Rose Arbor

Rose Arbor
how do I care for my roses?

Bought my house about 1 month ago and it has 5 Rose Bushes, 3 are big and grow pretty tiny roses, 1 is small and only has 1 or 2 huge white roses and one it more like a vine growing on an arbor (more like over the arbor and into the sky! The thing is over 10 ft tall). Looking at them it doesn’t look like the previous owner kept them maintained (not neat, but spread out. But it looks very pretty still). In very simple and easy to understand terms, what do I need to do now in prep for winter? Do I wind the tall one around the arbor? I live in east TN and it is just starting to get cold out. Looks like most of the roses are starting to drop off except for the tall one that just bloomed last week.

You don’t need to do anything for winter. You can prune them now to make them look prettier next year. In other words you made it sound like they were over grown and in need of pruning. Roses can be pruned almost down to the ground and next year you will see just how fast they rejuvenate. I would not prune the climbing rose on the arbor too much because it may be better to let it be. Just minor pruning for it and yes tie up parts of it ti the arbor.

Rose Arbor

Training Climber Roses

When landscaping with climber roses, be sure to include climber roses on arbors, fences, trellis or columns to give your property a charming and inviting appeal that can enchant your visitors. When formulating your landscape design, the utilization of climber roses and vertical structures can add a whole new dimension to the overall plan.

Training Climber Roses

How you can effectively train climber roses is truly a lot more important than pruning climber roses. There are many different methods to training climber roses.  The canes could be trained in various ways, fanned out horizontally or wrapped about a column, or woven on a trellis.  By far the most important factor when training climber roses is to not train them straight up.  If this is done the flowering will only occur on the top of the canes. Training them horizontally or weaving them will create an abundance of flowers throughout the arrangement.

In some instances, the climber rose canes need to be attached to the trellis or arbor to train them to climb.  In this case the canes can be tied to the slats of the arbor or trellis.  When tying them,  the gardener should use a stretchy material such as cloth or other flexible tie.  The canes should not be tied too tightly as this could cause growth problems.  Also, when preparing the canes to be tied to the structure try to evenly space them so that the final product will be very appealing when in blossom.

The canes growing on the top of arbors often shoot up in the air rather than draping down.  A little trick that has been used by many gardeners, is to clip a spring loaded clothespin to the end of the cane for a short period, thereby weighting down the cane so that it droops.

Arbors and Other Structures

Almost everyone can visualize the traditional white, wooden arbor gracing the entrance through a white picket fence.  Combine red climber roses with this arbor and you have a true thing of beauty.  The landscape architect or home gardener must look at their property and the overall plan and select the structures they use to blend in with the overall design.  There is a massive array of arbor and trellis styles available in the marketplace to satisfy almost any landscape design.  Selection will ultimately come down to personal taste and in some instance cost.

There are a number of considerations that should be made when designing for climber roses.  For example, have you thought about creating an outside room surrounded by a pergola covered with climber roses. What about that patio railing draped with climber roses.  The true beauty of climber roses necessitates them being brought out of the corner of the garden to become a true element of the garden, and actually a focal point of the garden.

Be sure to include climber roses in your garden plan and you won’t be disappointed.

About the Author

Charles Thomas is an avid rose gardener and has written extensively about the subject.  To learn more about climber roses subscribe to the FREE email Mini-Course at:The Rose Gardening Center

A wandering Poem, could you read it and tell me how it affects you?

The rose in bloom her scent provocative
Provocative to those who walking by
Walking by the arbor her scent will give
Give them pause to dally; a kiss may try

And so go the struggles of a relationship… Although I can see other meanings in this. Do you mind if I have a try? Go ahead and laugh, if you must, but how will I ever learn?

Protest we may into the darkness
the darkness contains pockets of light
light our road with wisdom and knowledge
knowledge and strength to do what is right

Treated Pine Rose Arbor Pergola from CedarStore.com