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Compassion Rose needs lots of pruning! Except I don’t know how - chop to stump?

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  • suzebig1X5mPG4suzebig1X5mPG4 Posts: 2
    sorry its sideways - my first post and I can’t even get the pictures right! 
  • SlipperyElmSlipperyElm Posts: 379


    There you go, Suzebig, now someone who knows more about rose pruning than I do can perhaps suggest ways of tackling the job!  😀
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 32,419
    It seems there are 3 main stems. I'd be tempted to cut all 3 down to about 18" and let a new framework of young , strong stems develop. 
    Hard to say for sure from the photos. but it'd bounce back next year for sure
    Devon.
  • NollieNollie Girona, Catalunya, Northen Spain.Posts: 5,957
    Well I don’t have Compassion but it’s a climbing hybrid tea rose that naturally wants to get tall and it certainly has! If you had the space, the ideal would be to train the climbing canes sideways as they grow, as horizontally as possible, to encourage more flowering side shoots and more blooms lower down. But it doesn’t look like you have the space to do that there. You could certainly prune it radically down to about a foot from the ground and start again. Someone who has grown it would be able to give you more targeted advice though.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 32,419
    Agree with @Nollie about ideally training it horizontally , but it's not got  a lot of space between the end of house and the window.
    Devon.
  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Scariff, County Clare, IrelandPosts: 7,571
    Could some stems be trained along the side of the house, away from the window?
    "The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life."  Rabindranath Tagore
  • NollieNollie Girona, Catalunya, Northen Spain.Posts: 5,957
    I’ve just looked it up for you on a rose website and it says “can be pruned to maintain a shorter habit” but to do that you would have to give it the big chop to start again, then prune it back every winter to less than the size you want to maintain it at. When deadheading during the growing season, instead of just snipping off the dead bloom at the top, you can reduce it’s stem by a third which should also help to keep it more bushy and less triffid-like.

    The existing mature canes (stems) look very tough and thick so you won’t be able to bend those, new canes will be more flexible, so again, big chop first if you want to train it around the corner 😊 
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 32,419
    It's a beautiful rose. I had one in a half barrel at a previous house, moved house and planted it in the ground at the nex tone. Just lovely

    Devon.
  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,907
    That is a rose TREE!  Amazing.  Following the others advice, you could train it along a line or canes just in front of your windowsills at that level.  Then you can enjoy it from indoors and outdoors.  It would be at the height of your bed in front and a bit above, and form a nice sort of rose 'hedge' behind, except the base is all the way over by the side.  
    Utah, USA.
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