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Better rose or whatever for our rose arch???
Mike160304
Posts: 69
in Plants
Our rose arch (see photo) is 7 feet high and 3' 6" wide. The rose on it is much too heavy and "woody", with thick trunks and branches, and it is pulling the arch apart. It is also a pain to prune.
We want to uproot it and replace it with a more delicate-looking, thin-stemmed climbing plant, maybe a rose, maybe not, which will either climb round the arch on its own, or will be light, flexible and easy to train round the arch.
- Flowers preferably yellow, orange or mauve, not red.
- Long flowering season.
- Thornless if possible.
Can anyone suggest something, please?
0
Posts
Looks to me like you've planted a strong, stiff climber when a more pliable rambler would have been better.
Climbers are best planted against walls or fences or trellis panels where they can be more easily trained and pruned. Ramblers are more pliable but nearly all only flower once and then produce hips later on. However, Malvern Hills might suit your purpose. It's a repeat flrowering yellow rambler from David Austin.
However, roses take so much out of the soil that if you just replace one in teh same place as an old one it will struggle for nutrients and get rose sickness. A way round this is to dig a large hole at least 60cls (2') wide and deep and put fresh soil from another part of the garden where roses haven't been grown. Mix it up with plenty of well rotted manure or garden compost and sprinle mycrorhizal fungi powder directly on the roots of your new rose when you plant it.
If taht's all too much, then plant a clematis which will also need a lot of soil improvement as they are as hungry as roses or else a honeysuckle. There are several with creamy flowers that age to yellow and are scented.
This video should help
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkyqAJKEA8w&list=PL9369132089F580E0
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Obelixx, thanks. We obviously need to work on this.
Mike
Mike Allen, thanks. I'll show this to my wife who is nominally in charge of roses.
Mike
Dovefromabove - thanks, interesting video.
Mike
Try rosa Perennial Blue.