On 4/26/11 5:03 PM, Ted Shoemaker wrote:
Hello,

My wife came home this afternoon with a "Climbing America" rose. I've
never tried roses before this week, and I usually have a gray thumb.

She wants to plant the Climbing America on an east-facing brick wall.
Some websites say that we need to drill holes in the brick (if you've
never done that, it's not the same as drilling in wood!), install
hardware, run wires, etc. Really? That's a lot to do to a building
that we don't own!

What happens if we just plant the climber beside the wall, and let it
go? Okay, the Rose Police will tsk-tsk about it. What else will
happen?

Thank you.

Ted Shoemaker

Climbing roses require support. They are not like ivy or some other
vines that can cling to a wall.

I bought a masonry bit and used my ancient electric hand drill (bought
in 1965) to drill holes in a concrete block wall. Yes, it was slow
work. I inserted plastic anchors into the holes and then screwed in
screw-eyes. I tied my climbing roses to the screw eyes.

A neighbor had his climbing roses grow almost to the eaves of his front
porch, tying the long canes to the support posts of the porch overhang.
Then he hung a dowel or plastic pipe from the eaves and tied the
climbers to that.

You can also get a trellis and have the rose grow on that. If you go to
http://www.gardensoftheworld.info/ and wait patiently through the
slide show, you will see arched trellises with red roses (climbing 'Don
Juan') in the foreground and white roses (climbing 'Lace Cascade') in
the midground.

Note that roses generally need 6 or more hours of sun each day. Yours
might not get enough sun on an east-facing wall.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary