Climbing roses...

[armjr]

I have precious little experience with roses, but with the greenhouse up, I started sticking any pruned branch in a pot with rootone. I also dug up some climbing roses that were coming up from an established plant. The cuttings are coming along and I got about a 50% survival rate so far. Of the five that I dug up, all lived and seem to be thriving. A couple of them have put up a long shoot, I suppose wanting to climb… after all… These have been transplanted for 4 months now.

My question is; Should I prune back that shoot to force more root growth or leave it for leaf growth?

Thanks for indulging my inexperience...

Alan

 

[oneeye]

No don't prune the top of a climbing rose, allow it to ramble. Its important to stabilize the canes using trellis. After the rose flowers die you can dead-head the flowers but never top a climbing rose. Keep us post and thanks for sharing your work with us.

 

[armjr]

Okay, thanks for the response. I’ll leave the climbers alone. Continuing with my inexperienced questions…. I planted some roses (regular rose bushes) for my wife this past Valentine’s Day. Several of them are doing the same thing. They are not climbers. Should I prune them back or let them grow?

These already put on one round of flowers and I cut the hips off.

Alan

 

[oneeye]

Okay, thanks for the response. I’ll leave the climbers alone. Continuing with my inexperienced questions…. I planted some roses (regular rose bushes) for my wife this past Valentine’s Day. Several of them are doing the same thing. They are not climbers. Should I prune them back or let them grow?

These already put on one round of flowers and I cut the hips off.

Alan


View attachment 108872

The best time to prune roses is late Winter before Spring vigor. For once-blooming roses, pruning should be done after the first flush of blooms in early summer. Its also time to start thinking about mulching for hot Summer. I like cedar and native hard wood mulch.

 

[armjr]

I also do a little woodworking so I can come up with some native hardwood mulch. I have a saw mill and mill the pecan and oak that go down in the bottom.

Alan

 

[DirtMechanic]

I also do a little woodworking so I can come up with some native hardwood mulch. I have a saw mill and mill the pecan and oak that go down in the bottom.

Alan

Use the bark. Meristem is gold. Don't feed much to the new ones. Let the roots need a reason to grow down and out. Feed too much and they might stay on your couch doing nothing.

 

[armjr]

Somehow, I knew planting some rose bushes in a rose bed was not going to be that simple…. Once blooming roses?

I see rose bushes around the countryside that I know the owner doesn’t even spit in their direction much less prune and care for them, and they are big healthy looking bushes with roses all over them. There’s one guy who cuts his back with a machete so he can open his gate without getting stuck…

Maybe I’m putting too much thought into it...

Alan

 

[DirtMechanic]

Somehow, I knew planting some rose bushes in a rose bed was not going to be that simple…. Once blooming roses?

I see rose bushes around the countryside that I know the owner doesn’t even spit in their direction much less prune and care for them, and they are big healthy looking bushes with roses all over them. There’s one guy who cuts his back with a machete so he can open his gate without getting stuck…

Maybe I’m putting too much thought into it...

Alan

They really are not hard except for one thing, drainage. The roots suffocate easily. On clay plant above ground in a mound. I started mine with cow compost and hardwood mulch in long mounds. There are 30 or so out there that have been around quite a few years now, and I put hardwood mulch on them once or twice a year.

 

[Meadowlark]

...I see rose bushes around the countryside that I know the owner doesn’t even spit in their direction much less prune and care for them, and they are big healthy looking bushes with roses all over them.

Guilty as charged.