Lack of flowers on climbing rose

Julia1983

Hello,
Does anyone have advice on how to get a climbing rose to put out more flowers and less foliage?   It is in a sheltered south facing site on clay soil. I've got a few roses and that is the only one (might be pink perpetue?)  not really flowering well, the same thing happened last year. I gave it a little slow release general fertiliser in spring but nothing that the others didn't get. Thanks all. 

Theveggardener

As soon as I see the first bud I give my climbers tomato feed a couple of times a month, don't know if it's enough but have notice a few more flowers. I also have clay.

Borderline

Without seeing a picture, it's hard to know why it's lacking flowers. One of the common issues with climbers are due to branches trained upwards rather than diagonal or horizontal. Training branches to grow width-ways stimulates side shoots which normally go on to produce flowers.

It may be south facing, but have you got other plants or buildings neigbouring, therefore casting shade? It may be, your rose may be grown in an area that gets less than 5 hours of sun in the summer, which means they flower less.

Finally, not all roses perform the same. I have no experience with your rose, but it may be a difficult and temperamental rose that needs very specific needs for it to grow picture perfect. Hopefully @Marlorena will see this. She has extensive knowledge of many types of roses.

dave125

I had a lot of trouble with "Starlight Express" until I started training the branches horizontally as mentioned above. Additionally it didn't even start to bud until it reached the top of my trellis, about 5 feet. This year is the first time it's produced a decent show and it's been in now for four years.
Luv Dave

dappledshade

Some climbers do just take their time before they start to flower well. I had that with my New Dawn. Lead stems were about 4ft tall before it ever put out flower buds and it was trained horizontally as I was told to. It's hard to be patient sometimes 😊

Joy*

My New Dawn was very disappointing last year, the first year after planting. Without extensive feeding,  or horizontal training, it is much better this year. It did grow some very long shoots which I almost removed because I thought they were suckers. Providing your rose is getting some sun and is producing growth,  be patient and I'm sure it will flower eventually. 
P.S. you could always do what I do with plants that are not flowering, give it a good talking to and tell it that if it can't be bothered to do its job, it will be taken to the dump!!!

dappledshade

Joy* said:

My New Dawn was very disappointing last year, the first year after planting. Without extensive feeding,  or horizontal training, it is much better this year. It did grow some very long shoots which I almost removed because I thought they were suckers. Providing your rose is getting some sun and is producing growth,  be patient and I'm sure it will flower eventually. 
P.S. you could always do what I do with plants that are not flowering, give it a good talking to and tell it that if it can't be bothered to do its job, it will be taken to the dump!!!

Ah but do they listen Joy?!

Julia1983

I'll try giving it a motivational chat  I wonder if it's because I'm trying to train it over patio doors, so it's gone up then over if that makes sense, so maybe there'll be more flowers higher up next year... Unfortunately I prob won't see it because the house is up for sale (no time for patience  ) but hopefully the next occupant will enjoy it. I wish I could remember it's name, I  bought it for its amazing scent after seeing it grown up a wall at Powys Castle in North Wales, you could smell it from metres away! 

Joy*

Hi dappledshade. We had a holly tree, bought with a few berries on it so we were sure that it was female. Our hedge had lots of holly in it, both male and female ( with berries) so we had everything required to get berries. The new tree was nurtured for several years and had no berries on it. It was planted as a feature in a grassed area. On one famous occasion, we told it that it would be going to the dump if it didn't bear berries that year. I walked to the other side of it only to find a branch, in full view, with a small spray of red berries. We were never aware of any flowers or developing berries despite seeing it from all sides - so the answer is yes it does! I've also done it to cacti. There's one good thing about a talking to, it doesn't harm the environment and it costs nothing!