Advice req'd on climbing rose

Hi guys. I'm just wanting a bit of advice on climbing roses. I have 4 climbers growing on lattice panels on the sides of a carport. One climber in particular is sending out a cane in the wrong direction. It's heading outbound towards the yard instead of heading upwards. Do i (1) train the cane slowly back towards the lattice or (2) prune the cane off so that a bud somewhere down low that's facing the lattice can shoot and head that way ?? Just checked the rain guage when we got home from work and we've had a little over 80mm in the last few days with some more on the way by the looks of it.

How old is the cane? Is it still flexible enough to tie down without breaking it? With climbers I always try to tie the long canes down as close to horizontal as possible because this initiates growth of all the axial buds along its length so they grow upwards and terminate in flowers... thus producing more flowers. Otherwise the long canes will continue to grow skywards to produce a bunch of flowers right on the ends. It doesn't have to be completely horizontal. An angle of around 45 degrees will usually be enough to cause the same response. When you tie these strong canes down these will form the skeleton of your climber and they should not be pruned off unless they are old with reduce productivity (take your cue from the plant... it will tell you when a limb is losing viability... it will produce smaller and smaller shoots, reduced flower production and go a dull grey colour as though about to die). You can prune the vertical shoots that appear along its length each year but not the strong horizontal canes. It also depends what the climber is. A repeat flowering climber can be treated in a similar manner to other roses with regards to pruning using the above recommended pruning technique during the winter. Once flowering climbers need to be trimmed just after flowering and not in winter. I would prune very little, if at all, for the first few years and just concentrate on training them into place before they harden. Some I don't prune at all. If I'm trying to cover a large wall area with a climber I like to try and develop layers of horizontal canes growing out from a few main leaders/trunks. If I get wayward growing stems I try to tie them back, and horizontal, towards the support or trim them off during winter or if its a strong growing rose that will recover quickly I'll snip it off straight away.

Hi Simon. The climber in question is "Royal Gold". I have attached a photo. As you can see, the climber is still quite young. You can also see the young cane i'm refering to that's heading away from the lattice and out towards the yard. Even tho it's only very young and still quite green, i tried to see how it would bend as you suggested and was suprised to find that it took a fair bit of pressure to get it to bend. I think if i'm going to train it, i'll have to wait until it's a lot longer before i start pegging it back to the lattice. I got the feeling that if i tried it now it would just snap off. If i have to snip it off, there's still quite a few canes that are coming on to take it's place. The tallest cane that's growing vertical has me scratching my head !! Do i train it to go left, or do i train it to go right ?? Decisions, decisions !! We've had about 80mm of rain here over the last few days so i'm sitting here armed with my blackspot spray for when the sun eventually comes out and the humidity builds.

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could be rootstock Start the bend now, about 2/3rd of the length or see with your eye when the green part looks like it is straining. Tie off at that point and try bending the more flexible part a bit more horizontal. This is only my opinion.

Hi Wedge, Simons info was excellent so go with that. Also try bending gradually over a month starting a quarter of the bend now , halfway next week and three quarters the week after and at horizontal a week after that. Might have to be slower , you can tell how it's going by the resistance.

Be careful not to strangle the cane when tying, a wide tie like a ladies silk stocking should work well.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice guys. Much appreciated !! I'll try it as soon as this darn rain buzzes off !! Several of my climbers will require the treatment.

Don't swear at the rain !

It's all gone now Rosemeadow....for now !!! All up we had 85mm. I planted out the last of my roses about 2 weeks ago and they never looked back...until today !! I noticed one of my climbers looked very limp. All the new growth just went limp and even the new flower buds were hanging their heads. I'm just wondering if it os a combination of that rain and then the hot day today ??

I'd agree with this observation... new growth, even down here, can be knocked around by sudden hot spells. It's very hot down here at the moment and I'm seeing the same thing on the faster growing bushes.

Yup, we're right Simon. The day i posted that about the effects of heat on my new roses, i had a look when i got home from work that night. I went out with my torch and the rose was again looking good so it must have been the heat during the day !!

wedge wrote:... I went out with my torch and the rose was again looking good....

imagine, ...how Wedge is walking through the dark night, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Had to make sure my little babies were tucked in and doing ok Bemo !!! Hahaha