If you want to combine your love of roses with your love of privacy, I just discovered the perfect rambling variety for the job.
Climbing plants are features of the very best garden screening ideas, in my opinion – an attractive screen of blooms is one thing, but scented types will blow your socks off during the summer.
I wanted to find a climbing rose with the best fragrance and the ability to cover a fence or trellis as quickly as possible, and when I spoke to RHS award-winning garden designer Zoe Claymore, it quickly became apparent that Rose ‘Rambling Rector’ is the one I need to try.
If you’ve got a big space to fill, Rose ‘Rambling Rector’ (which you can order from Crocus) is one of the best fast-growing climbing plants to grow for privacy.
‘Rambling rector is good for a big space, growing fast up to 7.5 metres,’ says Zoe. ‘It could do excellently over many panels, and it’s one of my favourites for a divine smell.’
The fragrance is one of the things that sold me the most, actually: the creamy-white blooms produce an intoxicating musky scent. The huge clusters of semi-double flowers bloom between July and September, providing an attractive privacy screen for most of the summer.
After that, spherical red rose hips appear, providing another season of interest before the deciduous climber loses its leaves in the winter. That’s the only thing with climbing roses – they aren’t evergreen – but they are perennial, so they’ll burst back into growth in the spring and provide a beautiful, fragranced privacy screen every summer.
To maintain greenery throughout the year, you could always plant other climbers alongside the rambling roses, like honeysuckle and clematis.
‘To provide year-round interest and privacy, I often interplant roses with a clematis or another climbing plant (a favourite of mine is ‘Wisley Cream’, which is evergreen clematis and flowers in the winter),’ Zoe adds. You can buy Clematis ‘Wisley Cream’ in a 9cm pot from B&Q.
‘Also, for a wilder look, consider interplanting our native dog rose with honeysuckle and ivy into your fence panels for year-round interest, habitats and beauty – it’s much slimmer than a hedge,’ Zoe continues. ‘I had all of these in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show British Rainforest Garden last year. ‘
Rose ‘Rambling Rector’ is also a brilliant climbing plant for shadier parts of the garden.
‘It’s an excellent cultivar for wilder areas of the garden or for covering a north-facing wall,’ says Zoe.
It certainly lives up to its name, too: Zoe told me that Rector does indeed ramble, but hard pruning in late winter can keep growth in check. It's also worth knowing how to prune roses in summer, after they've finished flowering, to ensure they flower well every year.
Rambling rose care essentials
My favourite budget pair of secateurs! These are perfect for pruning green rose stems.
This organic rose food is ideal for early spring feeding as new growth appears.
Grow a screen of rambling roses on this freestanding trellis planter.
Rose 'Rambling Rector' is perhaps the most beautifully scented rambling rose for privacy, and it'll get you fast results, too.
