This is your forum Rose Lovers, and those who want to learn more about roses. Please feel free to post at will. Ask questions, give answers. This is our forum, not my forum. Also show us pictures of your roses that you love. Tell us why you love them. I look forward to hearing from everyone with your passionate about roses, or just curious!

Alan

Perfect timing for this forum. I planted a 'climbing' rose a few years ago. (I can't remember the name.) It became a complete monster and had the most lethal thorns I think I've ever encountered. It grabbed everyone who walked by. Anyhow, it got to the point where I couldn't tell a sucker from a cane and I chopped it to the ground a month or two ago. It's coming back - and each day getting taller. How can I tame this thing? Is it possible to keep it trimmed to shrub height and still have it bloom? I'll try to post a photo later.

Alma,

It would help to know what climber it is to answer your question. If you don't like the rose, why not just dig out out, dump it, and get a rose more to your liking. Generally if you soak the ground real well, it doesn't take much to dig the rose out by it's roots so it never comes back. Then plant a nice shrub rose there, or a hybrid tea rose. Floribunda roses tend to make nice shrub roses.

Alan

Depends on whether it's a true climber or a climbing hybrid tea or floribunda. Cl. HTs bloom on apical buds. In other words they grow on what they perceive as the top of the rose. You can 'tame' them by tying the canes out rather than up. You will still get bloom that way. It it's a climber it may only bloom on old wood so if you kept it pruned too hard - no flowers. It sounds as if yours is the climber type that will likely only bloom when it has formed sufficient foliage to support the bloom. I say remove the thing entirely and get something nice. Get a rose like Zephirine Drouhin that has no thorns and still makes lovely fragrant blooms. There are other thornless varieties. Get one!

Judy, you are on cubits! Yeah!! Judy is just as much a pro on roses as I am, and it helps to have two opinions, even when they are the same :)

Alan

Definition of Apical Bud/Terminal bud: It is the dominant bud, since it can cause all the Axillary (lateral) buds below them to remain dormant. Terminal buds have special tissue, called apical meristem, cells that can divide indefinitely and produces all the differentiated tissue, including vegetative and reproductive organs.
The terminal bud is the main area of growth in most plants. Its own growth exhibits apical dominance, inhibiting the growth of axillary buds. Around the terminal bud is a complex arrangement of nodes and internodes with maturing leaves.

Definition of Apical Bud/Terminal bud: It is the dominant bud, since it can cause all the Axillary (lateral) buds below them to remain dormant. Terminal buds have special tissue, called apical meristem, cells that can divide indefinitely and produces all the differentiated tissue, including vegetative and reproductive organs.
The terminal bud is the main area of growth in most plants. Its own growth exhibits apical dominance, inhibiting the growth of axillary buds. Around the terminal bud is a complex arrangement of nodes and internodes with maturing leaves.

Hope this helps :)

Great layout of different bud growth, Alan. You're way ahead of me in rose lore.

PS: I've been on Cubits for many months but not much has been happening until this shake-up, about which least said, soonest mended.

Yea! Alan! Glad you're here! Enjoy!

Is this a good time to dead head?? They look so sad because I wasn't able to trim them back, you know, with a baby an everything

Yes, you can dead head anytime they need dead headed. Just no heavy pruning right now. You don't want to expose bare canes to that hot sun. It's important to keep all the leaves that you can. But yes, you can remove spent blooms (dead heading ) any time.

Alan

I like roses that dead head themselves although they do leave that unattractive stem but at least you don't have to remove spent flowers. I'm all for less work. :-)

Alan, one time I had the bright idea of pruning in the summer to take advantage of the semi-dormant stage caused by the heat. It was hotter'n h...um, all get out, while I was doing it. The roses didn't seem to mind and I got a crop of long-stemmed beauties in the fall. All-in-all it wasn't worth the heat and effort as the roses would have started blooming nicely anyway. So, anyone tempted to prune in the summer, don't bother. Just keep the spent flowers off and give lots of water.

I agree Judy. That's what I do with my few roses. I talked to Summer Winds on Tatum and they advised same.

I found the climbing monster; it's this one: http://www.growquest.com/climb...

I planted this rose over a stray cat that was tragically killed in a neighbor's yard. He was an orange cat so I picked an orange rose. I don't want to dig it up; I just want to manage the thing. Whether it's the right time (and I know it's not), I keep cutting it back to shrub size. I'll see what happens. I'd love for it to bloom.