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Recommendation for a healthy climbing rose

lacartridgesAZyIGsslacartridgesAZyIGss Posts: 24
in Plants
Hi, a couple of years ago I bought a couple of climbing roses from David Austin (Tess of the d'urbervilles). Unfortunately, these roses have turned out to be prone to disease and I have since checked the David Austin website and they have now been "retired". I am now looking to replace them and wondered if anybody had healthy recommends to climb up my metal rose arbor. I've been looking at the "Mary Delany" climber. Has anyone had any experience with this particular rose? Any help and advice would be much appreciated.
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  • MarlorenaMarlorena Posts: 8,705
    @lacartridgesAZyIGss
    Yes I've grown 'Mary Delany'..  I can confirm it's a very healthy rose with beautiful foliage, large leaves, quite luxuriant leafage actually... almost thornless too and trainable in a variety of different ways.. with reasonably flexible canes.

    The blooms are a light pink and have a sweet fragrance..

    The rose has one drawback - inevitably - in that some blooms are prone to crisping or discolouring in full sun, normally not much of a problem, and tends to affect older flowers as it often does on roses,  but I liked to deadhead those blooms as soon as I saw them...  

    I've lost all my photos of this rose unfortunately.. If I was to choose another from that vendor now, I might go with 'Strawberry Hill' instead.. 
    East Anglia, England
  • lacartridgesAZyIGsslacartridgesAZyIGss Posts: 24
    Wow, thank you so much. Strawberry Hill sounds great as it grows to 10ft rather than 12ft which might be better for my standard rose arch. One of the problems I had with Tess of the d'urbervilles was that I felt the stems were overlapping too much in a confined space and last year suffered from a white fungal infection. This could have been due to lack of airflow. I'm conscious of this happening again if the rose grows too big (although having said that, Tess of the d'urbervilles was only listed as growing to 8ft). However, the reason I didn't look at Strawberry Hill is because it wasn't listed under "best for health" on the David Austin website. Do you have any other recommends for short climbers that won't become too overcrowded (or do you think this could have just been a problem with Tess of the d'urbervilles)? Sorry for the long post but I don't seem to have much success with roses.
  • MarlorenaMarlorena Posts: 8,705
    You shouldn't take too much notice of their ''best for this or that'' recommendations.. it's all marketing hype...

    I don't have 'Strawberry Hill' but member @tack has it beautifully trained.. perhaps she might show a photo here from the Roses thread.. but it's always best to choose your own roses, what you really like the look of, however I think you should steer clear of 'James Galway', as it's somewhat rampant when established and will crowd out your arch [probably demolish it]..
    East Anglia, England
  • lacartridgesAZyIGsslacartridgesAZyIGss Posts: 24
    Thank you so much Malorena for taking the time to respond so thoroughly.  I've seen some photos of your roses and they look incredible. :)
  • Jess91Jess91 Posts: 159
    I can't recommend one but I'd advise you avoid Generous Gardener if my experience is anything to go by.

    It's riddled with black spot, the blooms only last a day or so each and they then fall everywhere leaving a sticky petally mess. The shoots are also infuriatingly unbendy so it's hard to tie in as it grows.

    Unfortunately for me it grows directly up the front of my house, in full view of the street. So I'm constantly pruning at it trying to make it look tidy.  I'm planning to replace it this winter.
    Slowly building a wildlife garden, in a new build in East Yorkshire.
  • zugeniezugenie Posts: 831
    I have city of york (not a DA but a lovely rose) and it’s by far the healthiest rose in my garden, beautifully scented white blooms too :)
  • TackTack Posts: 1,367
    edited June 2023
    Thanks @Marlorena. Strawberry Hill is one of the healthiest roses I have. I am happy to recommend it. The other DA climbing rose I have with immaculate health is white Claire Austin.  
  • edhelkaedhelka Posts: 2,351
    Jess91 said:
    I can't recommend one but I'd advise you avoid Generous Gardener if my experience is anything to go by.

    It's riddled with black spot
    Really? Here in wet coastal North Wales, where literally everything gets blackspot, it is one of my handful of roses that are totally immune.

    I agree it is not a rose for an arch though.
  • lacartridgesAZyIGsslacartridgesAZyIGss Posts: 24
    Thank you all so much for your input. You are such a lovely group. I am now thinking of either going with Strawberry Hill or in a completely different direction (colour wise) and maybe try DA's "Bathsheba" or "Scent from Heaven" from Trevor White. I'm wondering if I've got too much pink going on on one side of my bed and should possibly balance it out with apricot/orange. The pink rose on the arbor is the rose that is being replaced.
  • WAMSWAMS Posts: 1,960
    Such a pretty garden, @lacartridgesAZyIGss.

    My Bathsheba came out today and I can tell you it smells of pineapples. Can't stop huffing it!
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