Favourite Rose - climber edition

[SparkyUK]

We have a pergola going down the side of the garden and would like to plant some roses across it. The garden is pretty barren now but hopefully in a year or two it will be cottage garden stylish.

I need to get my rose order in quickly before we go on holiday as when we get back it will be too late so please help me decide. I've read with interest the "my favourite rose" thread with great interest and enthusiasm so hoping we can get even more inspiration here. We already have the following:

The Generous Gardener
Mme Alfred Carrière

The other ones I was looking at are:

A Shropshire Lad Climbing
Mortimer Sackler Climbing

We tend to like flowers in the white-pink-lavender-violet spectrum and we have a few red accents cropping up through out the year (some tulips, a climber).

Other contenders are
Gertrude Jekyll Climbing though quite thorn.
Mrs. Herbert Stevens, Climbing to balance the fullness of the others?
St. Swithun Climbing
New Dawn - DH likes this one and I like that its a bit taller than some of the othrs.

We need about 6 total -- any ideas for others or thoughts for getting ones that work well together / balance each other.

many thanks!

My mum has 'New Dawn' and it is amazing - completely covers her pergola! I have a climbing Iceberg which is lovely too - very scented.

I love all your others especially St Swithun..

I will always recommend Climbing Etoile D'Hollande (you may have noticed!).
It is a beautiful dark red rose with a lovely scent - only really flowers once per year, but what a show! Grows quite large.....

:D I had just added Etoile d'Hollande to my list after my mum advised I might want a really strong colour thrown in for some balance, so good to have another recommendation. Also good to hear that it grows quite large. I'm sort of worried that the pergola is 6.5 feet high or so and that a lot of these grow to 7-8 feet which means they will, if they grow to that maximum, be all ending just short of the center...

One that I have always wanted is Paul's Himalayan Musk
but it is a bit of a monster....
David Austin Roses describe climbing Etoile as 'tall', mine grew to about 15 feet, but then we moved so it could have got bigger!

I love Albertine but it's a rambler not a climber. It grows to around 15 feet but needs hard pruning each year.

New Dawn is lovely but flowers are very pale in the sun- very pale pink.

Just a thought- how big is the pergola? Are 6 roses not too much? Personally, I'd ring the changes with clematis planted between them as I think lots of different roses will look slightly odd.

The ones you have linked are all quite short- some are no bigger than shrub roses- maybe you ought to consider ramblers which will cover more space but give a more uniform colour? Just my opinion

It's quite big - about 15 meters long and 3 meters wide so I think 6 should be okay (there are two sides after all). We will throw some clematis in, but may wait until next year to see how the roses take.

Placed the order today. Didn't realise David Austins do a buy 4 get 1 free so that was a nice bonus. Really looking forward to getting them in the ground (and then fast fowarding 4 months!!). Added Etoile de H and New Dawn to the order!

If you go for clematis, choose group 3 ones as they can be cut back to a foot or so in the Spring. Choose varieties that not only look good with the roses but also whereb the size of flower matches that of the rose.

'Mermaid' is a lovely yellow rose climber.