Growing Climbing Roses

Welcome to the section on growing climbing roses. 

The first thing we should clarify for those wanting to learn about rose growing is that this kind of rose does not behave like a climbing vine. A vine scrambles up and holds itself in place. 

With roses, it is necessary to not only build trellis supports, but also to physically restrain the rose against those supports. Some roses with long arching canes will grow up into supports but for the most part, you’ll have to tie your climbing roses to the support you provide. 

Let me suggest you use a thick or wide supporting tie as thin string will tend to cut into the bark creating other problems. Thick twine or plastic holding clips work adequately and do not damage bark or growing shoots. 

Rules for Growing climbing Roses

The rules for growing climbing roses are pretty much the same as for any other kind of rose. 

You want to ensure they do not suffer from water stress as the first symptom of water stress is a reduction in the number and quality of blooms produced. 

You do want to use significant amounts of compost in the spring to both feed your rose and establish the microorganisms that will both protect and feed the rose throughout the summer. Generally, I throw three to four shovels of compost around the base of each climbing rose; I do not work it in but allow the earthworms to do accomplish this little garden chore for me. A task they willingly perform and enrich the garden soil even further in the process. 

You do want to use compost tea on a regular basis throughout the summer to both feed roses and possibly provide an extra measure of disease protection. 

Deadheading

Deadheading your climbing roses is also a useful exercise although with tall climbers this gardening practice is more practiced in the theoretical than in the practical sense. In other words, with a big climber – don’t worry about it unless you have little else to worry about. 

Other comments and tips on growing climbing roses would include: 

A primer on how to prune climbing roses The illustrations are mine (I'm a gardener and not an artist but you'll get the picture) and they are simplified for ease of understanding. 

Growing Roses Organically

Growing roses organically is not so very difficult if you follow a few of the simple rules below : 

Compost

Get used to using compost as it is the key to great roses. Compost tea is the ideal solution to a wide variety of rose feeding problems and once you get the hang of making it, this is the way to go with organic culture. Compost and compost tea encourage the proliferation of beneficial microorganisms that will combat most rose problems. 

Container Grown and organic roses are no more difficult. I use a weekly dose of fish emulsion to feed the rose and every two week application of compost tea in an attempt (likely futile) to keep the microorganisms alive in my containers. I note that chlorinated city water kills off all beneficial bacteria and fungi in container grown plants. 

Compost Tea

I do water my rose leaves with compost tea to try to keep the beneficial bacterial and fungal populations high on the leaves. The hope here is that I’ll manage to have enough good guys to fight off most of the bad guys. 

Plant Choice Importance

Plant choice is important. Given the choice of a rose that is susceptible to fungal infections such as blackspot or one that resists this disease, then the choice is obvious. Go with disease-resistant roses. 

Avoid Chemicals

Avoid chemicals at all costs. A single dose of fungicide will wipe out all microorganisms on leaf surfaces. This means that the fast-reproducing bad guys will appear again before the slower-reproducing beneficials. By wiping out everybody, you’re guaranteeing the bad guys will reappear first and the leaves will be without protection. Use the fungicides recommended in articles on blackspot and mildews for growing roses organically. 

Drips from the leaf surfaces that hit the soil will also kill off bacteria and fungi in the soil. These are the ones that are fighting disease off in the soil and helping to feed the plant. Fungicides are a quick way to set your plant on a slippery downhill slope. 

Chemical Fertilizers

Avoid chemical fertilizers. The reliance on artificial sources of nitrogen is like feeding sugar candy as a main course. There’s a lot of activity afterwards but it really isn’t nutrition. Numerous studies have shown that plants fed artificial nitrogen have leaves that contain more sugars in them than organically fed plants. 

This extra sugar attracts more pests (pests prefer sweet leaves to normal leaves). So growing roses organically means relying on compost and organic fertilizers to feed the soil first and let the soil organisms feed the roses. 

Organic Insect Control & Growing Roses Organically

Use organic methods of insect control. There is a growing library of articles up on the sites that deal with a wide variety of pests using organic methods. From strong water jets for knocking aphids off bushes (when they hit the ground they become food for beetles). To soap to kill off others. To rotenone and diatomaceous earth for other pests along with iron phosphate controls for slugs, there are no rose pests that resist organic controls (you just have to figure out what the pest is and which control to use). 

All of the articles on this site and my other sites are environmentally based and doing a search will find you a ton of information you can use for growing roses organically.