I placed an order for spring delivery of eight own-root banded roses. I ordered off the internet from a nursery that got good reports. I got one of every color. I ordered Zephirine as my one and only climbing rose. I read lots of reports of it being a dreamy smelling old garden rose that produces hundreds of flowers... and is practically thornless! What an ideal thing for a climber. She's also supposed to be shade-tolerant. The thornless bit plus lots of flowers really got me... if something's a climbing rose with canes going every which way above my head, thornless is a very nice thing.
It arrived in March and was teeny tiny. I didn't expect them to be so small. But I planted them. Zephirine is positioned as the walkway flowerbed curves into the larger main front flowerbed in front of the guest room. It's the in-front-of-the-front-door spot. I bought a tall obelisk to give it something to climb since I don't want anything against the house. I also thought it would be good to add some vertical interest to that area of the yard since I had to remove two trees.
Zephirine is doing better than any of the other baby roses. She has taken off and kept going. She's already huge! As big as my roses that are several years old. Of course, as a climbing rose, she throws out really long canes that I then wrap around the obelisk. She only put out a few flowers in the spring and otherwise has thrown her heart into growing and growing (and growing), but I imagine I'm going to have one heck of a show come spring.
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