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Crawling Rosa Cornelia
msqingxiao
Posts: 482
in Plants
Hi all, I planted this rose in the middle of June into our front garden which is improved clay soil and has full sun. It's put on a lot of new growth and flowers. However, the new growth is not upright but kind of crawling on the ground... I thought this one as a shrub rose doesn't need support? Shall I prune it back? Or put up support and train it upward please? Thanks!
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Your rose is an old Hybrid Musk (very different to say, an English shrub rose) which can be grown as a large arching shrub - may need some support while it grows, such as some plant hoops to hold the canes off the ground, a ring of canes etc. Or it can be allowed a spread along railings, trained to climb up fences, arches etc. My feeling is that it may get too large and unwieldy to be contained on an obelisk, but I don’t know..
Large is the key word here, to do it justice as a freestanding shrub you would need at least 1.5m3 clear space, so I think it’s too close to your path and you will always be fighting it. It’s generally advised not to prune a HM within the first couple of years and allow it to grow into it’s natural shape, then only light pruning after that.
I am attempting to grow a hybrid musk rose as a freestanding shrub rather than a climber and early canes did exactly the same, crawling along the ground. I lifted and supported them on plant hoops, allowing them to arch over the top of those.