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Roses too high above fence
snowathlete
Posts: 138
I've got a lovely rose, pictured, but the problem is that it gets too tall and flowers above the fence. It's hard to see the beautiful roses in the photo because of the contrast, but trust me they are there. How do I solve this problem in the future to encourage the rose to produce flowers lower down instead?
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It looks pretty leggy; I would cut it back hard to about knee height this Autumn. Does it get any sun on this side of the fence, or is it stretching up to get sun from the other side? Also I would suggest feeding it with some granular rose feed, according to instructions on the packet.
Thanks Artjak, I'll try that.
It's a north facing back garden, but its right at the back where it gets plenty of sun, but of course, those roses that bud above the fence prefer to face my neighbours, rather than me!
That looks like a climbing rose, so with due respect to Artjak, I wouldn't reduce the height in that manner as you'll lose the blooms - those long canes need training horizontally - that will stimulate the growth of sideshoots which are the ones that produce the blooms.
This video will make it all look simple http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf7F5qhChFM
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I agree with Dovefromabove.I had a similar experience with a climbing rose and when I secured the stems horizontally I had a lot lusher looking foliage and great flo
wers.
Thanks Dovefromabove, and sweetpeacheese,
That video was really helpful.
I've managed to get one cane moving more horizontal to the left. The small one with the two flowers you can see I will train that way too, lower down, once those flowers have finished.
I think the main cane on the right needs cutting right back and then a younger shoot will need training to the right but as this cane is flowering at the moment above the fence, I guess it would be better to do this in the autumn?
I have another rose which is a climber on another fence and I've made a start with that too, but I'm not really sure what else I need to do with it. Here's a photo:
I wonder what I should do with the main cane, the red one. Seems a bit of a mess currently. The Yellow one is young and I could make it go left - I wonder if I should do that, or whether that would be a bad move?
Any advice greatfully recieved.
'Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish between a climbing rose and a rambling rose. The easiest way to tell the difference is to take note of the flowering time. A climbing rose will repeat-flower almost all summer, while a rambling rose will flower only once, usually in June.' RHS website.
Both roses look very leggy with no foliage lower down. I would prune both of them hard in the autumn in a bid to encourage new shoots lower down that can then be tied in horizontally in the spring.
Thanks, I'll do that at least with the main canes. Hopefully if it's trained from the beginning it'll end up looking good.
Dove, I suggested a hard prune so that snowa can start again, training it from lower down, but if the branches are maliable enough to train horizontally now, then go for it
I found the original tags from them, the rose pictured in my opening post is Graham Thomas, a medium shrub apparently. The second one pictured is a climber, Lady Hillingdon. Both are repeat flowerers.
With this new snipet of information, should I do something different with Graham Thomas?
I grew Graham Thomas up the wall of my single storey studio in a previous garden - it works really well as a short climber and indeed David Austin recommend it for that purpose https://www.davidaustinroses.com/english/Showrose.asp?Showr=426
I think the previous info stands
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.