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cutting out a solitary climbing rose cane?

FireFire Posts: 19,096
in Problem solving
I planted a climbing rose in a very awkward, tight spot  by my front door when I moved in. I think I cut out too many canes too early on. After about eight years it has one solitary cane that never gets much above head height. It may have 'reverted' to thinking it's a shrub rose (?). I have tried everything to try and get other canes to sprout, but with no joy. The cane is now old and battered. I would like to cut it back to the ground, in the hopes that some new canes might sprout. 

I could pull out the plant, but it took so long to get established in this tiny, awkward spot, that I am loathe to go through that again.

What usually happens when you cut a rose flush to the ground? Is it worth the risk? If I lose it, I wouldn't be too broken hearted.
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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited January 2021
    Had that cane ever been cut back? If not what about cutting it hard back to about three (dormant) buds and giving it a dollop of FB&B ?  I think that’s what I’d try ... 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • LG_LG_ Posts: 4,360
    I would do what Dove said. Give it a chance to sprout from low down.
    'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
    - Cicero
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    No, it's never been cut back. FB&B tends to encourage foxes to go nuts, so I stay off it. I put manure every year.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Sounds to me like a duff rose so nothing to lose by cutting it back and seeing what happens but better to cut your losses and plant something more lively and interesting.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I like having a rose there, but rose-replant disease would dissuade me from putting another in the exact (and only available) same spot. It tried it in the back garden, after hoiking out and replacing the soil, but it didn't work.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    You can avoid rose re-plant problems by digging out and replacing the old soil with fresh or else digging a hole big enough to sink a decent sized cardboard box filled with fresh soil into which you plant a new rose.  By the time its roots extend beyond the box it will already be well established, especially with an annual dose or more of manure.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    As i mentioned, I tried that several times and had no joy.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited January 2021
    Think it needs a bit more of a rocket up it’s btm than ‘just’ the manure ... if you can’t use FB&B then I’d give it a couple of handfuls of Growmore and shout at it. 
    That’ll wake it up. 😖 
    Some roses are simply  ‘hungrier’ than others I find. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I've found threatening it works well. I mentioned removing a sulky rose once. Within weeks it had produced one highly scented velvety rose the size of a cabbage. We had come to an understanding.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    :D I do shout at it often and suck my teeth and roll my eyes. And I do chuck handfuls of fertilizer. The roses that do come seem pretty healthy, just there is just one short cane, and it gets on my wick, partly because I messed up the pruning early on. I'm actually quite impressed that it's alive at all. 
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