How To Train Climbing Roses

how to train climbing roses

Training Roses

Roses don't climb naturally, so how to train climbing roses is an important aspect of growing climbing roses.

Training roses the correct and best way and learning the best technique how to anchor and train climbing roses or tie their stems to something, is important if you want them to grow up a wall, archway, arbor, trellis, fence or other structures such as a garden shed.

It's very important to BEND the canes horizontally and make sure the tip is bent downward, for more flowers when you train the roses. Left to their own to grow, the long canes of most climbing roses grow upward, and the buds along the canes don't develop. The result is that most of the leaves and flowers are then at the top of the plant. Making the bottom canes bare and ugly and the rose display less attractive.

how to train climbing roses

To bring the roses closer to eyelevel, and dramatically increase the number of flowers, train the rose canes horizontally, or as close to horizontal as they'll go. Or criss-cross the canes if you are training them up an arbor or a narrow trellis or space.

This encourages the many buds along the canes to grow; a few will develop as growth laterals, but most will become flowering laterals with lots of rose blooms.

Train Climbing Roses

After pruning in spring or late winter, allow any new young canes to grow upward; make no attempt to train them at this time. Take the mature canes, last years growth, bend them from the vertical, horizontally, and tie them in place.

If the canes are fairly limber, you can angle them outward into a horizontal position. If they are stiffer you might have to settle for spreading them into a vase shaped outline.

In either case, tie the rose canes into place with their tips pointing downward.

Follow the same procedure with mature growth laterals, which will encourage them to produce flowering laterals.

I hope this lesson about how to train climbing roses will help you have good looking climbing roses with lots of blooms all over.

Tips On How To Tie Roses

Avoid using wire or nylon twine to tie the roses canes to support, because it will cut into the canes as they grow.

Plastic tape is soft and stretches and it's the easiest to work with.

You can use raffia or twine, but then you must remember to loosen those ties periodically. Tie the tape or twine around the support first, and then tie it loosely around the rose cane.

Additional Climbing Rose Training Tips

Go To Climbing Rose Bushes

Go Top Climbing Roses

Go To Pruning Climbing Roses

Return from How To Train Climbing Roses to Home Page