rose wall - three-wire fence for training climbing roses - Brief Article

Sunset, Jan, 2002 by Lauren Bonar Swezey

* Climbing roses are remarkably versatile. They can clamber up a trellis, sprawl over an arbor, twine up a pillar, and climb along a wall. Rose expert Robert Cowden also discovered they make wonderful living fences.

While searching for a way to complete the circle of David Austin roses planted at the Gardens at Heather Farm in Walnut Creek, California, Cowden stumbled across a reference in the library there that mentioned three-wire fence systems for training roses.

Nice idea, but there were no instructions. So Cowden developed his own design, creating a 60-foot-long curving fence of 6-foot-tall, 6-by-6 redwood posts (you could substitute 4-by-4s) spaced 6 feet apart. The posts are capped; bases are set in concrete footings. Three evenly spaced wires attached to turnbuckles support 'Polka' roses.

"The system is very adaptable," says Cowden. "By decreasing or increasing the number of posts, it can be designed to fit any size garden."

Other great roses for a fence: 'Alister Stella Gray' (light yellow), 'Altissimo' (red), 'Climbing Iceberg' (white), 'Lavender Lassie' (lavender pink), 'Westerland' (apricot, sold as shrub rose), 'Zephirine Drouhin' (pink).