Climbing roses for me are a real, 'show off'. I love the reaction people have when they see them. I have them growing around my garden shed and it just feels as though you're in a picture postcard English rural cottage garden. It always looks as though the care of climbing roses is a fine and difficult art but with my climbing rose tips you'll find they're no more difficult than coping with any other type of outdoor rose. The results are always worth it.

So where to start?

Patience!

They can take several years to mature so if you're planning to grow one as a centrepiece make sure there's other aspects of interest nearby to keep yourself motivated and enthusiastic.

Planning!

You can never do enough. Choose the place you want the rose to be first then match the type of rose to that. Consider the, 'Magic 5', disease resistance, tolerance to shade, overall size, re-bloom and aesthetics.

Disease Resistance

You will need to reach your rose regularly and often to care for it so don't choose a variety that is bred to grow higher than you can easily cope with. Fungal problems are a priority and the more air that can circulate around your climbing roses the less of this problem you'll have. So if you're pinning it to a wall or a shed, like mine, use a small wooden block rather than fixing directly to the surface. Also a South facing situation is going to have less problems simply because of its increased exposure to the sun.

Tolerance To Shade

Pale flowered roses will cope better with shade than more vibrant ones, 'Hybrid Musk', for example can stand as much as half a day of shade and still thrive. Generally most climbers will need around 6 hours per day sunlight.

Overall Size

Simply pay attention to the space you want to grow your climbing rose in and what you can easily cope with; then match your choice of rose to that. Do not expect to be able to train your climber to anything other than what it's bred for. You will struggle to contain a climbing rose successfully if you want it to stay smaller than its intended mature breeding size.

Re-bloom

Many varieties of climbing roses will only bloom in spring; however there are ones that will flower from early to late summer.

Aesthetics

A much more fun subject; consider only two things; your own preference and whether you want your rose to dictate the rest of your gardens' colour or vice versa.

Rose Trees

Rose trees or rose standards as they are otherwise known aren't necessarily in the climbing class of roses but they are worth considering. Why? Well, because they are absolutely stunning, when they're grown and cared for well they're a real head turner. However, approach with caution, in my view there are the most difficult to grow and maintain.

They are delicate hybrids with the top flower growth grafted on to the cane or, 'trunk', which supports the whole tree. The cane is susceptible to sun damage whereby the flower top growth revels in sun exposure. There are many other issues a rose tree can have which unfortunately we don't have the space to go into here. But it is safe to say that it's a high maintenance beast.