POSTED BY KIM — Is this not the most beautiful rose you’ve seen in your LIFE?! ‘Abraham Darby’ is the only climbing rose I have at the moment, and right now, it’s spectacular. I could see this bloom from my bedroom window and I had to take a picture of it.
‘Abraham Darby’ is a David Austin rose. Mine is 3-4 years old, and it’s always bloomed wonderfully with much neglect from me. In fact, I hadn’t even staked it until this year — I just let it sprawl where it wanted to. (Now I have a pretty obelisk and I’ve tied it up — like I know what I’m doing.) It also has a wonderful fragrance. Include one of these blooms in a flower arrangement and listen to everyone gasp.
(FYI — this from Wikipedia about Abraham Darby, the man: “Abraham Darby made one of the first and most important steps in the Industrial Revolution. His method of smelting iron provided abundant supplies of the raw material that the Industrial Revolution needed most. Iron from his process went into steam engines, bridges, all of the inventions of the 19th century. Smelting coal with charcoal would not have supplied iron in sufficient quantities to meet the requirements of the Industrial Revolution.”) Who knew!?
I did have a ‘Zepherine Drouhin,’ known for its thornless qualities and its ability to take some shade, but it only blooms once a year — for a week or two in the spring — and then it gets heavily infected with black spot. What a train wreck! So I pulled mine out and replaced it with a Mutabalis rose, also known as the Butterfly Rose, because as the pink flowers open and age, they turn different colors — pink, salmon, apricot, yellow — and it gives the effect of butterflies around the plant. 
It’s quite happy — but just to be sure it STAYS that way, I’ve fenced it off with chicken wire. The rabbits eat my roses in the winter, so I have to stay vigilant.
Here is info on the Missouri Botanical Garden website about winterizing roses.
