My ‘Golden Showers’ Rose

I always remember two small boys playing in piles of rose petals when I think about the climbing rose ‘Golden Showers’. I grew its golden yellow flowers on a chain link fence in my backyard years ago until the old, bent rusty fence was replaced with a tall wooden fence that didn’t allow enough sun for the rose. It was a friendly rose for the boys because it didn’t have a lot of thorns.

I chose the climber hoping to cover the ugly fence and it did the job very well with it’s dark green glossy leaves and cheerful yellow flowers that bloomed profusely in the spring and continued less abundantly for the rest of the season. The flowers were almost five inches wide with a mild fragrance. They would fade to cream as they aged becoming loosely formed and easily dropping tons of petals on the driveway for my children’s amusement.

This easy and vigorous rose climbs about ten feet tall and gets a spread of six to twelve feet. I think I spaced my plants about four or five feet apart in order to get good coverage and I trained them to grow horizontally along the fence to encourage more blooming. It grows in zones five to ten.

This large-flowered climber is very disease resistant if it is planted in full sun with good air circulation and watered deeply once a week. Morning is the best time to water and it’s a good idea to avoid wetting the leaves as much as possible. Mine grew in heavy clay soil to which I had added amendments (compost and well rotted manure). I always would cover the soil with a mulch in the spring to keep down weeds and hold in moisture.

Disease resistance is the single most important factor to consider when choosing a rose. Roses that are disease resistant might still show signs of disease at times but they should be tough enough to get past it. It is a good idea to remove diseased leaves when possible and to clean up leaves and petals from the ground around the plants.

If I notice aphids on a rose I pull out the garden hose and blast them off with plain water. If I do this a couple times in the summer it takes care of the problem. I look for these insects on the flower buds and under tender new leaves.

I purchased my ‘Golden Showers’ roses mail-order from White Flower Farm (if I remember correctly). They arrived bare root and I planted them in well prepared holes to give them a good start. The main goal with a new plant is to establish a good root system. I use a granular rose food on roses (but I pretty much don’t fertilize anything else) and I also like to spread rotted manure around them a couple times each season. They really seem to like manure. It’s best not to fertilize a new rose right away though. Give it time to settle in first.

Removing faded flowers will encourage repeat blooming but other than that it’s best not to prune any more than necessary the first two years while the rose is getting established. After that you can just prune as needed in late winter or early spring.

‘Golden Showers’ is a great cottage garden rose. I liked having mine on the chain link fence but it would also look good planted on a post, trellis, arbor, pillar or on a wall. I’ve read that it can also grow as a free-standing shrub but I can’t imagine that because of it’s relaxed and arching habit of growth and the way that it throws out long branches. I guess in the right place that might work but it would be pretty wild looking.

I wish that I had more sunny areas in my garden where I could plant roses. I sure miss this yellow one. Since the boys are no longer interested in hanging out with roses I would plant it with a purple clematis as it’s companion. Wouldn’t that be pretty!

photo h/t: White Flower Farm