Mayangani’s Weblog

Those climbing roses whose names start with ‘Climbing’ or ‘Cl’ are sports (genetic mutations of the bush varieties of the same name). They generally have a heavy spring bloom followed by scattered blooms throughout the season. The individual blooms on climbing roses can be of a finer quality and larger than those of the bush form. Climbing roses whose names are not prefaced with ‘Climbing’ or ‘Cl’ are bred by crossing two roses. They generally have a heavy spring crop followed by a better repeat bloom and usually a good fall crop of blooms with a few exceptions. A few seedling Climbing roses bloom only once and are so noted here. Climbing roses are a diverse group with many different heritages, which makes this a wonderfully useful collection of roses. More climbing roses should be grown as they provide wonderful color in the garden without taking up much ground. Large flowered climbing roses differ from Ramblers in that they have fewer, yet larger blooms (4-6 inches in size) and are not quite as vigorous growers. Being so diverse, they vary in winter hardiness. Generally climbing roses are hardy zones 5 or 6 through 10 except as noted, some with more hardiness as noted

Red Roses

A Red rose

Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. The rose was sacred to a number of goddesses (including Isis and Aphrodite), and is often used as a symbol of the Virgin Mary. Roses are so important that the word means pink or red in a variety of languages (such as Romance languages, Greek, and Polish).

The rose is the national flower of England and the United States^[6], as well as being the symbol of England Rugby, and of the Rugby Football Union. It is also the provincial flower of Yorkshire and Lancashire in England (the white rose and red rose respectively) and of Alberta (the wild rose), and the state flower of four US states: Iowa and North Dakota (R. arkansana), Georgia (R. laevigata), and New York^[7] (Rosa generally). Portland, Oregon counts “City of Roses” among its nicknames, and holds an annual Rose Festival.

Roses are occasionally the basis of design for rose windows, such windows comprising five or ten segments (the five petals and five sepals of a rose) or multiples thereof; however most Gothic rose windows are much more elaborate and were probably based originally on the wheel and other symbolism.

A red rose (often held in a hand) is also a symbol of socialism or social democracy; it is also used as a symbol by the British and Irish Labour Parties, as well as by the French, Spanish (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party), Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Brazilian, Dutch (Partij van de Arbeid) and European socialist parties. This originates from the red rose used as a badge by the marchers in the May 1968 street protests in Paris. White Rose was a World War II non violent resistance group in Germany.