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Advice for my rose Falsataff please...
I love my Falstaff rose - planted in 2013. It flowered abundantly in June and is now producing flowers (a bit rain-soaked unfortunately) again. But the three long, green vertical shoots are unexpected and unwanted! I thought I had created a good framework when I pruned in March, but these developed a lot later and were not at all "bendable". How should I deal with them? Did I do something wrong?
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I have one doing similar things this year but not quite so exuberantly. Try tying the stems down a bit at a time until they end up diagonal. They'll produce flowering shoots next year.
Tie some soft twine or wool to them and tie to the trellis, pull them down bit by bit over a couple of weeks. Otherwise if you don't like them and they won't behave then you can prune them off to where you want them next March. But, if they really bug you, you can cut them off now as the plant already has a decent amount of stems and leaves.
I have a Falstaff too.
Thank you so much for your advice. It gave me the confidence to do something rather than just regret the situation and feel nothing could be done.... So today I have gently tied a few bits down towards the trellis, held my breath and (successfully) encouraged some bending back towards the framework - and removed the one totally vertical branch that really was spoiling the effect. Thanks for all your help.
Might I very politely suggest you remove some of the grass at the base?
If it was me, I'd remove all the grass as it must be pretty tricky to cut. Then you underplant with lots of lovely other things.
I've worked in gardens where roses have done this. If you don't have a handy trellis behind it, I used to tie small weights , nothing too heavy though( a stone in a plastic bag suffices ) and that weight was enough to bend the stems slightly and stop the upwards growth ( apical dominance )
Takes a bit of trial and error, obviously start with small weights and then move up, not the other way around
That's not grass! It's Dianthus Arctic Fire! It's been a colourful ground cover all Summer (kept away from the rose base but allowed to cool the two clematis. It's now finished flowering and I've sheared it back. It's now a nice fresh green mat of tiny leaves (and does look a bit like grass, I must admit! Lol
forgive me.
Lol!!!
A A Milne
Berkley has started to tie them down. But I agree, much easier when the wood is young and flexible.