It’s coming up roses
ROSES are traditional climbers for covering walls, pergolas and arbours, but few cultivars have a truly continuous flowering season, so team them with honeysuckle or clematis to fill the gaps.
Climbing roses need a permanent framework to cover the designated area because the flowers are borne on side shoots that are pruned back annually.
They are good for training on walls, fences or a trellis, up pillars or over arches, but choose one that fits the space available to make sure that you won’t be constantly chopping it back to size.
PRUNING CLIMBING ROSES When you first plant a climbing rose, it’s essential to space the main stems so that they cover the space evenly.
Fix them in place by tying them to horizontal wires, trelliswork or wall nails.Tie new shoots in to fill in the framework so that you can cover the space with a network of stems 8-12in apart.
Anything you don’t need can be cut off and the rose will flower on short stems growing from the framework.
As the flowers fade, remove deadheads leaving behind 3-4in of stem.
This does two jobs: deadheading and summer pruning, so the plant stays tidy.
With old climbers in winter, cut an occasional old, unproductive stem back to a junction with a young stem, which can be trained in its place.
TRAINING A CLIMBING ROSE ON A PERGOLA
If you let a rose run straight to the top of a pergola post, all the flowers appear at the top of the stems, where you can’t see them.
Roses tend to flower best on stems that are as near to horizontal as possible, so if the stems spiral round a post, they’ll flower all the way up.
At the side of a post, dig a planting hole three times bigger than the pot the rose came in.
Add lots of well-rotted compost and mix in a handful of rose fertilizer.
Plant the rose with the bud union (the bulge where the cultivar joins the rootstock) about an inch below the surface, then water the mulch generously.
Cut off any dead, weak or sticking-out stems, leaving the most upright ones. Gently wind round the post and tie firmly in place with garden twine.
As shoots grow, keep winding them in while still flexible.When they reach the top of the post, let them run along the pergola top, but keep them tied down.
ROSES FOR CLIMBING
Here are some of my favourites:
Rosa “Compassion”, a medium-sized climber with highly perfumed, peach and apricot flowers, grows to 8x6ft.
“Danse du Feu” is a very free-flowering climber with scarlet flowers in two flushes each season. It’s good for a north-facing wall or a spot in light shade and grows to about 10x8ft.
“Golden Showers” has yellow flowers, early summer to autumn. It grows to 8x8ft.
“Madame Alfred Carrière” is an old climber with scented pink-flushed white flowers. It’s good for a north wall and grows to 12x10ft.
“Swan Lake” is one of the best white-flowered climbers, good for growing on pillars and posts or on a wall. It grows to 8x6ft.
ROSES FOR SCENT
Here are some fine roses known for their heavenly perfume: “Albertine” is a pink rambler. “Gloire de Dijon”, a climbing rose with buff-peach flowers.
“Alchymist” is a climber with egg-yolk yellow flowers.
“Wedding Day”, a rambler with single white flowers.
“Madame Grégoire Staechelin”, a climber with frilly, pink flowers.
“Zéphirine Drouhin” is a climber with mauve-pink flowers.
“Crimson Shower” is a rambler with crimson-red flowers.
Climbing roses need a permanent framework to cover the designated area