A climbing rose brings scent, colour and grace to any summer garden. I simply can’t imagine my garden without roses scaling walls and fences or scrambling up trees and over arches.

Whatever your choice of rose, prepare the ground well. All roses need moist, free-draining and moderately fertile site. They’ll become stressed in thin, dry soil and powdery mildew and black spot will surely follow. So mix in good garden compost and stimulate root development with a thin scattering of the mycorrhizal fungi in a product like Rootgrow. After planting, mulch the soil to retain moisture.

A rose will be with you for many years, and for the widest choice of varieties turn to award-winning suppliers such as Peter Beale Roses or David Austin Roses.

There are climbers and ramblers for any wall or fence and while most roses prefer full sun or partial shade, others thrive on north-facing walls. Flowers come in every size, shape and colour. Some provide one brief but glorious show in the early summer, often followed by plump autumn berries, while others keep flowering throughout the season. Whatever the rose, be sure it’s packed with scent, as are all the varieties I mention here.

There are two kinds of roses for walls and fences: climbers and ramblers. Climbers are fairly easy to train, can reach up to 3m and some modern cultivars have fewer ferocious thorns than their bloodthirsty predecessors.

Ramblers are vigorous colonisers, will scale any tree or shed and lay on a breathtaking display. In my garden, Paul’s Himalayan Musk paints a willow pink before cascading over a nearby pergola to spectacular effect. Francis E Lester is another such giant. Like many ramblers, it can reach 4.5m and its mass of deep pink flowers releases a truly powerful fragrance.

Unlike Lester’s all-too-brief blaze of colour, a smaller climber, Clarence House, keeps flowering throughout summer and early autumn. I love the way its clear yellow eye gently fades to the pale cream of the outer petals. But there are climbers for much lower walls. The delightful apricot flowers of Adam are happy with a 2m climbing frame in partial shade.

Larger north-facing walls are more challenging but Casino fits the bill. I know I’m always shamelessly sharing my love for yellow flowers, but Casino’s full, subtle yellow is hard to beat there. I also enjoy the velvety crimson blooms of Souvenir de Claudius Denoyel.

When planning colour schemes in any part of the garden, the choice lies between creating a theme of either broadly similar shades or contrasting ones. For the first option, each plant’s blooms blend sympathetically with its neighbour to achieve an overall pinkish or blueish effect.

A single climbing rose covers a large area and, without neighbours, it makes a perfect statement when contrasting strongly with its backdrop. So, when planting a rose in a dim or dark place, choose one with a light, cheery colour.

For nearly two centuries, Aimee Vibist’s pale cream blooms have brightened up many a gloomy, north-facing wall. But, if you’ve a blindingly white wall, you’ll need a rose with a strong colour. Here Surpassing Beauty’s deep, dark crimson flowers will be just right.

Whatever your choice of climber, bear deadheading in mind. You need to remove dead and dying blooms with some varieties, while others "self-clean" or look after themselves without requiring deadheading.

I always enjoy combining deadheading with watering at the end of the day. This is essential with very double, clustered flowers, where one spent bloom falls over and rots newly opening ones. But deadheading could be impossible with very high climbers.

The solution is a self-cleaning rose, which often but not invariably have single flat or cupped petals. Before purchasing, check if you can treat it as a self cleaner.