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Pruning Your Climbing Rose - Part 1

© Mark Whitelaw

The season for pruning climbing roses will soon be upon most of us... maybe!

For any number of reasons still partially unknown to us, the genes of the rose change to create a genetic mutation (a "sport") of a "normal" rose, and thus it sends out a longer cane. This mutation can occur either on a rose that produces blooms several times a year (called "repeat bloomers" or "remontant" roses), or it can occur on roses that produce blooms only once a year (called "once bloomers" or "non-remontant" roses).

By selectively propagating and cultivating these sports, we create a climbing rose. Sometimes this mutation is deliberately hybridized rather than voluntarily appearing in order to purposefully create a climbing version of a particular rose. ['American Beauty' (a Hybrid Perpetual) and 'Climbing American Beauty' (a selectively hybridized Large Flowered Climber) come to mind first.]

Climbing roses are best thought of as a "garden form" much like a prostrate (or "groundcover") rose. If you will think of them in these terms rather than as a variety or Class, then the problem of pruning becomes much easier to understand.

Because a climbing rose doesn't have any mechanism of its own with which to hold onto something (like Boston Ivy or Passion Vine, for example), it really doesn't "climb" on anything. If left to its own desires, a climbing rose would just sprawl out into the landscape. Therefore, by thinking of a climbing rose as a garden form, our real concern is how to maintain its shape, keep it growing where we want it to grow, and force it to maximize its bloom.

True climbing roses do not bloom on the main canes. Rather, they bloom from "bloom stems" that emerge from the main canes or from secondary stems (called "laterals") growing out from these main canes. Both the main canes and the laterals are growth that has occurred during previous seasons. (Ergo, we frequently use the old saw, "Climbing roses bloom on last year's wood.") The length of the bloom stems growing out from these canes and laterals is determined by which type ("Class") of rose we are growing. Hybrid Tea climbers produce very large blooms on long bloom stems, for example. Conversely, Species and Polyantha climbers produce small or medium sized blooms in multiple clusters on very short bloom stems.

The question then becomes how do we prune to maximize our bloom stems and thus maintain our garden form? And when do we do this to maximize our bloom?

The copyright of the article Pruning Your Climbing Rose - Part 1 in Rose Gardening is owned by Mark Whitelaw. Permission to republish Pruning Your Climbing Rose - Part 1 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.