I look forward to the pictures of red climbers. I only have a, new this year, Rambling Rosie to offer but in its favour it has non stop flowering, no fading and no disease.
When it comes to wooden trellis and boardwalk though I have 37 years experience. We use these.
The uprights last decades kept up out of the ground. I have always called them Met posts and searching that term works for a variety of types.
@edhelka, it's odd, both the posts on each side are concreted in but only the left one wobbles, the right is still quite firm. It's probably because my ZD rose is planted on the left and perhaps the constant summer watering has rotted it more - who knows. @Tack I did wonder about the Metposts and have used them before in previous gardens but I do dislike the look of them.
@Fire Thanks belatedly for those shrub rose recommendations. I may well go with Etoile as conviction first choices are often best. I do know the neighbours as it happens, I sorted their garden for them during Covid as a favour and if the rose reaches them, all well and good. I’ll update with anything worthwhile on climbers; here’s hoping you resolve your conundrum arches. Paint isn’t a bad idea.
I forgot an important consideration/question, prompted by @Fire’s thought about Etoile de Hollande growing past the 2.5m height wall it’s intended for, if anyone still stumbles across this thread. Will I be self-inflicting an overly prominent bloom-free ‘bald patch’ in the middle with a big climber like this, quoted at 3.6m tall, compared to choosing one that’s, say, 2.5m tall? Or to put it another way, do the blooms start further up/along the canes the bigger the climber? Or do they all start at about the height, give or take?
If you train the canes as horizontally as possible then you’ll get lots of lateral growths along each cane which hold the flowers. Cut these laterals back to a few buds at pruning time and you’ll then get more growth and flowers from these the next year.
After a certain amount of time as the canes age they’ll gradually become less productive so you’ll want to choose one or two to cut out and replace with new canes from the base. Obviously do this over a few years so you’re not cutting them all out at once and having a bare wall with no flowers!
So if you’re careful with training you can avoid bald patches, although you might still find you have a bit of a bare centre just due to the fact that the canes will naturally be more vertical in the centre of the plant before they stretch out along the wall - like a fountain.
Follow Mr. Vine Eye’s training and pruning advice, combined with generous, deep watering and feeding and you will have a nicely trained and productive climbing rose in a few years. Some are quicker than others, but it generally takes time for roses to establish a good framework and perform at their best, so patience is required!
As to the bare bit in the centre, even shrub roses can have ‘bare legs’ which is why roses are often underplanted with perennials so you have more colour and interest lower down, something to consider later.
Another trick is if you have some ‘spare’ canes at the front, you can prune these short to help fill in the gap. Here is a new short climber in training against a fence, if you peer closely you can see two lower, unchained canes at the front. I will prune these, along with the two light green laterals sticking out behind the fence, much shorter in spring. Excuse the lurid ties, must find some less obvious ones!
Love that contemporary arch, btw!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Posts
I did wonder about the Metposts and have used them before in previous gardens but I do dislike the look of them.
@Nollie, are you out there?! Anyone?
This may be a daft question , but I do like to cross my ’i’s and dot my hybrid ’t’s
If you train the canes as horizontally as possible then you’ll get lots of lateral growths along each cane which hold the flowers. Cut these laterals back to a few buds at pruning time and you’ll then get more growth and flowers from these the next year.
After a certain amount of time as the canes age they’ll gradually become less productive so you’ll want to choose one or two to cut out and replace with new canes from the base. Obviously do this over a few years so you’re not cutting them all out at once and having a bare wall with no flowers!
As to the bare bit in the centre, even shrub roses can have ‘bare legs’ which is why roses are often underplanted with perennials so you have more colour and interest lower down, something to consider later.
Another trick is if you have some ‘spare’ canes at the front, you can prune these short to help fill in the gap. Here is a new short climber in training against a fence, if you peer closely you can see two lower, unchained canes at the front. I will prune these, along with the two light green laterals sticking out behind the fence, much shorter in spring. Excuse the lurid ties, must find some less obvious ones!
Love that contemporary arch, btw!
@Fire I love the look of your arch, which width is that one? It looks like just the thing I've been after.