Climbers

A beautiful climbing shrub with tricolour foliage.  Looks sensational when entwined around a large tree.

Clusters of purple, chocolate-scented flowers in April.  Attractive foliage and violet-grey fruits in autumn.

An evergreen climber with small, narrow, arrow-shaped, dark green leaves tinged bronze in winter.

A twining, woody climber with dark green leaves producing cymnes of small, red flowers with a sweet fragrance from early summer.

A strong-growing, deciduous climber producing clusters of sweetly fragrant pale pink flowers in summer. The foliage is bright green, occasionally with pale cream margins.

A large, self-clinging, deciduous climber with toothed, large, five-pointed leaves, green in spring and summer, turning bronze-red in autumn.

Very vigorous climber which uses tendrils to cling to its host plant or support. This is the original garden passion flower which is second to only Fallopia baldschuanicum for covering sheds and old abandoned cars! The complex flowers are produced from mid summer onwards and the biblical connections always make them a talking point. Very hardy, and in a late summer may produce orange fruits.

American Pillar has been extremely popular ever since it was introduced.  It never fails to flower exuberantly, though rather late in the season, after most roses have already given off their best.  It roots quickly from cuttings, is easy to grow and is the hardiest of Dr Walter Van Fleet's 'dooryard' roses. The flowers are a cheerful crimson, with a glowing white centre and a large clump of bright golden stamens.  They are paler in hot weather and bright sunlight, so this is a rose that looks better in cool conditions but nonetheless grows and flowers spectacularly in widely different climates-from very hot to very cold.  The flowers come in large clusters and are followed by a handsome crop of scarlet hips in autumn.  The plant grows very vigorously, building up lots of slender branches with a fair covering of large prickles.  The British rosarian T C Mansell wrote in 1946 that "it can provide as impenetrable a thicket as ever Christian had to surmount" referring to the trials facing Christian in John Bunyan's allegory The Pilgrim's Progress).  The handsome leaves turn slightly purple in late autumn and last a long time, usually until after the birds have taken the hips.

An iconic rose which was David Austin's first ever hybrid. Round, globular flowers with incurved petals that never really open out owing to their sheer density. They are a pale clear pink with a darker pink inside and carry a strong myrrh-like fragrance. Can be grown as a shrub rose or as a climber.

Mme Isaac Pereire represents all the strengths of late 19th century shrub roses. It is capable of producing some of the most opulent of flowers, with one of the best scents of all roses. The flowers are substantial and weighty. Can be susceptible to black spot, so good air circulation around the plant is essential and use of a black spot treatment such as Rose Clear would be beneficial.

Impressive clusters of mauve to purple blended flowers with a pleasant, mild scent. A reliable repeat flowering rambler.

A seedling of New Dawn with clusters of double, bright red flowers set against dark green foliage.

The flowers of 'Wedding Day' open from pale apricot buds and are creamy-yellow before fading to pure white, carried in an enormous profusion of clusters of 20-40, picking up crimson markings as they fade. The flowers are then succeeded by little scarlet hips. Strong, fruity fragrance. Height to 8m.

A twining, evergreen climber with woody stems with oval, glossy dark green leaves producing clusters of scented, light pink flowers in summer.

A wonderful cultivar with extra long blue-purple flowers with a strong fragrance.

A twining climber producing dense pendulous racemes of highly fragrant white flowers in summer.

Medium length racemes of mauve-blue flowers.  Domino is a selection that flowers well as a young plant.