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Charming buds of climbing roses are becoming increasingly popular; they decorate the walls of houses, high fences, and vertical supports with a bright carpet throughout the summer season. But you need to know how to care for and how to prune climbing roses for the winter.
Even the wonderful bloom of climbing roses can be spoiled by illiterate care - improper formation of the bush or tangled and dried shoots. Therefore, pruning is one of the most important activities in caring for roses.
Characteristics of climbing roses
Despite their growing popularity, climbing roses still do not have a single classification. There are two known varieties of them.
Characteristics of Climber roses:
- grow up to 3.5 m;
- can bloom a second time in a season;
- The flowers are quite large in size - more than 4 cm, collected in inflorescences.
Roses Rambler:
- they are among the longest, can reach 10-15 m;
- have long and thin stems;
- they bloom only once, but have a long flowering period - up to 40 days;
- form many simple or double small-flowered inflorescences with a flower diameter of up to 2.5 cm;
- bushes produce abundant flowering;
- differ in frost resistance.
Trimming
A climbing rose should be pruned in the fall, when its flowering ends. Pruning is necessary for the development of a healthy bush, which can provide lush and long-lasting flowering next year.When pruning climbing roses, old and damaged stems are removed to make room for new shoots to grow. Two-year-old shoots are also left on the bushes, since the main number of inflorescences will be concentrated on them.
The method of pruning climbing roses depends on the variety. Rambler roses begin to bloom the next year after being planted on the shoots of the previous year. These shoots do not bloom a second time, but interfere with the growth and flowering of new ones. Therefore, they are pruned in the summer, immediately after flowering. Pruning is done at the very base of the shoot so that three to ten new ones grow to replace the removed ones. They will give flowering to the climbing rose next year.
On the long vines of the re-blooming Climber varieties, many side shoots grow, which produce inflorescences. The main shoots can grow for five years and by the end of this period they are already weakening. Therefore, long vines should be trimmed at the base by the end of the fourth year. They will be replaced by new young shoots. Climbing rose bushes will always have up to seven main shoots and two to three young, annual shoots.
When pruning, you need to remove not only the old, four-year-old canes, but also some of the new shoots that shade the bush and prevent its free development. These young shoots are pruned at the base. Pruning of last year's shoots should be done carefully, removing only the tops with unformed buds.
In the fall, during preparation for wintering, roses should be pruned very carefully, slightly shortening the stems that have grown too long and removing excess shoots growing inside the bush. At the same time, spent and dried or damaged shoots and flowers are removed.Short pruning of climbing rose bushes at this time will cause many shoots to appear that will not bloom.
Not only their flowering, but also their development depends on the correct pruning of climbing roses. Delay in pruning or incorrectly carried out procedure will lead to weakening of the plant and a decrease in its flowering. It will not be as abundant and lasting. Professionally pruned bushes will ensure their rich flowering.
Despite these recommendations, some varieties of climbing roses require 3-4 years to develop enough mass to fully bloom. Such varieties bloom for years without pruning old shoots, which become woody at the very base. Only diseased or withered branches are pruned. Therefore, each variety requires individual pruning.
Tips for performing the procedure
There are several rules that, if followed, will allow for successful pruning:
- it should be carried out in dry, windless weather;
- tools used in work must be thoroughly disinfected and sharpened;
- It is better to cut thick woody stems with a hacksaw;
- the shoot is cut to healthy wood;
- the cut is made above the outer bud, at a distance of 0.5 cm from it;
- it should be inclined so that moisture does not accumulate on it;
- all sections must be treated with garden varnish or other disinfectant;
- pruning should maintain the correct proportions of the bush, in which the volume of the above-ground part of the plant is equal to the volume of the root system.
Pruning climbing roses for wintering can be seen in the video:
Garter
When caring for climbing roses, it is important to tie them up correctly.When pruning, you must simultaneously form the correct direction of the main shoots.
- If you tie the shoots only vertically, over time the side shoots on which the inflorescences appear will stop growing. Flowers and leaves will be collected only at the very end of the shoot, exposing a bare stem with thorns. A horizontal garter stimulates the plant to grow side shoots that stretch upward. And their ends are hung with inflorescences of wonderful flowers.
- You can also fan out the shoots - to the sides and upwards, providing them with sufficient space for free arrangement and flowering.
- If the bush grows near a pole, you can direct the shoots in a spiral.
- In overgrown bushes, you need to periodically replace old shoots with young ones. To support long shoots, a support is needed on which they should be secured.
Methods for removing climbing roses from a support
When growing climbing roses in temperate climates, the main problem is covering them for the winter - the difficulty lies in removing the shoots from the supports. In the spring you have to lift them up and tie them up again. Some recommendations will help make this job easier.
For cultivation, you can choose varieties that do not have thorns, for example, Veilchenblau, Zephirine Drouhin. They are much easier to cover and tie.
- If climbing roses grow near an arch, you can leave an allowance at the base of the vine, which will allow you to pull the entire support out of the ground and, without removing the flowers from it, lay it on a dry mat. In spring, the support easily rises along with the shoot and strengthens in its place.
- There is another option - you need to tie the whips to a removable grill. It can be easily hung on any support, and removed in the fall and, without unraveling the lashes, cover the roses for the winter.
- When covering roses, some gardeners dig up the bush a little to make it easier to tilt it.
Rambler varieties tolerate wintering much better, but their thin shoots are difficult to untangle when removed from the support. Therefore, it is better to direct them in a spiral around the support in one direction - then it will be easier to remove.
Sheltering climbing roses for the winter
Roses are covered for the winter after the onset of constant frosts with a temperature of minus 5-7 degrees. Before covering, the bushes need to be treated with copper sulfate. It is necessary to remove the tops of the shoots with the remaining buds and all the foliage from the plants. A good covering material is spruce branches. The lashes removed from the supports must be laid on spruce branches or a dry bedding of leaves and covered with burlap, and covered with covering material on top.
To allow plants to breathe, it is better to lay the insulation on a reliable frame made of metal rods. Then the air inside the shelter will always be dry, and the durable frame will protect the roses from the pressure of the snow cover.
During thaws, sap flow may begin again in the shoots. When temperatures drop, this sap can freeze and cause cracks. With a new increase in temperature, pathogens may enter the plant through these cracks. If it is dry under the shelter, the secreted sap will quickly dry out, the cracks will heal, and the roses will not die.
With proper care, climbing roses will become a wonderful decoration for decorative garden compositions, delighting with their bright beauty throughout the season.
