Here's a video I received from Fine Gardening that gives step-by-step details on training a rose on a trellis. Most helpful! And Paul Zimmerman, the creator of the video, has given permission to share this video as long as he gets the credit, which you'll see at the very end of the video. So enjoy!

http://www.finegardening.com/i...

Yay! I'm going to be putting some trellises for some climbers I have/got coming in, so I'll definitely want to watch this when I have a better internet connection at home.

Thank you! :)

It's a very good video, worth seeing a couple of times.

At least half the message is to train the main canes of climbing roses to grow between 45 degrees and horizontal. As he concludes "Don't think vertical, think ... horizontal."

Yes, good advice. I'm guilty of the training vertical crime and will now mend my ways!

I like his personality and the simple way he explains things. He's so calm about things that he makes everything sound easy.

Incidentally, when I sent out my blast c-mails about the IB flap to all the cubit members, I saw that PFZimmerman, the charming man in this video, is one of our cubit members, Angie.

Yea, Zu. Good to know that he's here among us. Maybe we can get even more info than what he published in the video!

More later!

I appreciated this video. I have a Teasing Georgia that I planted this spring. I would like to train it to grow on a trellis and the fence behind it. The horizontal approach makes sense! What material does anybody use to attach the canes to the trellis?

Kay: I use velcro garden tape I find at Lowe's in the garden area. Jute twine would work, too, I'm thinking.

Angie

Angie - that's good to know as I've now found out that roses don't vine or cling and as I have a few climbers that I am wanting to climb, I was trying to figure out how to get them to stay on the trellis.

I use zip ties, and buy them in bulk from Home Depot. You can find them in the electrical section, where they sell wire. They come in different lengths, and in different quantities per bag (as few as ten, and as many as 500). They're very quick and easy to use when securing rose canes to trellises or polls, and I don't scratch my hands as much from tying knots like I did when I formerly used twine. Also, these don't decompose over time like some twines do.

Another great idea, Mike! Thanks for sharing it. Those zip ties would be much easier to install.

I had often thought of using zip ties but was afraid they might be too "sharp" against the canes - glad to hear they're okay.

Thanks for the suggestions...I have the green velcro stuff, and I like it , but it does sometimes work itself loose after time.

Just be sure to leave the zip ties a little bit loose - i.e., don't clamp them down on the cane, because the cane will expand as it grows and get squeezed by the zip tie if it's too tight.

Thanks again, Mike. I would have snugged those babies up if you hadn't warned me!

great idea! and you can trim off the extra lengths to neaten them up.

Yes, that's what I do. I usually select black as the color because they sort of disappear, but you can also get them in dark green sometimes, but usually not in as large a bulk quantity.

I love fine gardening (and its sister publication Threads magazine). Thanks for the links.

I use bulky white acrylic yarn tied in a figure 8 on my white trellis. I use neutral beige cotton/acrylic elsewhere. The yarn seem less likely to abrade the canes in my limited experience. It is much softer and smoother than regular twine. It also has some stretch/resilience, which may help, I am not sure. I have been knitting/sewing/designing much longer than I have been gardening, so I have lots of yarn scraps in my assorted scrap baskets.

I am trying something new (to me). I am growing some Austin roses on a trellis against a wall. Due to lack of garden space and inability to turn down roses from a friend, I am training each in a v shape, but overlapping them as necessary. (I am not overlapping canes from the same rose with itself, but the edges of the v's overlap...like w.) The goal is a wall of pastel - peach, yellow, warm pink- roses combined with clematis. The current effect is....crowded....and Golden Celebration has terrible blackspot (although it gets the most ventilation). I think with continued training and fungicide application it may work out. (At least until I can move myself into somewhere with more gardening space). One of the roses reached beyond the top of the trellis already this year. The trellis is 8' but the wall is much taller. This is the roses first full year in my garden, so they haven't "taken off" yet. I am delaying judgment until next spring.

I have morning glories against the other wall on trellis. I love the look in the summertime. I can't plant roses there because of run off from the roof. In the winter/early spring the freezing/thawing against the morning glory wall kills roses and perennial vines. Of course, the morning glory seeds wash in the garden over the fall/winter and pop up everywhere. But it is worth the bother because they are so beautiful and the hummingbirds like them. (If you want 'Star of Yelta' purple morning glory seeds that reseed and return in zone 5/6, let me know.) I must take pictures today when I get out in the garden. I'll try to get some of my trellis in progress project.

Andi: I'd love to see your trellis project. It sounds beautiful and I hope GC works out for you. I have my GC against a trellis and it does get BS something fierce, as do most of my roses, but this time of year they have all rebound and are starting to look great again. Summertime they look just awful, what with the BS and the JBs. Aaaarrrrgggghhh!