Tidy up your climbers
Climbing plants can be looking quite rough around the edges after a spring and summer of strong growth, so a tidy up is due. Tie in long, whippy stems of rambling and climbing roses and trim back those that have outgrown their space. Do the same for clematis that flowered in early summer. If you’ve got an unruly honeysuckle, trim back the shoots that flowered this year by one third and trim back the sideshoots growing off the main stems if space is very tight. Leaving just two or three buds along the sideshoots is enough for flowers next year. If you’ve got a climber that’s outgrown its space, make its support bigger to accommodate the growth and make the plant a bigger feature. If you’ve got a rose growing up a pillar, add some posts and horizontal wires alongside it so you can pull down the long stems and stretch them along the wires. You’ll get loads more flowers next year!