Western Morning News (Saturday)
Coming up roses
FOR CLIMBING AND RAMBLER ROSES, THE SEASON IS ALMOST OVER. CLEVER PRUNING NOW WILL ENSURE YOU’RE IN FULL BLOOM NEXT YEAR
FOR most of us, summer feels as though it’s only just begun, but for climbing and rambler roses, the season is drawing to a close. And once their flowers are finished, it’s time to start pruning.
The aim is to snip old unproductive stems, tidy up the plant and encourage free flowering next year.
Large, strong-growing, older varieties need quite a lot of pruning, while many modern varieties are naturally compact and slow growing, so less work with the secateurs is needed.
The good news is, when you grow ramblers or large climbing roses up through trees, there’s no need to prune them at all.
RAMBLERS
With ramblers that produce strong, young shoots from the base of the plant, such as ‘Dorothy Perkins’, cut one or two of the oldest and thickest main stems off a foot above the ground, and train in new shoots, growing from the base of the plant to replace them.
This means removing quite a lot of growth. Varieties in this group need to have their oldest main stems replaced regularly – left unpruned, they deteriorate fast.
As the new shoots grow, tie them out as close to horizontal as possible over the fence or wall on which the plant grows. Horizontal stems flower all along their length, upright stems only flower at the tip.
Work your way over the remaining stems and snip back side shoots that flowered earlier this summer to within a few inches of their base, where they grow from a main stem.
For ramblers that don’t produce new shoots at their base (such as ‘Albertine’), look at the base of the plant and choose one or two of the oldest, thickest main stems.
Then, from the root upwards, cut them off about halfway up to remove some of the more cluttered top growth, but leave a good framework of sub-lateral stems lower down. Snip back all the side shoots growing from these to within a few inches of their base.
CLIMBERS
Once the stems of climbing roses have been trained so the plant covers the wall, fence or trellis it’s growing over, they only need deadheading after flowering.
This doubles as summer pruning, so cut each of the flowered stems back to four inches from its base.
The aim is to leave the plant with a permanent framework of stems from which each season’s flowers grow on short side shoots.
In winter, when the plants are dormant, remove any weak or dead stems, or thin out congested stems.
If there are gaps in the main framework, train in new stems to fill them so the plant covers all of its allocated space evenly.
PILLAR ROSES
These are naturally compact, slow-growing varieties of climber or rambler roses with an upright habit. They are the best sorts for growing vertically, up the sides of arches and up posts.
For best results, spiral the stems round the uprights to encourage more side shoots. That way the plants will flower all the way up.
To prune, deadhead after they flower – this group usually flowers on-and-off over the summer, so deadhead again after each flush.
In winter, thin out overcrowded old plants by removing a few of the very oldest stems close to the base of the plant.
If that’s not needed, just tidy the shape slightly.