DARLING BUDS
For a garden that’s “heaven scent”, roses are the best blooms to pick, says Alan
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 any 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 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 20-30cm (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 8-10cm (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 fertiliser. Plant the rose with the bud union (the bulge where the cultivar joins the rootstock) about 2½cm (1in) below the surface, then water the mulch generously.
Cut off any dead, weak or stems that are sticking out, leaving the most upright ones. Gently wind round the post and tie firmly in place with garden twine. As the shoots grow, continue winding them in while they’re still flexible. When they reach the top of the post, let them run along the pergola top, but keep them tied down.