It’s February. Cue the Roses Planning!

If you garden in the Northeast, this is the time of year when us east coasters get that “gardener itch.” The ground has been frozen for too long, the evergreens are still caked with snow, and it’s too cold to get our hands in our garden gloves. However, nothing can stop us from walking the grounds and garden daydreaming. And roses on February 14th bring out the rose planning in us for the coming Spring like no other Winter day.

The climbing roses in Scarlett’s Garden have been growing at an amazing rate, especially our New Dawn Climbing Roses. We planted two groups of Cécile Brünner roses last year against the chain link fence, so we likely will not need additional support for those as we train them to branch out horizontally (branching out horizontally encourages more blooms). On the other hand, the New Dawns were planted a few years ago and are now looking to grow upward, so the search for additional support structures has begun.

Below are the structures that we are considering installing for our climbing New Dawns in the Spring and Summer. Currently, we have been using the 72-inch (24 in. W x 6 ft. H) Fan Trellis from Vigoro below, which have worked well (and stood up against the intense northeast windy, winter weather this year). However, the New Dawns are going to need a structure with much more height this Summer, so here are some ideas & structures we are looking at for our garden, and for yours as your roses continue to climb: