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Maintenance of Climbing Roses      ◄Back
by Ted Brown

In the first year of planting, climbing roses should be left to grow and pruning or cutting back is not done.  Canes that grow should be tied in so as they are not broken.  In the fall, these first growth canes should be trained to where you want to direct growth and tied in.

In the second year, these canes will usually be replaced with much longer and larger canes and will then be wound around the pillar or fanned out in order to promote lateral growth ( side growth from the main canes.)  This is where the flower will come from.  These laterals in most cases will,  when pruned in the spring,  be cut back to about 6 inches, or 2-3 bud eyes.  There will be,  however, one or two growing laterals which are longer and larger than most laterals coming off the main canes.  These can be trained and used the same as main canes to gain more height or fill a vacant space, if desired.  This is the way a climber gains height over the years to cover the side of a building eventually.

When the laterals are pruned back to 2 or 3 eyes and then flowers, the spent flowers should then be cut back to about 2 bud eyes of the new growth.  This is done with each flowering on the laterals and can be done for about three years.  Eventually the main cane will deteriorate and new wood will not be strong or abundant.  Usually by this time new growth from the bottom produces canes that can be tied in to replace those removed.  Sometimes in order to promote these new canes, older ones must be removed --  this signals the plant to produce basal breaks.  I have heard that notching an old cane just above an old bud low down will cause this to happen, however, I have no first hand knowledge of this.  The main points in getting maximum bloom from climbers are:

• Promote as much growth as possible by light pruning.
• Either wrap the canes around a pillar or fan the canes out to promote maximum lateral growth.
• Feed liberally since a climber has a lot of above ground growth to support.
• Regular deep watering for the same reason.
• Plant in a good planting mixture and dig a large hole when planting since you can't easily add this later.

You have only one chance to amend the planting hole and that's when planting.  What you do at this time must last the rose many years, unless you dig it up and replant it.  (see planting bare root roses).

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