Climbing/rambling rose

[DutchOma]

I have a lovely rose in my garden which has about three metres of bare stem and beautiful flowers at the top, all of which can only be seen in my neighbour's garden. Now, I love my neighbour dearly, but would like the roses in my garden. Do I prune it?
If so, what is the best time?

DutchOma - our landlord's gardner prunes ours in October/November. He prunes them down to about 30 cm from ground level but those are standard garden roses.

He feeds them with bone meal and a pile of manure in about December.

I am not sure, but if you prune your climbing rose now now in the growing season you may weaken the plant as it will lose all its leaves and then have to put all its energy into growing new growth which will have to be pruned again in Autumn.

Others may have a different view but my mother only ever pruned her climbing roses in in late Autumn as well - never summer.

Pruning depends a bit on whether it is a climbing or rambling rose.
Climbers tend to flower all through the summer and have fairly slim stems, ramblers flower once in May/June and have much tougher stems and grown much larger usually.
Can you describe your rose in more detail?

I have chopped away at our mystery climber/rambler whenever it's reached the top of the shed, including early summer, and it seems to respond to this harsh treatment with abundant flowers. When it's actually got flowers I leave it because they are pretty (even if only the neighbours see them).
Also I might be storing up trouble because we've only been here a couple of years.
So if you get learned advice, take it, but if not, being hack-happy has worked for me.

some useful info here
www.greenfingers.com/articledisplay.asp?id=392

you can tell the difference between rambler/climber by which way the thorns face. cant remember whether it is up or down. i find that either rip your skin off and if it isn't flowering in your garden then it never will.

KILL IT.

I had an ice berg which was about ten years old, and rather straggly and diseased. so I bought a new one and chopped the old down. But I could not get the root out, but lo and behold it is now lush and about 2 feet tall covered in buds! I think I cut that down to nothing last end of the summer.

Its good not to prune climbers too harshly though or they can revert to shrubs!
Presume that isn't what you wanted DutchOma?

Thanks for all your replies.

I've taken a few pictures of the rose, not very successfully I feel. Had a hard time transferring them. Hopefully you get the idea.
From what you have said, it sounds like a climber more than a rambler.
I wanted to post now, because by the time proper pruning time comes I'll have forgotten about it.

I only chopped mine to get rid! I usually prune delicately!

Bump

Roses ( I think both rambles and climbers) will usually flower on vertical stems. So what you need to do is eith bend your exisitng rose stems down so that it/they go along your wall, tying them in to vine ties if necessary. If you need to (for example if the stems are now too woody to bend), you may need to chop it down to a level where new shoots could be trained horzontally at a level yuo would like to see flower buds. Check when you are pruning it for potential buds/growth points where you would like to see new stems. Ties in the new grwoth (or old stems) horiszontally and next year (this year if you are lucky) you will get lots of new shoots off the horizontal growth that will flower just where you want it to!

That makes sense, thanks Prettybird.

Just to warn you: you may lose this year's blooms (I tihnk that depends on whether it is a rambler or a climber)

What have you got to lose - if you prune it hard and it dies, you won't have any less flowers than you do at the moment!