The days when climbing roses were for walls and all others were segregated in rose beds are almost gone.

In gardens today, roses are free to snuggle up with diverse companions in a variety of different settings.

For instance, climbing and rambling roses can wind around obelisks, posts covered with wire mesh, and teepees, provide a prickly warning around vulnerable house windows, or double the value of space in small gardens by teaming up with flowering shrubs.

The main limiting factors are sunshine and moisture.

Most roses need six hours of sun daily, though there are a few that bloom in semi-shade.

One that needs less than full sun is the purplish-blue 'Wedding Veil' (Veilchenblau), a rambler with fewer blooms in semi-shade, but a reputation for enhanced flower colour there.

Some others (such as the climber 'New Dawn') can be started in semi-shade and will flower abundantly once they have escaped by climbing up into the sunshine.

Climbers tend to have stiff canes, and some develop significant trunks so they can stand alone.

Also, climbers may flower repeatedly.

Ramblers have malleable canes which makes them much easier to wind through things.

But most ramblers are old roses, fragrant, but only June-flowering. Some have pretty rose-hips.

Since both kinds climb, I'll be using the word "climbers." But their differences need to be borne in mind when choosing a rose for a specific purpose.

For instance when choosing a tree or shrub as a support for climbers, a rambler will wind through the branches better and be easier to re-position if necessary.

It's also important to match the size of the tree or shrub and the rose.

The living supports must be strong enough to hold the climber when it's mature, and the rose mustn't grow so abundantly that it smothers and weakens its support.

Roses are often grown up west or south walls - a great, warm, sheltered place for them.

There's likely to be a lot of watering at first, because soil near walls can be dry, especially in summer. But eventually the rose roots grow out into more hospitable places - which also happens with other large wall plants, such as fig trees and passion vines.

Painting walls that host roses can be a challenge, even if they're on detachable trellises, because old, woody rose trunks are stiff. But I've been told some gardeners prune them back to the ground and they do re-shoot.

I haven't tried it.

But with grafted roses (and many other grafted plants) cutting back to the ground is likely to trigger rootstock suckers.

Own-root roses are great, if you can get them. It's slow - but possible - to grow your own from cuttings.

Rose arches can involve heavy timbers, lattice-work, or (as I once saw on a Mission acreage) branches cut from the wild and bent while they're still green.

Concrete rebar fastened to the base of the twiggy wood offers a solid post that makes detachment easy when you need to redo the top work.

One Burnaby gardener finds stucco wire so sturdy she has made free-standing arches for roses and clematis, connected into the ground by short posts. Another effective use is when climbing roses wrap up and over a small porch.

Anne Marrison is happy to answer garden questions. Send them to amarrison@shaw.ca