ZuZu - I received my weekly email update. The minute I saw the article about climbing roses, I had to check out your article. Training roses seems like an art form to me.
I have two arbors which I have climbing roses growing on. I have several issues currently. First let me tell you that I have the roses growing in small containers. (10-15 gallon plastic containers.) I do that for 2 reasons: 1) Because of a root knot nematode situation in my ground soil. 2) To try to keep these climbers in bounds.
My first climber is on a wooden arbor. The name of the those 2 climbers is "Climbing Cramoisi Superieur". I have one on each side in 10 gallon containers. I believe it is an Asian rose cultivar. I have Rosemoor Clematis also growing in the container and it grows and blooms every year as it climbs up the rose stalks. I do realize I have too much growing in a very confined container. But so far they have survived for several years. I imagine this rose cultivar would be huge if not in the containers. The main problem I have with this climber is that often the blooms don't fully open in summer. They bloom beautifully during the cooler months including Winter. I suspect it is the heat of summer and the container soil not able to stay moist enough which causes the blooms to wilt before they ever open. Any suggestions? Should I put something in front of each container to shade it? I also like the idea of training some branches horizontal. I have the white picket fence that I could do that on for this cultivar. I only have lower horizontal branches on one plant. How do I encourage branches to sprout on the main stems of the other rose climber?
Climbing Cramoisi Superieur (which I have to prune several times a year at the top):
Lower horizontal branches on the south climber. The green leaves you see at the bottom are clematis leaves.:
No lower branches on the north climber. Green leaves at the bottom of this plant are also clematis leaves.:
The other arbor is a cattle panel arbor that I have 2 "Old Blush" Climbing roses growing up. They are each in 15 gallon containers. They also do better during the cooler months, including winter! This one seems to have topped off before actually meeting at the top. I don't know if I need to prune it at the top to encourage more growth or what. I use cut up nylon stockings to tie the branches to the arbors.
Climbing Old Blush:
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
