Pruning climbing rose?

[Stan79]

Evening all,

We have a lovely climbing rose on the back of the house which was here when we move in 7 years ago.

We have given it a prune every now and then to keep it tidy but it has always been very leggy with 3 main stems from the base, extending up about 7 feet / 2 metres until any side branches sprout out which are then trained across above the windows.

Is it too late to give it a serious prune?
How do I get it to fill out more from the base and form side shoots lower down?

Many thanks all,

Stan

[nickdub]

If you want to experiment then perhaps chopping through one of the 3 main stems 2' off the ground would be the simplest thing to try - if it works and you get new shoots from that then it would be best to bend them over to train more horizontally - apical dominance ensures that new growth occurs at the top mainly, so the only solution for flowers lower down is to move the top nearer to the ground.

If successful you could do the second main stem next year and the third the year after.

[Scarlet]

Climbers need to be trained horizontally across wires, this encourage side shooting.

If you are able to bend your stems down and tie in now you may find they start sprouting.March is a good time to prune roses. I've just done mine.
If they are a bit too thick. Prune out one completely to encourage new growth. Tie in as soon as you can.

https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/a...limbing-roses/

This says chop older stems out but I think I would do it over a couple of years?

[Stan79]

Thanks both. Two of the main stems are quite old and produce lots of lovely flowers over the two rear windows flowering in summer and autumn.

The third stem is a new shoot from last season. I think I might chop that down towards the base and try and fill in the area between the windows with new growth off that one if it works!

Thank again for your suggestions.

[nickdub]

As you have one newish shoot you might want to try bending it first before you prune it back - if you can bend it through about 90 degrees then it would be a quicker option, and if it does break you can prune it anyway.

I do have to add that as you want to keep a some the higher up flowering branches its likely that the bottom part of the rose is going to stay fairly bare whatever you do, as most of the new growth will go to the top.

Another option would be to grow a plant in front of the bottom part, like a shrub or a clematis say.

[Stan79]

An update to this thread - we have taken some cuttings from the rose in an attempt to grow a separate plant in front of the existing one which we will keep pruned to fill in the gaps on the wall lower down and use the established plant to train across the tops of the ground floor windows in an attempt to have flowers high and low whilst hopefully looking like they’re all from one plant!

Fingers crossed that the cuttings take!