Climbing roses in pots

justflowers

I am hoping to plant a couple of climbing roses in (very large!) pots to hide a particularly ugly front porch.  Having looked at my David Austin catalogue, no varieties are recommended for pots.  I have already got two ramblers in large pots and they are surviving but I wouldn't say thriving.  Has anyone done this and would anyone recommend particular varieties - climber or rambler, but must be repeat flowering. Many thanks.

Nollie

Climbing roses in pots are tricky as they need a lot of water and nutrients to support all that top growth and give them the energy to climb, they can’t ‘dig deep’ onto the soil for their needs so are totally dependent on you. With a good loam-based soil (not just compost) plus plenty of feed, water and tlc you can grow shorter climbers successfully in large, deep pots, 60cm x 60cm minimum. David Austin probably doesn’t recommend climbing roses in pots because of the extra effort required by the purchaser and they get lots of complaints if they don’t do well. They do illustrate the short climber Strawberry Hill in a pot on their website, however! A rambling rose in a pot may indeed survive but it will never really thrive and be covered in blooms, it just won’t have the energy.

Busy-Lizzie

I had "The Pilgrim" in a pot for 8 years and it did OK, but now it is at my daughter's in the ground and it has grown a lot more vigorous. I have "The Eden Rose" in a pot, it took a while to get started but now it's fine. I've also grown the rambler "Malvern Hills" in a pot, it flowered well but wasn't as vigorous as the one in the ground. They do need more feeding and a lot more watering than roses in the ground. I used a mix of soil, compost and rotted horse manure in the pots, topped up with compost.

What about a clematis?

justflowers

Thanks both - on balance I think I need to have a rethink, as the whole point is to have a vigorous, beautiful flowering climber to cover as much of the porch as possible!  I will take a look at Clematis, although ideally I wanted flowers for as much of Summer / Autumn as possible and the Clematis I have are beautiful but flower for a short time. I will have a look at the Eden rose and also Strawberry Hill before I completely change my mind though! Thanks again!

Mike Allen

There is very little problem with growing practically anything in pots or containers.  Provide you take into account the perhaps restricted area for the roots and the general balancing and substitution of feeds.  Yes,  aclimbing rose or some other rampant grower will demand more and more all the time.  It is upto you, how and why you provide.

justflowers

Thank you - I now need to decide whether I able / willing to put in the effort to look after the roses properly!  On balance I think I will and am favouring Crown Princess Margareta - mostly because we already have one on the same house wall and it is doing really well - it is in the ground though!