Cécile Brunner Climbing Rose

PeggyTX

I've just bought and received my first ever climbing rose, Rosa 'Cécile Brunner'.  Very healthy specimen with blooms already.  Can't wait to get it planted!  Thought I'd ask if anyone here growing this particular climbing rose might have any pictures to share so I can see how you are training yours to "behave".  I'm wanting to train mine to cover an exterior fence facing the street.  Nothing in front of the fence but grass currently.  I had thought about a 4'x8' vinyl white latticeboard to train it on that could be affixed to fence with screws (with a 4" wooden spacer block) to a 6'tall white exterior wooden fence at the side of our rear garden.  Fence is about 35' or 12 meters long.  There are no other plants planted along this fence, so the rose will have free reign with a little training "guidance" from me. 

I've never grown a climbing rose, only bush varieties.  Do you think I can keep it pretty much outside the fence that is shared with the inner garden, with proper lateral cane die down effort?  That would be my preference, since inside garden has several 5' Nandina domestica planted on other side of fence and wouldn't want the rose to engulf them. Or is this rose prone to get out of control?  

Former owner had some an out-of-control climber in the front garden when we bought this place.  We called it "The Monster".  It was a snarled up mess of thorny canes that were taking over our sidewalk to the back garden gate as well as the bed it was planted it.  It was so shaded by surrounding oak trees and a loquat tree it was rarely blooming.  It took us 3 days of hard work too cut and untangle that mess to have it hauled away.  Don't want to have a repeat situation with this Cécile Brunner.

Any other tips and ideas for establishing this climbing rose along a fence are welcomed.

Dovefromabove

@WonkyWomble
grows this rose ... maybe she’ll see this post. 😊 

Nollie

There appear to be two climbing clones of this rose in the US, Peggy, a very vigorous, potentially house-eating, once bloomer (Spring only) and one called Spray Cecile Brunner,  a repeat-flowering one which is said to be rather more controllable. See here for more details:

https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.891&tab=1

Do you know which one you have? If not, may be worth contacting the nursery and asking them. Either way, they may grow much bigger for you in your Texan climate than they would in Europe, so again, it might be best to ask your nursery or local rose group if you have one.

The essentials of training any climbing rose is to train each long stem as horizontally as possible, leaving the last few inches at the end of the cane free, at intervals up your fence, to encourage as many lateral breaks (flowering side shoots) as possible. 

Watsonia

Hi Peggy,

I grow Cecile Brunner along a garden fence. I bought it after seeing it at RHS Wisley where it is climbing up a brick garden wall. 

After pruning It last year and training it further along the fence I have now decided to follow the Asthall Technique for pruning, not sure if it is going to work but the results l have seen in photos look stunning. The also have a Cecile Brunner at Asthall Manor in Oxford and it looks lovely. Here a picture from last year, it was only in its second year, it already looks fuller this year. The picture doesn’t do it justice, it was taken in June, first flush of flowers already over. I had the last roses on it in November and already a lot of buds this year. It’s on a south west facing fence. It also has a lovely scent.

PeggyTX

@Dovefromabove, I do hope Wonky sees my query. 

@Nollie, I purchased my Cecile Brunner from this nursery in the Northwest U.S.  https://www.thegreenhousepnw.com/products/cecile-brunner-rose?_pos=1&_sid=5057e76bc&_ss=r.  I emailed some questions to them 2 days ago but no reply as yet.  Looks like I may have bought their last specimen, as it is now shoing "Out of Stock".  The blooms on mine have a tight tea rose look when buds first open, then they appear to look like this variety at your link:  https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.891.3.  Currently there are 1-4 buds on each cane end. 

@Watsonia, your rose is LOVELY, and you're doing a fantastsic job of training it!  Is that wire I see attached to the fence for this purpose?  Do you have any problems with disease or mildew training it directly on the fence?  The planting instructions sent with my rose recommended a 4" space between the rose and the fence, thus my thoughts of using a latiaceboard.  But yours looks so healthy attached right on the fence, maybe I should just try that.  Would certainly be a lot cheaper than buying the lattice board and working out the spacer blocks to attach to the fence.  Of course, our weather is much warmer in summer and probably more humid, so disease might be more prevalent for me in Texas than in your cooler, more temperate climate in the UK.

Nollie

Hi again Peggy, yes the variety on that link and your nursery link is the climbing version of CB, but there are two two clones, or sub-varieties if you like, that have the same name and the same blooms but the plant behaves differently (larger, once-blooming or better-behaved repeat bloomer) so yours could still be either. As your nursery link doesn’t say it’s a repeater, I suspect it’s the once-bloomer. Have a look at the HMF member comments page which explains it better than I can. If the nursery can’t enlighten you, you will just have to plant it and see!

4” is quite a gap, with long eye bolts screwed into the fence posts and stretched wires between them the most I have managed is a 2 - 2.5” gap. That’s usually enough to allow airflow. I have hot and humid summers here in Spain, but rarely suffer from mildew, but my hot and humid is still different to yours. For health, the main thing is to keep your young climber well watered and fed - climbers need more energy than shrub or bush roses as they have a lot more growing to do before they can produce blooms.

WonkyWomble

Hello @PeggyTX
The picture I have needs resizing to upload on here,  I've emailed it to @Dovefromabovein hope that she has time to do it as I'm at work and unable to do it at the moment.
It's a beautiful rose though and I'm sure you will be very happy with it. 

Dovefromabove

@WonkyWomble ‘s
Rosa Cecile Bruner (climbing) ... if I remember correctly it was purchased from the Old Vicarage at East Ruston about 4 years ago. 

chicky

We have a Climbing Cecile Brunner- ours only flowers once a year, but is beautiful when it does.  We don’t prune or train it at all, just let it romp over a pergola.

chicky

Here it is “romping”

SophieK

It is said that you should train the main stems as horizontally as possible as it is the new upright shoots that will carry the blooms. I planted two climbing roses (Rosa odorata mutabilis and Rosa Compassion) again my brick wall last year but they are still too small and barely reach the first wire. Still I think they will be taller before going horizontal as I have fairly tall plants in my borders and I would not see any of the blooms below. I like how Dovefromabove and Watsonia have trained theirs.