Trying to get climbing rose to grow up not wide

[united4ever]

Generous gardener rose planted in March. Could I prune the bit that is going off to the bottom left in the picture so it will focus it's energy on growing higher?

You could do, although it will probably focus it’s energy on growing a replacement. Or you could train the branch in a more vertical position

My generous gardener rose has been just like that - really bushy and just not growing upwards. Really annoying. Must be patient...

Roses flower better if they are trained horizontally first as this then encourages verticle shoots to appear and the roses form on these shoots.

www.classicroses.co.uk/blog/post/training-climbing-and-rambling-roses

[quote bilbodog]Roses flower better if they are trained horizontally first as this then encourages verticle shoots to appear and the roses form on these shoots.

www.classicroses.co.uk/blog/post/training-climbing-and-rambling-roses[/quote]
Rambling Roses flower on secondary shoots from the main branch. The natural habit is to go upwards towards the light. Once they’ve broken out of the vegetation into the light, the stems are not being supported any more and arch over. This triggers the rose to start putting out flowering branches. Hence the advice to train horizontally to kid the rose into thinking it’s broken through into the light.

But if you want the rose to be taller, you’d let it go upwards and then let it arch over at the desired height.