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 The Rogue Valley Roses Bulletin, March 7, 2007
We are extending our 10% Discount to American Rose Society members, Heritage Rose Foundation members, and Heritage Rose Group Members. Click here for details. Our special: "buy 5 roses select a FREE band" continues with a new list of climbers and tall shrubs to choose from. So, Who’s Afraid of Climbers and Tall Shrubs? 
Climbers and tall shrub roses add romance, dimension and drama to the garden. They make perfect barriers, backdrops for perennials, or covers for the ungainly and unsightly. What home is not enhanced by a well grown climber near an entry or softening an expanse of wall? Why then are they underused by many gardeners? A focus at RVR, and on our website, is on making these groups more understandable to gardeners who want to grow them. This includes those inexperienced in pruning and training them, or baffled by how to select from the many diverse groups and varieties. Selecting Climbers and Tall Shrubs Growth habit, placement in the garden, and the mature size that can be anticipated in your garden’s agricultural zone are extremely important considerations. As you know, for example, climber or not, no rose will grow as large in North Dakota as it will in Southern California. When selecting a climber to attain some height in a northern climate, choose a very hardy variety, bred to perform to size in your zone. We grow most of the storied Southern roses, but we also have some outstanding, hard to find, northern roses as well. Some of our hardiest climbers are: Alba Maxima, the incomparable Alchymist, Bantry Bay, Polstjarnan, and William Baffin. Zone 5 has a much wider range of choice including the German hybrids, such as Antike, Autumn Sunset, Westerland, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, and many of the great ramblers, such as American Pillar, Bleu Magenta, and Evangeline. The sumptuous Aloha, Compassion and its sport, Dixieland Linda, as well as, the amazing Charles Lawson, Fantin Latour, James Mason, or Robert Leopold are just a few of the climbers and large shrubs available for Zone 5. You may search our website at roguevalleyroses.com for all roses suitable for your USDA Zone by clicking on the first drop down window on the sidebar and selecting "view hardy roses". You may also search for climbers by these groupings: Ramblers, Climbing Hybrid Teas and Climbing Floribundas, Climbing Polyanthas and Miniature Climbers, Tea-Noisette Climbers, Climbing Teas and Climbing Chinas. Numerous varieties of other classes, such as Hybrid Musks, contain climbers, or tall shrubs that can be made to climb. Among the antique classes the Albas, Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals are notable for containing climbing varieties. Tall shrubs, and climbers, may be searched across all classes of roses on our website by using the height search category. To encourage you to experiment we are offering a free climber or tall shrub when you buy 5 roses. Some of the roses on the free list are in rather short supply, so order early for the best selection. Click here for the complete list of roses to pick from. An informed choice is made when you know what a particular rose is capable of and what it is not capable of. Some are tall, upright, rigid plants, unable to bend and run nimbly along a fence. Others will overwhelm a small arch, while some are incapable of reaching even the roof of a tall arbor, let alone providing shade across the top. In our gardens you can see climbers so lax that when thrown over a tree limb they immediately cascade limply back down (an effect I like), while, in the next tree over, a different variety is still going, with little ladder work by the gardener, and is approaching the very top of a fifty foot cedar. The goal is to match the variety to your garden planting spot and vision of creating something memorable. For more on the planting, training, and pruning of climbers and tall shrubs click here. By offering a 10% discount to members of the American Rose Society, The Heritage Rose Foundation, and the Heritage Rose Groups we hope to encourage everyone who loves roses to join one or more of these outstanding organizations. All of these groups need your support as they go about the pleasurable work of keeping alive the knowledge, availability, and love of thousands of unique roses that otherwise would so quickly disappear from the mainstream of rose commerce. All of them have enjoyable and informative publications that come with membership. NOTE: If you do not wish to receive this newsletter in the future, please reply to this message with the word "CANCEL" in the subject line. We apologize if you received this newsletter in error.
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