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Teaching a rose to climb

erica londoniierica londonii Posts: 6
in Plants

My Gertrude rose was planted about 2 months ago and is about 50 cms high already and has some buds and the colour can be seen easily.

It was planted about 50 cms away from the fence but is making no attempt to climb.

What do I do?  Will it grab the fence or do I have to train it?

Can I simply cut it down and have a rase bush instead?

Posts

  • LokelaniLokelani Posts: 112

    Roses need help to climb. 

    I planted a Gertrude Jeykll & a few others last autumn & am training it onto a trellis. I'm having a go at the fan type method where you tie stems as horizontally as you can so lots of flowering side shoots come off those main lateral stems. 

    I'm still learning it as I go along, so I'm sure someone can explain it better. 

    You do need either a post or pillar you can cross the stems around, or if on a fence either trellis or wires to tie the rose stems in to, however you want to do it.

    David Austin do say that one is good as a short climber, & certainly the stems on mine are very thin & floppy at the moment, it is very young though. My experience with the ones they call arching growth, is that it takes about 5 years for the stems to support the weight of the lovely big blooms, without flopping the stems out wide, unless I supported them in some way.

    So I'd consider if you have room for it to be a rather large arching shrub if you decide against it as a climber. 

     

  • WelshonionWelshonion Posts: 3,114

    You have to tie the rose in.  It has no tendrils and its growth is not twisty like a honeysuckle.  Neither does it have suckers like ivy or hydrangea petiolaris.  In time once you have a framework the new shoots will be supported by the old.

  • erica londoniierica londonii Posts: 6

    Yes. Lokelani, mine is the Gertrude Jeyyll from David Austen. I did not know how much it knows what to do but I am getting the picture now.

    I have a hydrangea and it seems to know what to do by itself so that is why I was getting into a tizz so thank you Welshonion for telling me to tie it in.

    I am looking into frames in a catalogue. In the meantime today I have a bud that you can see is clearly a vivid pink.

     

    Many thanks for the tips.

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