As a master rosarian who has been growing roses for decades, folks are always asking me what my favorite rose is. It is hard to have a favorite rose as all of them have their delightful traits and habits. It is sort of like picking a favorite child or grandchild…how do you choose, and should you, anyway? Mostly, I’ll just say I love them all. But, in the climbing rose category, I’d like to introduce you to my favorite! Her name is ‘Colette,’ and her roots are in France, from the House of Meilland. She is supplied in this country by Star Roses and is a member of Star’s Romantica collection. ‘Colette’ was introduced in this country in 1995 and has been growing in my home garden since the early 2000’s.

Bloom Color and Size

The first thing I took note of with this rose was the color and size of her blossoms. The blooms are a lovely peachy-coral with flushes of gold at the bases of the petals. She is a large-flowered climber: her blooms are 4+ inches in diameter and are fully quartered like an old garden rose. When full-grown, I was amazed with the number of gorgeous blooms in each flush. ‘Colette’ has some full, gorgeous blooms on her all season long, interspersed with big flushes every five or six weeks. She is a sight to behold.

Plant Size

One of the reasons I chose this plant for my garden was because of its description as a climber that would be 35”-6’.7” tall by 3’ wide. That sounded really manageable to me, as I planned to plant her on the southeastern side of my side porch. Climbing roses, in general, need about three years to reach their height potential, so I sat back and watched, delighting in each fragrant, beautiful flush of bloom.

After 20 years or so of growing this rose, I think they got her measurements wrong! Within three years, ‘Colette’ was rounding the pillar of the porch and was reaching for my bedroom window!! My husband was not happy about this at all because he didn’t want anything climbing on the roof. In 2013, I had to cut this baby back because it was time to rebuild the side porch. She is mightily armed with sharp, curved prickles and I didn’t want our carpenter to get hurt! It hurt me to cut her back to chest-high, but I figured with her incredible vigor, it wouldn’t take her long to be back up to her buxom self. Sure enough, she bounced right back and kept right on blooming.

Fragrance and Disease Resistance

One of the most spectacular assets that ‘Colette’ possesses is her incredible fragrance. In her spot on the side of my porch, she was right outside my dining room window. While blooming, the view from inside was precious: hundreds of perfect, peach blooms sending their lovely fragrance right into the house. She smells like fresh roses, fresh air, and fresh fruit. It is a perfume that only a rose can have and it cannot be reproduced by a perfume or a candle. Usually, fragrant roses can have a tendency toward fungus diseases but ‘Colette’ is pretty squeaky-clean when it comes to fungus problems. This rose, on all counts, is a delight to grow and behold.

Starting Over

Sometimes, we have no choice but to make some changes in our lives. Such it was with my husband and myself in 2018, when we moved from our lovely home in Windsor because a local prep school bought us out. We bought a beautiful Queen Anne Victorian on historic South Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut. The headmaster of the prep school offered me the Gardens and Grounds guys from the school to help me move at least some of my roses to the new place, and help me put in new gardens for them to live in. We moved 150 roses here, but ‘Colette’ was not one of them. I was afraid for her life to move her! She was at least 8’ wide and 10’ tall at that point, and I decided it would be safer for her to remain in her familiar spot.

In 2019, Dave Alm, my friend and rep from Star Roses, gifted me a very small ‘Colette.’ I planted her on the south side of my wrap-around porch and began the growing process again. She started her growing season this year at about 6’ tall and about 5’ wide and covered with buds. I can’t wait for her sweet display to begin!

And, what happened to my old ‘Colette?’ Because our Windsor house is faculty housing for the prep-school now, the grounds guys removed all of our gardens that were left. It seemed that the faculty was not interested in gardening and the grounds crew instead facilitated their multiple mowing jobs, so the rest of my roses are gone. But, last spring I took a ride by and had a wonderful surprise. ‘Colette’ was still there! She was blocking the view on the far side of the porch, as always! Tall, lovely, and peachy…blooming up a storm, all on her own. This rose is a gift from heaven. Or maybe, she just has a rosie guardian angel.