Climbing Rose Help

daniel.watts

All,

I have a climbing rose on one of my walls, and I'd like to know if I should remove the flowers that are past their best?  This specimen has grown quickly and well, but it's becoming a little bare at the bottom and I'd like to know if there's any way I can regenerate growth on the main stem?

Many thanks,

Daniel

Borderline

You can deadhead roses that are past their best.

Do you know if your rose repeats flowers throughout summer and autumn? If not, then you can be more relaxed about deadheading. There may be decorative rose hips. Also, if your rose only flowers in the summer, you can re-train and prune back older stems that are not flowering lower down in the next few weeks. This encourage new branches to form, and you can then train them whilst they are young and supple into a more horizontal or diagonal angle. This promotes more side shoots.

If your rose continues to flower into autumn months, then you can deadhead spent flowers and leave the same pruning technique till next year in early spring.