154 
GARDENING IN THE SOUTHWEST 
Tender 
Climbers 
Identified 
Polyantba 
Climbers 
Hybrid- 
Tea 
TENDER CLIMBERS 
The Tender Climbers compose a large class which will not 
endure zero weather without protection and are best left for South¬ 
ern planting. They are made up of Noisettes, Teas, Bourbons and 
such types peculiar to Southern climates. Most of the Hybrid-Teas 
and Polyanthas which have developed climbing tendencies belong 
to this group also, although some are not of sufficient vigor to 
climb very high and should be treated as pillars or large shrubs. 
Until the disastrous winter of 1929-1930 with its subzero tem¬ 
perature, many of the Tender Climbers grown in California and 
the true South, such as the Gold of Ophir, William Allen Richard¬ 
son, Bouquet d’Or, the Banksia Roses, white and yellow, M arechal 
Neil, and even the newer Belle of Portugal were thriving in gar¬ 
dens throughout the Southwest. But that winter took its toll, and 
it has been noted with sadness since that many of these Roses have 
disappeared from the lists of our local growers. 
Hybrid-Tea and Polyantha Climbers are relatively hardier than 
the strictly Tender Climbers, since they are seldom killed out¬ 
right by extreme cold. But if their canes are badly nipped back, a 
whole season or two of bloom is lost, according to the severity of 
the cold, since they flower on mature wood. 
There is another disadvantage to the climbing forms of the 
ranker-growing Hybrid-Teas. In the northern part of the South¬ 
west, Spring is almost always a false season. Warm days come early 
and the Tender Climbers put out confidently. Climbing forms are 
usually several weeks ahead of the bushes of the same variety, 
and often a sudden freeze, or a killing frost, destroys the blossoms. 
Only once in about five years does a strong-growing Climbing 
Tea or Hybrid-Tea reach perfection. That one time ought to be 
considered worth waiting for, as the vision of a climbing Columbia, 
thirty feet in extent, with several hundred perfect Roses all open 
at one time, will surely testify. 
There is another class of Climbing Hybrid-Teas in the South¬ 
west that has no dwarf, bush-form, examples of which are Sou¬ 
venir de Wooten and Rene Marie Henriette. The latter, except in 
