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Talkback: How to prune a rambling rose

I also have climbing roses and from your site cant find how to prune them. Others appear to have the same problem. Any chance of your expert giving us some information on this problem,please?

Posts

  • ValdelValdel Posts: 13
    Do I follow the same method fro pruning a climbing rose?
  • What about Climbing roses.We're all asking the same..Mine is still in flower and has been for the entire summer,so When please?And could we have a proper close up of exactly where the cut should be made. Hands with secatuers often hide the most important aspect.How about a circle around correct area.Ruth
  • how do you prune climbing roses please! and when!!
  • Do not prune climbing roses at all. Never, ever do this. They don't really need it. I have had a climbing rose for four years and have never pruned it. Also don't dead head. The hips look great and the birds love them. All the books I've ever read on roses say not to prune climbers.
  • What if you don't know whether your rose is a climber or rambler?
  • I found this article helpful, as it's simple and other things I've read have sounded a lot more complicated. ronniestuart - I found a useful site which said that a rambling rose will have seven leaves on each leaf branch, whereas a climber has five.
  • angie4angie4 Posts: 44

    Disagree with FlamingJune - I inherited a rather knackered  climbing rose and since I started training the shoots horizontally, and pruning the laterals back to two or three buds, it has flowered wonderfully. Sure yours isn't a rambler? Agree with what you say about the hips, but not all roses produce them and deadheading definitely does promote longer flowering.

  • Rambling roses do not need pruning unless they have outgrown their position, in which case you can just cut off what you don't want. Cutting it back will stimulate more vigorous growth next year. It is also good to cut out some older stems from the base and thus stimulate the growth of strong new ones. They are supposed to be fanned out against a wall, though this is not always easy because they are often very throny and vigorous. There's no point in deadheading ramblers, because you won't get any more flowers and the hips can be quite nice and good for the birds.

     I agree with angie4, personally, about climbing roses. If unpruned, they will get very leggy and will tend to flower at the top. The stems can get congested, too, and some will die or be very weak and need cutting out. Pruning stimulates both new and vigorous growth and better flowering. Bending and training young stems sideways  stimulates more flowers. Apparently it is something to do with slowing the flow of sap.

  • Fully agree with Gardening Grandma's great tips about caring for climbing roses. We had a magnificent show from an Etoile de Hollande trained low over our rockery!

  • For pruning, does a dog rose count as a climbing or rambling rose or does it have its own pruning regime? I've got dog rose in my young wildlife hedge (planted last year) and it's rather outstripping the other trees. It needs cutting back to control it but when and how much? I want to keep the fruit for the birds so I wouldn't cut back flowering stems.

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