Large-flowered Climbing Rose 'Dublin Bay'

In 2012 Sam McGredy said that 'Dublin Bay' was his best New Zealand bred rose.

Born in Northern Ireland, he and his family...Read More arrived in New Zealand in 1972. Dr Samuel Darragh McGredy CBE - internationally renowned rose hybridiser who had produced no fewer than 270 different varieties of roses, and who had won a raft of major awards across the world - passed away on 25 August 2019. May he rest in peace among the Heavenly Roses. Thank you for your special gift of beauty to our World.

The New Zealand Rose Society paid tribute to Sam McGredy, calling him an icon of roses in New Zealand and around the world, and saying that he helped establish Plant Variety Rights in New Zealand.

My Dublin Bay would probably benefit from being replanted in full sun (it's in partial shade now) but otherwise it's healthy and has prod...Read Moreuced gorgeous blooms.

Not the best climber for me so far. Out of all the climbers I purchased this year, Dublin is quite low on my scale. Portlandia(Heirloom...Read More Roses) and Joseph's Coat are by far #1 for height and blooms. They are both reaching 8 feet at only 8 months old, while Dublin is still only at 4 feet. The blooms are very small, giving me no more than 10 petals each. I'm starting to think its not really a Dublin Bay. Absolutely no scent.

I have this in a semi-shady spot and it tends to lean its blooms toward the north where it can soak up the afternoon sunset. It has beau...Read Moretiful, delicately petaled blooms in a dark true-red (no pink roses in my beds!!!). The flowers are very lightly scented and medium to large sized in its shady spot. This also gets northern exposure, so I wrap in straw and burlap for winter in zone 5a. I had to cut it to 12" two springs back after a brutal -20 (without windchill) winter, but I had zero dieback after our mild 2011-12 winter. It does seem like it would be semi cane-hardy in a normal zone 5 winter, but I baby it since it was a spindly little whip that survived a lot of abuse its first year (its sister didn't survive the cat's taste-test).
The canes are a bit leggy at times and take a while to thicken up, but I have not done any significant pruning except dead wood...I don't mind if canes cross or are spindly, as a rampant look is preferable to me. I'm surprised that the PlantFiles reports not to prune...not sure why, but that's what I'm doing :) Also, the thorns are not "moderate"--these suckers are pretty thorny and the thorns are smallish and very very sharp! I have been stuck a few times while training it to its trellis and it has shredded its own leaves with the thorns in strong winds if it has unsecured canes.
My Dublin Bay is a respectable, but not a profuse bloomer (the canes aren't drooping from the weight of the blooms like my Don Juan), but only gets about 6 hours of afternoon sun/maybe 8 in high summer. It will rebloom sporadically all summer. Even so, it seems shade tolerant and the flowers are so classically shaped and such a beautiful bright red (no pink!!) that it's a point of pride in my garden.
I selected this variety because it is very hardy and I'm darn picky about roses' shape and color. Spray for insects, as japanese beetles feasted on this and the adjacent flowering plum shrubs last fall.