The highest rated mini climber by far is Jeanne Lajoie. The blooms are a medium pink and it is a very strong grower. Mine got to be almost 10 ft. tall and almost as wide. The spring bloom is spectacular, and it will repeat bloom throughout the year, although with much less volume than the spring bloom.

Others you might consider include Climbing Rainbow's End, yellow with pink edges, and Hi-Ho (a smaller grower with deep coral pink blooms). I'm sure others will be able to recommend other mini climbers.

Little White Lies has a slight scent as well.

These sound so pretty, I wanted to ask, do you prune the mini climbers ?

Treat them much like you do full sized modern climbers. Remove any dead or very old, woody canes. Prune the side shoots back, leaving maybe two or three strong eyes on each. Deadhead after the spring bloom to encourage repeat bloom. Anyone else want to chime in?

A couple you would probably like are Irene Marie (a personal favorite of mine, but a rather small thornless climber), Jeanne Lajoie, and maybe even the climbing form of Happy, a vigorous dark pink polyantha that blooms and blooms, but that can cover the side of a garage if planted in the ground. Or have you considered a striped one -- take a look at Life Lines. Or even the climbing form of Kristin, if you want little perfectly formed exhibition type blooms that last, it seems, forever.

I think the first three are are all available now from Burlington Roses and the other two are at Two Sisters Roses. Burlington has much better customer service though.

If I were worried about the rootstock, I would grow them in pots, and then as they get bigger, take and root cuttings from the potted ones and put those in the ground to see how they fare. That way you always have a backup if the nematodes get them.

Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: Burlington Roses

Pennies From Heaven looks great in my Fl. garden.

Burlington Roses doesn's ship to Flordia.. :-(

Looking4you2xist, Where do you get your roses?

Tropicalfreak

I just googled out a link for you
Hope it helps you

http://www.pswdistrict.org/text/articles/climbingminis.html

I got a mini climber in a trade. A dark red. As it grew I took a few cuttings. One of the cuttings is now pink. Is this unusual? Thanks

I have a climbing earthquake I've had in a pot for years. It has lots of colors in it. But no fragrance.

I have noticed lots of mail order places will not mail to Florida.

Thanks everybody for the great info..

Work of Art is a pretty one - I have one called Dreamcoat that is older and is growing up an arbor that has very pretty blooms - it is a strong grower and blooms lots. Its a McGredy rose.

tropicalfreak, Sorry, I had not read your reply until this morning. I buy roses from everyplace except ...wait for it ...Hortico (bahaha)

A lot of places do not ship from Ca. to Fl. you just have to find the ones that do. I had never been able to find many minis until Nor East picked up a bunch of minis at the end. I knew that Ralph Moore roses had ALWAYS been a pain to find in Fl. I had lusted quite a few of them over the years, so, I just decided to order 225 minis ( a couple were larger)just to have them in the state of Florida. A good move on my part, I like to think.

I am still missing hundreds of his minis, I would LIKE to have pretty much his entire collection! But it's a pain to find more than a couple at a time, and some places are charging almost 20$ for a mini ! Hopefully, soon, some places will be selling varieties I did not get before.

I am not particular as to where I order from. But to me, shipping kills a lot of deals, unless the company is like Burling's and sends them by flat rate. ( The 5 $ handling fees and mailing fees kill way to many deals for me ... just call me cheap!)

I love this time of year, while we do not get the body bag roses ( for better or worse) We do get a lot of "cast-offs" that are still under patent.( very few minis usually one or 2 types, generic minis) All HT etc, are always on Huey, so I just put them on Fortuniana.
( I usually will take cuttings from cl. minis and once I have one strike, the other goes into the ground, for better or worse. I then try to put what I can on Fortuniana. That I guess is my number one advice from my end / point of view. Get some Fortuniana, and learn how to graft .... or be prepared to always be doing cuttings. I have reclaimed water, and a misting system set up. Without a constant turnover, many minis do not do great here unless they are in Super LARGE containers (kinda defeats the purpose IMO)Feel free to email me if you have any questions Tropicalfreak. Also,I have extra Fortuniana!
Regards,
Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the info.
Where in Florida are you? Orlando? Tampa?

Cliff

I have no idea where you could get it, but for me, Candy Cane can't be beat. It grows on a brass trellis. Here are two pix.
Kathy

Kathy

Tropicalfreak,
I am just over the bridge in St.Pete about 5 minutes or less from the bridges in Riviera Bay.
Your Candycane looks great Kathy!

warm welcome is a single petaled orange/ salmon rose with a very unique scent.
laura ford is also a safe bet for a yellow with nice fragrance.
if you can find it, gloriana 97 is awesome coral and crimson with wonderful scent.
treat them pretty much the same way you would a large climber. gloriana can do well trimmed as a hedge as well