Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Growing Rosa 'Chinensis mutabilis' as a climber

kc.sdickc.sdic Posts: 91
in Plants
I have another thread at the mo about poor soil and Clematis that are simply not growing. 
This has led me to think about other possibilities in that border and I stumbled on Rosa 'Chinensis mutabilis' which is said to have good disease resistance, doesn't mind drought and OMG what an amazing rose. Now whilst I haven't got room for it as a shrub it does say on some websites that this can be trained as a climber. Has anyone grown this as a climber? And how would I do this? I haven't got a lot of width in that border  but could I keep this rose tied in so that it behaves? It would have room to spread about 6 foot each way and 6 foot up. I just wonder if a rose may fair better with the poor /heavy clay and incredibly stony soil. Thanks 

Posts

  • MarlorenaMarlorena Posts: 8,705
    ...yes it is an amazing rose and I've grown it successfully in such soil conditions as yours, with full blazing sun, but not as a climber.. I have seen it grown against a wall trained on wires, must be 15 foot high I should think.. but it's not something I would want to do personally, with this rose... as a shrub it can be kept to about 6 x 5 foot after a few years... it's capable of 8 foot tall by 10 foot wide if lightly pruned by year 5 or 6..... but as I say it can be kept smaller...
    ...it starts to bloom early May through to November... non stop, and is an exceptional single flowered rose..
    ...if you live in the far north, northern hills etc... your experience may be different... and the rose may not grow as big.... 
    East Anglia, England
  • kc.sdickc.sdic Posts: 91
    Marlorena said:
    ...yes it is an amazing rose and I've grown it successfully in such soil conditions as yours, with full blazing sun, but not as a climber.. I have seen it grown against a wall trained on wires, must be 15 foot high I should think.. but it's not something I would want to do personally, with this rose... as a shrub it can be kept to about 6 x 5 foot after a few years... it's capable of 8 foot tall by 10 foot wide if lightly pruned by year 5 or 6..... but as I say it can be kept smaller...
    ...it starts to bloom early May through to November... non stop, and is an exceptional single flowered rose..
    ...if you live in the far north, northern hills etc... your experience may be different... and the rose may not grow as big.... 
    Hi Marlorena - it was you responding in another thread about poor soil and roses that made me think I might stand more of a chance with roses in my soil. So if I wanted to train it as climber, presumably I could keep it lower than 15 foot could I? I don't think I can fit a 5 foot wide shrub in my border.I really LOVE this rose and would like to try it if I possibly can

  • MarlorenaMarlorena Posts: 8,705
    @kc.sdic  .. what kind of support structure do you have in mind for this rose?  I would struggle to train it..but yes you could keep it much shorter.. .it wants to grow as an upright shrub...  you could keep it in your allotted space with judicial winter pruning and summer shearing - just shear off the top and sides... ... I kept one about 6 foot tall by 5 foot wide on the south coast on heavy clay, hot and dry in summer..  here in East Anglia I just let it grow too big and wide after 6 or 7 years on richer soil...

    I might get it back again, I miss it so much...
    East Anglia, England
Sign In or Register to comment.