Mme Alfred Carriere not flowering

susan_jayne_pickett

This Rose has been here on this west facing  wall for over 10 years.  For the last few years,  I have pruned it as in the photo but have only had long stems grow up from the horizontal, up to a metre looking with no flowers. Any suggestions?

pansyface

Here is an earlier thread about this rose.

https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/181228/madame-alfred-carriere/p1

I have it and it is a brute. I find that many plants which have a natural tendency to grow vertically can be made to flower mire prolifically if they are bent into an arch or even horizontally.

Mr. Vine Eye

I would suspect that because you’re pruning it to keep it relatively short, the plant is in return throwing out long stems in a desperate attempt to grow to its proper size - which is very large (20ft)

 It’s not flowering because it hasn’t been able to reach sufficient size. It looks like you’re trying to keep it constrained in an area that’s two small for it. You’ll either need to give it more space to grow - like the entire house wall, potentially! - or you could consider moving it, or replacing it.

Papi Jo

@susan_jayne_pickett ,

There have been many posts about the 'Madame Alfred Carrière' rose on this forum. Did you search the forum before posting? Here they are:

https://forum.gardenersworld.com/search?Search=Alfred+Carriere

'Madame Alfred Carrière' is in fact a tree. It can grow to several metres in all directions. It is definitely not suited for the spot you have it, just under a window.

I suggest uprooting it and replacing with a plant more suited to this environment.

See my specimen on my garden site here: http://www.rezeau.org/wp-garden/en/rosa-madame-alfred-carriere-2/

susan_jayne_pickett

I wish I had checked out previous comments but am new to the forum! It's incredible how many comments there are.  I was going to dig it up this year and replant a different rose (although I know the problems with planting roses where a rose has been)and know it would have killed it. Having read the comments,   I'm going to try the S shape up each side of the window and see what happens!  

Nollie

Hi Susan, if you wanted to plant an alternative rose with a more modest growth habit, you can avoid rose replant disease by digging out the old soil and replacing it with soil from another part of the garden, mixed with some well-rotted manure and/or compost. If you don’t have a source of alternative soil, you could refresh what soil you have with some new compost and sprinkle the planting hole and roots of the new rose with mycorrhizal fungi which would also work. 

amancalledgeorge

Another way around planting a rose in a location that another had grown is to plant the new one in a cardboard box, the time it will take to break its way out of the box it will be strong enough and won't have any issues. That method also removes a good amount of the existing soil and the new rose has optimum conditions.