John Cabot Rose

(Hybrid Kordesii Rose - Rosa 'John Cabot'; Hybridized by Dr. Felicitas Svejda in 1978)

The John Cabot Rose is surely one of my favourite plants in the garden. It is a beautiful easy to grow winter-hardy climbing rose.

Today we can appreciate the John Cabot Rose thanks to Agriculture Canada, who began a rose breeding program in the 1960's. Their plan was to cross roses with new developed roses from Europe and create a series of roses that would be easy to grow, hardy, disease resistant, repeat blooming and easy to propagate from cuttings. The result of this program has forever changed our Canadian rose gardens. The roses that were developed from this program are known as the Explorer series.

The John Cabot Rose has large, semi-double blossoms that are soft-red in bud, opening to the deepest orchid pink. The flowers, borne in clusters of 3 to 10 blossoms have a slight fragrance. The rose bush is covered with blooms from June with repeat flowers through to fall.

The John Cabot climbing rose can attain a height of 10 feet (3 meter) tall and easily spread to 8 feet (2.5 meter) wide within a couple of years. It is ideal rose to grow on a trellis, fence and arbor or as a hedge. The John Cabot Rose needs full sun (minimum of 6hrs.) and well-drained soil. This rose has healthy glossy foliage that has good resistance to black-spot and powdery mildew and is very winter hardy. It can be grown in Zones 2B to 9.

The John Cabot Rose is an easy care rose that's great for all gardens.

Also check out the William Baffin Rose another hardy climbing rose from the Explorer series.