Training a climbing rose round a pillar, are you supposed to do it in one direction and is anybody else’s a sea of stretchy twine?

[BananaSpl1t]

Dh started doing mine round a pillar up a pergola, then got bored. He seems to have trained it in 2 directions. Does it matter. I tried sorting it out today and it’s a rat’s nest of twine.😬

No you need to go both directions. There is a fab YouTube by Ashdown roses called how to pillar a rose. You need to do it properly in winter, rather than now. Probably best to tuck in now and sort properly after they have flowered - unless you are not in the UK?

There are various methods of climbing

1. using prickles, rough stems or blind faith to scramble over other plants, eg roses, goosegrass (cleavers)
2. tendrils or leaf stems wrapping round twigs eg sweet peas
3. sticky pads or small roots to stick to surface, eg ivy, Virginia creeper
4. wrapping stems around other plants, eg runner bean, honeysuckle

It’s only the last group where you need to worry. If you wrap a runner bean the wrong way, it’ll unwind itself and do it again properly!

Have a look at the work of Niff Barnes - I discovered her over the winter and (badly) applied her ideas to a few of my ramblers and climbers- they are looking much better thanks to it (plus they looked more fun over the winter too)

Niff Barnes - that has blown my mind.

Mainly because we are told so often that you must prune away any crossing rose stems. Yet all of hers are crossing, at multiple points.

I actually find that very insipring and may look to do something similar with a rose I am training up a fence and onto a wall.

Agree I've found it fascinating! I did a very poor job but the flowers this year have been incredible - plus the whole plants have been so lush and beautiful. I'm really happy I had a go!

This is great - I have a rose that I didn’t realise was a climber and which is going beserk. I shall be trying the NiffBarnes circle approach.

That is such a lovely idea. I am going to do that with the one outside my kitchen window this year. It is currently very boring in winter.

I think the cutting out crossing branches applies to bush roses rather than climbers

That's similar to Sissinghurst - they're quite strict on bending their roses and it really works.

That’s interesting but it’s not round a pillar. There doesn’t seem to be any advice anywhere re how to do it. Even DA site is a bit sparse

I had four huge climbers on my old cottage; I pruned out the older gnarlier stems in spring and tied in the the new; I find that the stems have a direction they want to twist, easy to feel by moving the stem gently, and tied them in thus.

I also deadheaded vigorously and around August when the flowering had faded somewhat, pruned back by about 6"/15cms (or to new growth) to get a late flush of blooms.

Crossing branches tend to rub together in windy weather and cause scars and possible infection as well as weakening the plant so keep the strongest shoot with most growth and get rid of the one crossing it.

Happy Gardening!

Not sure what the official answer is, but currently training roses up a pergola, and looking good so far…

I selected 2 stems from the rose and wound them in opposite directions around the pillar. This must be at an angle of 45 degrees or less if you want flowers on the pillars and not just on top. This has taken a couple of years so far for us - I think this year we will start to cover the top of the pergola.

Prune out all other strong long stems - just keep the 2 long ones.

Also, plants (mostly) grow upwards. So I temporarily encourage the stems to grow upwards, and tie onto the pergola so it’s going up. When I have enough length (1-2m?) I untie, wrap it around the pergola, and then re-tie and repeat. It won’t grow very well at 45 degrees, but will happily upwards.

patience seems to be the key - think years not months!

The risk as I understand it is no flowers on the pillars, just on top of the pergola where you can’t see them. My pillars are covered in flowers at the moment, and seems to be worth the wait!

but I’m no expert - so good luck!,

This is my rambling rose, which has just flowered for the first time and I'm so happy!

It has taken 2 years for it to get to this length, it's in a planter which runs down the side of the pergola.

We wrapped it around the wood as it grew and secures with string, which can come off once it intertwines.