I've just been out with torch and measuring tape. The arch is 6ft 6ins wide. There's a clematis on the other side that doesn't get to half way over the arch. I grow Rosa alba 'Celeste' against a post of an old timber arch but don't find it easy to keep it (a shrub) within bounds. I really like the colours of Ghislaine. I haven't detected much scent though, and although the new stems are thornless, there are prickles aplenty on the flowering shoots. There's no hurry though. I'll mull it over. If it doesn't work out I can change it.
@Woodgreen Been doing a bit of research, including looking at a previous thread here on GW forum, and speaking to gardening friends of mine and everybody says that Ghislaine de Feligonde only grows 12 feet. So I would suggest that anyone who says they have seen it growing bigger it wasn’t GdF.
Sorry to disagree but Ghislaine de Feligonde in my garden, when left to its own devices, was at least 20 foot width and not stopping.. it takes a few years, but really takes off when established, and blooms continuously. I tried it on an arch once, - not the best place and there are much better options unless your arch is rather vast. Multiflora ramblers like this have a stiffer growth habit, and can be trained as large shrubs on other supports with control and management. I don't think they look their best that way personally. I had to cut mine back to about 8 x 10 feet.
..it spread off to the right out of shot, and around the conifer on the left.. ... where it swamped a trachelospermum..
Wichurana ramblers, of which my favourite is 'Alexandre Girault' can be grown on a standard Agriframe type arch, with an apex height of 7' 6'' and width of 4 feet, successfully. I have a photo of that somewhere.
best wishes.. stick to what you think you can manage.. shorter roses are often the best option. Peter Beales have some nice repeat flowering Kordes rambling roses in stock now in the 'Siluetta' range. Well worth a look..
Good to hear from you @Marlorena, I hope you are well, and thank you so much for commenting. I almost dug Ghislaine up again to discard it when you advised against it last time, but given that plants here have a tougher life than in many gardens I left it in the hope that it might hunker down and live a restricted life in my challenging conditions!
It is confusing when you've not seen the rose in the flesh, trying to fathom out what these dimensions mean. eg. twenty feet wide spread implies canes 10 feet long going left and right? So to a person like me that seems to mean I could train 10 foot canes over my arch (which is what they said at Austin's, but....they want to sell roses!) But like it or lump it the poor rose is where it is, it's second placing since it arrived here. I planted it at the foot of the arch at the end of March this year in a memorable rainstorm. It's now just under 5ft tall.
To find it a wall I'd have to do away with long-established climbing hydrangeas on the house or my two-storey barn, which would take a considerable amount of time and effort which frankly I haven't got. I have looked ahead to a time when I won't be able to trim those twice a year on double ladders but realise that doing away with them is a long job, and their roots fill the border at the foot of the wall, so that would be a long job too. And several birds would lose their nesting sites.....
So until such time that the rose becomes unmanageable, whether that's next year or three, four five years hence, it can stay where it is and be either a beautiful if short lived thing of loveliness, or a pain in the neck, arms, face and wherever else it grabs me as I attempt to get through the arch, in which case I will discard it. Easier than discarding those climbing hydrangeas!
Maybe tempest, floods, honey fungus and me will have a dwarfing effect......ever the optimist! Thanks again, I do appreciate your advice.
..that's ok, and thank you !.. I'm sure you'll manage it. No need to do away with those lovely Hydrangeas. It tends to stay shrub like for a couple of years I found. As long as we enjoy it, that's the main thing.
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I grow Rosa alba 'Celeste' against a post of an old timber arch but don't find it easy to keep it (a shrub) within bounds.
I really like the colours of Ghislaine. I haven't detected much scent though, and although the new stems are thornless, there are prickles aplenty on the flowering shoots.
There's no hurry though. I'll mull it over. If it doesn't work out I can change it.
Multiflora ramblers like this have a stiffer growth habit, and can be trained as large shrubs on other supports with control and management. I don't think they look their best that way personally. I had to cut mine back to about 8 x 10 feet.
..it spread off to the right out of shot, and around the conifer on the left..
... where it swamped a trachelospermum..
Wichurana ramblers, of which my favourite is 'Alexandre Girault' can be grown on a standard Agriframe type arch, with an apex height of 7' 6'' and width of 4 feet, successfully.
I have a photo of that somewhere.
best wishes.. stick to what you think you can manage.. shorter roses are often the best option. Peter Beales have some nice repeat flowering Kordes rambling roses in stock now in the 'Siluetta' range. Well worth a look..
It is confusing when you've not seen the rose in the flesh, trying to fathom out what these dimensions mean. eg. twenty feet wide spread implies canes 10 feet long going left and right? So to a person like me that seems to mean I could train 10 foot canes over my arch (which is what they said at Austin's, but....they want to sell roses!)
But like it or lump it the poor rose is where it is, it's second placing since it arrived here. I planted it at the foot of the arch at the end of March this year in a memorable rainstorm. It's now just under 5ft tall.
To find it a wall I'd have to do away with long-established climbing hydrangeas on the house or my two-storey barn, which would take a considerable amount of time and effort which frankly I haven't got. I have looked ahead to a time when I won't be able to trim those twice a year on double ladders but realise that doing away with them is a long job, and their roots fill the border at the foot of the wall, so that would be a long job too.
And several birds would lose their nesting sites.....
So until such time that the rose becomes unmanageable, whether that's next year or three, four five years hence, it can stay where it is and be either a beautiful if short lived thing of loveliness, or a pain in the neck, arms, face and wherever else it grabs me as I attempt to get through the arch, in which case I will discard it. Easier than discarding those climbing hydrangeas!
Maybe tempest, floods, honey fungus and me will have a dwarfing effect......ever the optimist!
Thanks again, I do appreciate your advice.
Apologies for talking bollocks. I do try not to do it, but sometimes I fail.