I enjoy growing large-flowered climbing roses that bloom spring until fall.

Tips for novices

Once roses begin to fade, it's time to cut off the dead blooms. Don't bother with the antique varieties of roses that bloom only once; in fact, some produce rose hips that are quite ornamental. But on repeat-flowering roses, such modern climbers, deadheading will greatly increase the production of more blooms in a later cycle.     Stop deadheading roses about a month before the first frost. You don't want to encourage roses to produce new growth at this time; tender new shoots are prone to frost damage.

        “Dublin Bay” is considered to be among the best — if not the best — of the red climbers. It was hybridized in 1975 by the McGredy company in New Zealand and in 1993 it won a coveted Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.

        If you plant Dublin Bay, select a special spot to show off its superb blooms. Long, arching canes are a distinctive feature and require plenty of space to perform at their best. This climber can be trained to grow along a fence, up the face of a house, on a pergola or trellis, even up into a tree.

        Pointed Dublin Bay buds unfurl into double, cupped blooms 3 to 4 inches across in a rich shade of blood red with a light, fruity fragrance. Blooms usually appear in clusters in early spring with a good repeat supply into fall. A gardening friend had blooms on his Dublin Bay at Thanksgiving last year.

        Ample, glossy green foliage accentuate the velvety flowers and canes are moderately thorny. If you prefer not to use Dublin Bay as a climber, you can plant it as a shrub rose; it will grow 6-8 feet (under good conditions), with about the same spread. It has excellent disease resistance and is hardy in our area.

       Contact Tim Morehouse by Web site: www.getmoregarden.com; mail: c/o Cincinnati Enquirer. (If writing, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
       

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