Pruning Climbing Roses, Did You Know There's A Difference

People do not realize that pruning climbing roses is actually different than pruning other types of roses.

The very first thing you have to know is that climbing roses don not climb like regular vines do. They do nottwist close to or attach to whatever they come in contact with like ivy or grape vines do. Instead, they put out lengthy, longer, and longer, vigorous, arching canes. Should you just leave them alone, they form a massive, sprawling shrub. Consequently, to actually get them to climb, you have to help them along by tying them up to some type of structure. The green plastic tape sold in any nursery is a good choice of material to use to tie them with. A good structure to tie them to might be a fence, arbor, or trellis.

The more typical kind of climbers are the climbing offshoots, or sports, of hybrid tea roses and large-flowered climbers, which bloom repeatedly throughout the growing season. Following planting, it is best to just leave these climbers alone for 2 to 3 years to ensure that they can develop lengthy, sturdy canes. Just keep them in bounds and get rid of any dead or damaged growth. Tie them up to keep them out of the way.

The fun begins after completion of the second or third year of waiting. Think of your climbing rose as having two parts: the flowering shoots and the main structural canes on which they grow. Your goal in pruning would be to select the sturdiest canes and tie them upin some evenly spaced manner, ideally in an angled or nearly horizontal fashion, what ever your preference is. The pattern doesn't need to be fancy. The number of canes you select depends on the size and the age of the plant. As the rose gets older, you can then select more canes to fill up, say, a good sized fence or a large trellis. These main canes form the fundamental structure from the plant. Other canes should be removed.

After you have bent these structural canes and tied them to the structure of your choice, new growth will then sprout all along the structural length.These are the flowering shoots, or occasionally referred to as laterals, that will then flower. Throughout dormancy, it is recomended that you cut back these shoots to about 2 to 3 buds above the structural canes. Occasionally, one of these structural canes might get too old and woody and not bloom so it is best just to get rid of it. You will be able to easily replace them with the new cane that arise each year from the base of the plant. When you need these new canes, merely let them grow rather than pruning them as you have been doing the first 2 or 3 growing years. The rules change a bit with climbing roses that bloom only once in spring. Wait util after they bloom to prune, then get rid of more of the older structural canes and replace them with the new ones. These new canes produce most of the next season's blooms.

Remember to clean up properly following any pruning you do. It is really essential to discard or destroy the pruned plant debris. Numerous insects and diseases live on dormant leaves and branches. So even though you get rid of dormant leaves and branches from the plant, pests can find their way back into the bush should you leave the plant debris hanging around.

Begin by removing any leaves left on the rose plant throughout dormancy. Then rake up all the plant debris and either discard or burn it. You can also run the plant debris through a shredder and add the debris to a compost pile, but you still risk harboring some pest organisms. As a precaution, maintain the compost pile far away from your roses.

by:Becky Day

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