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Climbing rose

I planted a climbing rose last year which has done very well, but there appears to be branches growing that are red in colour and do not turn green.  Do I leave them on and prune them back in the autumn or do I remove them now?  To be honest they stand out like a sore thumb.

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  • Hi

    If they were coming from the base of the plant i would say remove them, as these are suckers, very quick growing and take nutrients from the main plant. Ive found a lot of new growth on climbers tends to be a diff colour aint sure why be i would leave em alone and re-assess in spring. i never cut my roses down til then, may go against the proper way but had a lot of success leaving this way

  • BookertooBookertoo Posts: 1,306

    I do agree re leaving the pruning till spring, I do that too.  Some of those tall strands may well be suckers as Stephen says, those I would remove now, as they can become very hard and extremely prickly.  Also you want the plant to put its energy into growing new shoots for roses next year, not suckers which will never do anything for you. 

  • Thank you both.  The branches are not coming from the bottom but are growing from one of the main stems and going straight up and tend not to bend easy. I was going to prune in Autumn as the branches seem to have gone mad and whip round (and break sometimes) in the wind, which we have had a lot of this year.  Maybe, if I shortened them slightly and then pruned in the spring? 

  • What is the name of this rose please?  I guess it's one which has deep pink or red flowers - many plants show the colour of their blooms in their young  foliage.  I had an Etoile d'Hollande which always had reddish young growth.

    If it's a real climbing rose rather than a rambler, then those long whippy growths need training nearly horizontally and tying in place.  This will encourage them to make lots of little side shoots that will bear the flowers.  If you cut the long growths off you'll lose most of next summer's blooms. 

    This should help 

    http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=189


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Thanks Dovefromabove, the rose is Etoile d'Hollande.  I have just been on the link you provided which is very informative.  Am now going out to see about tying in the branches,

  • sometimes they are new shoots but if they have straggle growth and 6 leaves they might be suckers if s0 cut out.climbers give a trim and cut back long over shoot branches but don't prune to hard as I did withimage Albertine as I had to wait ages to get it back to flowering.

  • Glad I could help image It's a glorious rose isn't it - I'm sure that with a bit of help it'll be a complete picture next year!


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • The smell is glorious and with a bit of luck with my pruning I'm hoping for lots of flowers next year.

  • Spent most of this afternoon and early evening in the garden and happened to spot my two climbing roses looking a little rampant and wild. With secateurs in hand I marched over and started chopping away at what I thought were suckers. Why oh why did I not check on here first like I normally do! I have only gone and cut off all the new growth off my Etoile d'Hollande!image Nevermind, I suppose this is how I will learn more about gardening.

     

  • Dont worry Mrs T, its pretty hard to do too much damage to roses, the worst that will happen is you have to wait longer for flowers image
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