to pick something else (climbing type) below?

https://www.davidaustinroses.com/us/specific-planting-situations/roses-for-shady-areas

Thanks.

UPDATE 1

This is what I am thinking. Is this correct?

enter image description here

UPDATE 2

Is this something I should use? Found at HomeDepot

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-72-in-Geometric-Trellis-861189VG/302643633

enter image description here

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  • 1
    Just to say, in the second link, the list of shade tolerant roses includes roses of all types - shrub, bush as well, so make your selection carefully if you want a climber and not a rambler or shrub. The Wedgewood rose only gets 10 feet - is that high enough for your needs? If not, check the height and spread of any climbing rose before deciding...
    – Bamboo
    Jul 6, 2019 at 16:53
  • Yeah 10 ft is more than enough. How fast does it grow per year normally?
    – HP.
    Jul 7, 2019 at 2:19
  • No idea, never grown that one, but you can probably reckon on 3 years minimum to reach 10 feet.
    – Bamboo
    Jul 7, 2019 at 10:00

1 Answer 1

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I wouldn't describe an open wall like that as "shady" whichever way it faces. You profile says Seattle so if it is facing directly east it will get 7 hours of direct sun per day in summer which is more than enough for any rose.

The frame in your picture won't support any climbing plants on its own. Maybe there were some vertical posts into the ground below once and plants like vines were trained up them, but they have now been removed.

To get the best display from climbing roses you need to train stems horizontally instead of letting them do what they want to do naturally, which is grow vertically and flower only at the top of the stems.

You can fix a wooden frame or trellis to the wall, but you need one that covers the whole width of the wall down to say 2 or 3 feet above ground level, not the cheap "tall and narrow" frames you will find on web marketing sites. Plan for the future, when a single climbing rose has covered the entire brick wall area and is trying block all the light from your windows as well!

Alternatively, you can use horizontal wires (either plastic or metal) fixed at the each end to "vine eyes" in the wall. If the wire colour blends with the brickwork (galvanized iron can look less intrusive than bright coloured plastic) wires are less visible than a wood frame, and longer lasting if you are talking about a 10 or 20 year timescale. (I know of one climbing rose in the UK which is now about 120 years old, still going strong, and usually has a few blooms surviving until Christmas each year!)

Don't attempt to "staple" the rose to the wall directly. If you do that, you won't have any options for moving the stems as they grow and you will end up doing a lot of damage to the brickwork fixing the individual"staples."

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  • I am trying to visualize the options you mentioned above. Do you have links for the products you described in the first option? For the second option, do I attach it to the bricks or to the wooden siding? Is this it target.com/p/… ? Also is it better to start with two rose plants in the center (the fireplace bricks area) OR one plant on each side to meet in the middle?
    – HP.
    Jul 7, 2019 at 2:18
  • Would love to get more opinion on UPDATE 2
    – HP.
    Oct 11, 2019 at 5:03

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