Rose lovers: any suggestions?

[OurLadyOfPerpetualSupper]

My FIL has kindly offered to plant some roses as a Christmas present, to cover a wall about 10ft long and 4 - 6ft high.
He's given me a catalogue to choose from, but I wondered if anyone knows of one that's particularly gorgeous, disease-resistant and reliable to help me cut down on the bewildering choice.

The wall faces NE I think, and is on a slope.
I think we need climbers or ramblers but can't remember which one is the best.
TIA.

On such a low wall you need to go for a climber or a tall shrub rose not a rambler, ramblers are better scrambling through trees and would get far too big.
You can search on the Peter Beales website accodring to type and colour.
Rosa glauca is a good, shade tolerant rose, not a climber but will climb/grow upwards if next to a wall. Nice foliage, pretty flowers and good red hips in autumn,
www.classicroses.co.uk/roses/container/r/rosa_glauca.html

Or look at the Hybrid Musks, good, long flowering roses which are disease resistant, usually scented and shade tolerant
www.classicroses.co.uk/roses/family/hybrid_musks

Oh yes hips, I'd forgotten about those - I do like a showy hip.

Thanks for those links.

Rosa New Dawn is absolutely wonderful - I've thoroughly neglected it and it has never had any disease or anything at all. It's not too huge either, so would be great on a small wall like yours.

I've heard of New Dawn actually - will look at that.

I'm assuming I'll have to plant several so as to cover the wall more quickly and end up with a better display, so I'll have to decide whether to go for one stunner or a mixture.

New Dawn is lovely but can get quite big eventually, up to 3m tall according to P Beales site.

Why not have a mix of climbers? Clematis look great grown with climbing roses, I have a Clematis alpina growing through one of mine and the pretty foilage hides the ugly bare stems of the rose and the clematis has lovely fluffy seedheads too.

New Dawn is nice but I suggest you look at David Austins's roses website.

They are also very helpful if you want to talk to them.

I love Albertine but it's mre of rambler- however, you can cut it back fiercely- mine is trailing over a pergola.

You need to think about whether you want one to flower all summer, or just one short intense flush of flowers.

Also, think colour shcemes- that's the start- pink, apricot, white, red..what else is going tobe growing near it?

also- do you want fragrance if people will walk or sit nearby?

Try David Austin's A Shropshire Lad (climbing version). I have it and it is gorgeous.

You lot are good. Will def look at David Austin as well.
And I do like the idea of a clematis but would probably add in at a later date.
In answer to your question - nothing but grass is growing near it. We cleared and grassed over a wide messy border and the wall is down one side of it.

What colours do you like?

I have found the David Austin catalogue a bit misleading, as I don't get a real sense of the size of flowers from it - some of the DA roses I've had have had flowers that are slightly too big and droopy and I was fairly disappointed, even though they looked lovely in the catalogue.

IME roses with smaller flowers are actually more effective in a garden setting.

I agree with ib, some of the D Austin roses are very blousy.
I find the Peter Beales catalogue and website excellent, also if you email/call them they will give specific recommendations.

Colourwise, I'm quite fond of pinks and reds - but, again, don't know whether to make a 'show' of one colour or go for a mixture.

Oh, OK. I was asking because if you liked yellow roses (but I know not to everyone's taste) I have a couple of very good ones.

Not a huge fan of pink (apart from very pale ones like New Dawn or Buff Beauty) and my reds have all been a disaster so can't help too much on that.

Well, actually, the reason I say pink/red is because they are colours I wear a lot of - although I suppose this doesn't necessarily translate in gardening terms .

I'd be interested to hear your yellow suggestions - in fact, as the wall faces NE and loses sun about 4pm at the height of summer, yellow would probably be a bright and cheerful choice.

A lovely rose for shade is Mme Alfred Carriere, a slighly blush white which is scented and flowers for a long time.

One that has done really well for me is Maigold - it's been really tough. Another is Golden Celebration, but I'm not too sure how well that would do in shade.