I uploaded a video to the channel showing how I trained my climbing rose into a fan
shape using just some twine. Despite the poor production quality, it is by far my most watched
video on the channel.
It’s a year later, and the rose is doing well, but it needs a little tidying.
I’ve done nothing to the rose for a year apart from deadheading off the fading blooms.
We’re well into summer here in the UK so it would be a bad time to do any pruning.
Cutting the plant while it’s in full grow mode would cause lots of the sap, which moves
energy around the plant, to be lost. This could really set the plant back. Best wait
until the autumn.
The crops in front of the rose have been harvested and, with them gone, we can see where the
rose tried to grow taller to compete for the sunlight. For some reason, it’s grown heavily
on one side and not the other. I can’t really explain this, other than hoping it’s trying
to get as close to us as possible.
We can safely cut away any of the dead branches. Try to crop them as close to the plant as
possible, to keep it neat and for the best air circulation.
Because so little has happened on this side, there’s not much to do. I’ll just tighten
the current supports as they have loosened a little over time. This will stop the branches
moving so much in the wind and will give me a strong line to tie the branches onto, as
they grow.
There’s much more happening over on the left hand side but it looks very messy. The
branches have come away from their supports and are being shaken about by the wind. You
can see, when separated, we have two strong branches with lots of growing potential on
top.
These branches are heavy and so I don’t think the twine from top to bottom is going
to be enough support. Instead I'll loop through the fence, halfway up, to hold the branch
against the fence.
I loop the twine over a straight twig or stick and poke it through the gap in the fence,
rather than trying to thread the twine through on it’s own. I’ve cut out the first 20
attempts of me trying to do this for you.
I’ll then do the same for the second branch on the left side. Try not to tie on the twine
directly beneath a thorn, as a little movement from the plant may cause it to be cut through.
Now it’s a case of spreading and tying in the smaller branches towards the top of the
plant.
I start from the inside and working out, tying in the vertical branches and then spreading
the side branches to make an attractive shape. If you don’t have a trellis, attach hoops
onto the wall or fence which you can tie onto instead.
That’s much neater. Once we get to autumn, i’ll be prune off the top branches, above
the trellis to let the sun in and to encourage horizontal growth.
I hope you enjoyed this little update.
Thank you to my patrons for making these videos possible and if you want to get involved,
more information is down in the description.
And here are some other videos that you may enjoy. Thank you so much for your time, and
happy growing.