I'm new to climbing roses. Right now I want to both prune and tie a climbing
rose that is in its third year. I did a terrible job tying it up last year.
I have read some accounts but am confused about both the pruning and tying.
Can someone help me with a brief primer or point me to an internet site?
Many thanks. By the way, I was in my backyard in California's central valley
east of San Francisco this afternoon, pondering what to do with the rose. It
was 80ºF in the shade and must have been close to 90º near the sunny south
facing wall. I was driven indoors. Mid-winter, mind you. Very, very unusual.

HH

"HH" wrote in message
...
I'm new to climbing roses. Right now I want to both prune and tie a
climbing rose that is in its third year. I did a terrible job tying it up
last year.

I know what you're going through. I find bush
roses (like Hybrid Teas) a lot easier to prune
than climbers.

I have read some accounts but am confused about both the pruning and
tying. Can someone help me with a brief primer or point me to an internet
site?

I suppose the first question is: What is the
name of your climber? Some climbers bloom
only on last year's growth - or even growth
that's 2-3 years old, so if you prune the wrong
cane(s), you lose a lot of blooms this year.
Some climbers bloom only in the spring. If
you prune them before they bloom, again you
risk losing their blooms for that year.

A good general recommendation is prune
to shape and to get rid of dead canes.

The way I prune my climbers is:
(1) remove dead canes back to healthy
growth (any time of the year)
(2) remove any canes as far back as
necessary that are in the way of people
movement (walking, mowing, etc.) and
cannot easily be tied up
(3) remove small twiggy canes but be
careful not to remove all *new* growth
since that's how a rose renews itself
(4) Eventually you'll want to remove
the oldest cane, also to help the rose
renew itself, but a 3 year old climber is
still a bit young for that.

If you google "pruning climbing roses"
you'll find a lot of web sites. Depending on
how a site is written and illustrated, it can
be more or less useful for an indivdual.
I'd recommending checking out sites such as:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basic...bingrose.shtml
and
http://www.backyardgardener.com/rose/rose4.html

to see if they are useful to you.

Tying up is another question. You want
as much horizontal growth as you can get,
but at the same time you want the rose to
grow UP to fill a space (wall or arbor).
Again, how you handle that depends partly
on the rose variety.

Many thanks. By the way, I was in my backyard in California's central
valley east of San Francisco this afternoon, pondering what to do with the
rose. It was 80ºF in the shade and must have been close to 90º near the
sunny south facing wall. I was driven indoors. Mid-winter, mind you. Very,
very unusual.

HH

Same here. A number of my roses are in
bloom and have been for a week or more.
We got below freezing last night but only
for a few hours, not even enough to freeze
the water on my small above-ground ponds.
I haven't started pruning my roses yet.

I will cut canes on my climbers even in
the heat of summer when those canes get
in the way of walking or mowing, so if you
don't get it all done soon, you can always
prune/tie up more later.

Gail
near San Antonio TX Zone 8

Gail gave you the pruning info. I use that green garden tape to tie
with, one roll will go a long way and is strong but gentle. I wouldn't
use anything with wire in it. My wife was a "shy" pruner for years,
unfortunately I convinced her to prune strongly, now she is a real
madwoman with the clippers. Most advice is to prune about 1/3 per year,
this fits the plant's growth and renews the plant every three years.
Joe
Baytown TX