So your beautiful climbing roses have flowered all summer long and given you a gorgeous show of colour, but they are starting to look a bit sorry for themselves. Most of the flowers have been deadheaded or have fallen in a carpet of petals and it’s time to think about tidying them up. But first, you need to know when to prune climbing roses and also a few tips and tricks on pruning climbing roses.
Pruning Climbing Roses
Climbing Roses
Climbing roses are a little more effort to maintain, and then prune at the end of their season, but they are well worth the maintenance. You’ll be able to identify if you are roses are climbing roses, as they will flower throughout the summer, in long thorny stems which are ideal for training up a trellis or around obelisks and arches. They often will have clusters of flowers.
It’s sometimes hard to tell the difference between climbing roses and rambling roses, but you just need to look at how long they have flowered for. Climbing roses will continue to flower all throughout the summer, whereas rambling roses will only flower once, usually in late Spring, early Summer.
When To Prune Climbing Roses
Climbing roses should be pruned in wintertime. The best time to do this is between December and February when the flowers have died off.
Pruning Climbing Roses
If you are thinking about how to prune climbing roses, the best advice I can give is that you must do some pruning. If climbing roses are left to their own devices, they will become overgrown and a tangled mess of stems. This will leave you with a poor plant, which is unlikely to flower much the following year.
Start by removing dead, damaged or diseased branches. You’ll be better able to see what you have left. If the plant hasn’t been regularly pruned, you can chop out the oldest branches at the base level. This will help to encourage new growth.
You should take a look at the side shoots and you can prune these back also. You can take them down by about a third and this will encourage them to branch the following year.
Climbing roses should be supported within a trellis, obelisk or similar structure. Once you have pruned your climbing rose, you’ll need to tie it into the structure to ensure that the young stems don’t get battered around by the winter wind and rain.
If the climbing rose is really overgrown, you can cut it back to leave around six young, vigorous stems on the plant. You’ll need to secure these to some kind of support.
Remember to wear suitable gloves when pruning roses and to make sure your secateurs or clippers are sharp, so they make nice clean cuts on your plants. Good luck with pruning your climbing roses.
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