Flora Music

Growing climbing roses is one of the quite challenging yet very rewarding aspects of rose gardening. Grown carefully, climbing roses make good centerpieces for beautiful rose gardens. With climb roses, you can place those coveted blooms in entrance arches, pillars, trellises, and even in sheds, arbors and pergolas!

Climbing roses have vigor of growth way faster than most of its bush cousins. Unlike the bush rose in which care is focused to encourage growth, climbing rose care is focused on controlling, training the rose and shaping it. Some of the most important things that should be put into consideration when growing climbing roses are planting them in relation to the climbing medium, placement, pruning and winter care.

Views in how to best plant climbing rose vary. Some say you should let it establish growth first before adding the climbing media; others say climbers should be planted with the climbing media. In this aspect of climber gardening, however, rosarians agree that climbing roses should be planted with as much care as that of bushes. If you happen to have to change your climbing media, say from a trellis to an arch, the rose had to be taken down to the ground and this usually poses a problem in scraping and scratching of canes and branches against each other.

To plant climb roses, select a spot that has at least 6 hours of sun. If you are planning to use a high trellis or pillar, try using hinges in its base just in case you will need to bring the rose down for maintenance and care.

Opinions on how to prune climb roses also vary according to schools of thought. One way to prune a rose, for example, is to cut branches and twigs mindfully. Others opine that a thorough pruning that includes cutting out of canes is needed to control a climbing rose. Generally, pruning climb roses differ because, unlike the regular bush rose, climbers grow very rapidly and can easily overwhelm a garden when left unchecked.

The best pruning practice based on experience is to cut canes of climb roses with hard wood. Roses of this type (roses with long twiggy growth and bear clusters of small flowers) usually belong to the Multiflora class and the first Wichuraiana hybrids. Hard pruning these kinds of roses often encourages blooming from new growths. They typically grow one mature long cane every year and, when left alone, can be very dominating. As such, cutting a cane every year will check overgrowth and crowding.

For climbing Teas, Hybrid Teas, Bourbons, and Noisettes, minimal pruning works best. This is because flowers from these varieties often come from old canes (about 2 to 3 years old). If you have to, cut only the canes which pose the most danger of scraping others and those that grow in the direction you don’t want.

In any case, experience will teach you what method of pruning works best with your roses. When you prune them, watch what that does to the bloom cycle and growth of your climbing rose.

If you are planning to grow climb roses, consider growing them organically. Spraying harmful chemicals upwards will pose potential dangers to you and everything around the rose.

Climbing roses are also quite hardy especially in warm regions. Growing them will be quite easy. Controlling their growth is what should occupy you.

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