Pruning A Climbing Rose (Video)

The first thing to know about climbing roses is that they are not really true climbers, meaning they don't twine like Honeysuckle or stick like Ivy.

With a little guidance to start them off, they will scramble up through a tree or large shrub, but otherwise you need to tie them into sturdy support wires against a building or wall. 
 

The Key Principle of Climbing Roses

Climbing roses have two types of wood:
 

1. Thick main stems that go all the way to the base.
2. Thinner lateral stems that come off the main stems. Laterals produce all the flowers.

When a main stem is vertical, it produces far fewer laterals along its length than when it runs between a 45-degree angle and horizontal (avoid point it downwards below horizontal). 
A vertical main stem will produce almost all of its lateral at the tip, so all the flowers will be up at the top of the plant.

So, the main goal with Climbing Roses is to maintain a lot of horizontal-ish main stems.
 

• Where you have a lot of space like on top of a wall, you simply run the main stems along the surface.
• In a confined space, train the flexible new growth of the main stems in repeating S shapes up the surface.

In a typical year, if you have chosen the right size rose for your space, you do not prune main stems at all, only the laterals.

When a main cane gets old and unproductive, diseased, or damaged, then you typically prune it out at ground level.
Only prune the end of a main case if it gets too big for its allotted space, and there is no more room for turning it back around in an S shape.
 

When to Deadhead and Prune Climbing Roses
 

When to Deadheading Climbing Roses

Most climbing roses flower twice per year, and to encourage the best second flush, you need to snip off the faded flowers of the first flush.
Otherwise, the first flowers will form rose hips, which take up energy that you want to go into new flower production.

The textbook guideline for deadheading all roses is to snip the flowered stem back to the first set of five leaves, and that is good advice to prevent spindly shoots that produce few and/or small flowers. 
But don't worry about it if it's hard to reach and see properly on a tall plant: cutting the lateral anywhere close behind the faded flower is fine.

For a masterclass on deadheading Climbing Roses, this 17 minute long presentation by the lovely Olga, a Ukrainian Rosarian in Connecticut, goes into as much detail and covers as many examples as anyone will ever need!
 

We skipped the first minute of introduction for you:
 

When to Prune Climbing Roses
 

Climbing roses can be cut back anytime after their flowers fade in early winter, but the best time is late Winter or very early Spring, when there is no frost. 
 

There is nothing wrong with pruning them during the growing season, but of course you will lose flowers that year, and it's harder to see what you are doing with all the leaves in the way!
 

How to Train & Prune Climbing Roses
 

You will need some secateurs, good gloves (ours are OK, but goatskin is great for the home gardener), eye protection, and probably some bypass loppers for older roses.

Formative Training of New Climbing Roses
 

In the first year, your new climbing rose will grow green new main stems that won't produce any flowers.
The aim is to form the structure of the plant for the future by tying these in, keeping them between horizontal and 45 degrees as much as possibly. 
There should be no need to prune at all in the first year.
 

In the second year, the main stems that grew the previous year will begin to make some laterals and therefore flowers.
The main objective remains the same as above: continue to train the pliable ends of the main stems into the structure you want for the future. 

At the end of the second year, you begin the yearly pruning regime of cutting back laterals to 2-3 buds from the main stem.
 

Pruning an Established Climbing Rose
 

Ben Hanna at Heritage Roses in Oregon has produced our favourite video on pruning climbing roses (one day we will get around to copying it), and he is a really calm presenter as well.
 

He demonstrates every key principle for pruning an established climbing rose that needs some renovating.
 

The same principles apply to training a new climbing rose, except that you won't need to remove any old wood in a young plant.