Cécile Brunner Climbing Rose

Few other roses equal the charm of Climbing Cecile Brunner. A sport of the classic French polyantha, this vigorous rose climbs and rambles freely, setting thousands of small, fragrant, perfect blooms along the way. Introduced more than a hundred years ago, it is exciting and fresh today as it was in 1904.

Cecile Brunner was a small, neatly mounded polyantha, lovely in its double-flowered pink bloom. It was so popular and easy to breed that soon various new forms began to be introduced.An Australian rosarian, Richard Ardagh, came up with this fabulous climbing form in 1904. Not only does this rose flower heavily, it repeats in waves over a long season. There are many Cecile Brunners, but none has our heart like this one.

The flowers release a strong, fresh-cut apple scent that is simply refreshing. They open bright pink, then mature to lighter shades. Boasting 25 to 30 petals, they are just an inch or two across, but packed with color and fragrance. Long a mainstay of the well-dressed buttonhole, they also find themselves pressed between the leaves of favorite novels, used in small clusters as a miniature bouquet for the breakfast table and patio, and even carried into doll's houses and fairy gardens, where they are suddenly giants.

But without a doubt the most spectacular use of these flowers is on the climbing plant itself. The fragrance, attracting bees and butterflies, is overpowering when the flowers hang from an arbor, trellis, or pergola. The light green foliage makes the ideal foil for the blooms, and new buds seem to open continuously (though the bloom is actually in waves, separated by several weeks' rest). This is a rose that surprises you with a September flush of color, and seems to hold out longer than others. Perhaps it is that Old Rose vigor.

Expect Cecile Brunner to reach up to 10 feet long and 6 feet wide at maturity. Often affectionately known as the Sweetheart Rose, it is certainly kind and generous to the gardeners who tend it. Low maintenance, long-lived, and endlessly beautiful, this is a climber you simply must have.