Rosa Iceberg

A sport of the classic floribunda Iceberg, this climber delights with the same white blooms, long season of flowering, tolerance of light shade, and superior disease resistance. Find the perfect spot and begin training it through fences or up arbors and trellises.

Quickly climbing 12 to 14 feet high, Iceberg sets masses of 2-inch semi to fully double blooms in great clusters all along its arching stems. Not as strongly scented as the shrub form, they are still redolent of honey. And they keep coming in fresh waves all summer long, filling the garden with color and delighting the butterflies and bees.

The original Iceberg was bred by Kordes in Germany, and this British sport retains the same superb cold hardiness and disease resistance of the shrub form. You can fearlessly plant this climber in Zone 4, and even in light shade or dappled sun, without loss of flowering. Foliage diseases are far less of an issue than with most other roses, too. It's altogether more gardenworthy than nearly any other classic climber.

Find a sunny, well-drained garden spot beside a vertical or horizontal support, and begin growing climbing Iceberg this season. It blooms on old wood, so if it needs pruning, do so right after it flowers to keep from losing the next season of bloom. Tough and long-lived, this is a treasure.