Pruning Climbing Roses

Rosa ‘American Pillar’

When pruning climbing roses, I find it easiest to group them into two main categories: Modern Climbers and Ramblers.

Modern Climbers like ‘New Dawn’ are large roses that can easily grow to two stories tall or more. They bloom in June on old wood and some varieties will bloom again, later in the season on both new and old wood. These roses don’t tend to put up more than a few new basal canes each year, so a permanent framework of older canes is left in place to cover the trellis.

Rambling roses like the large ‘American Pillar’ and smaller ‘Excelsa’ types tend to send up numerous, vigorous shoots from the base of the plant each year. The larger of this group can easily spread up a tree or along a split-rail fence, and the smaller varieties can be used as ground covers or to adorn shorter sections of fencing. Some of this group bloom only in Early summer and others are touted to be “ever-blooming,” but they are all pruned in a similar fashion, no matter their size or bloom period. These roses are best grown on long fences, or pillars, and the oldest canes are completely removed annually.

Keep in mind the following objectives when pruning any climbing rose:

  • To remove weak, broken, diseased, old and unproductive wood
  • To encourage new, vigorous replacement growth
  • To maximize healthy wood that will flower in the upcoming season
  • To tie in strong canes to cover empty areas of the trellis or support

Follow these steps to prune Modern Climbing Roses:
(‘New Dawn’, ‘Blaze’, ‘White Dawn’, ‘Iceberg’, ‘Zepherine Drouhin’, ‘Eden’, ‘Golden Showers’ ‘Aloha’ etc.)

  1. Take a good look at the trellis. Consider using strong growth that is less than two years old to replace older, weak or diseased wood. Pull these canes aside until pruning is complete so that they can be tied in, to cover empty areas.
  2. Remove any dead branches to healthy wood. Healthy wood will be relatively soft with a green ring just under the thin outer bark. The center of the cane will be white, not brown or hollow. When removing any long growth, cut it into several short sections to avoid damaging neighboring canes as you pull it away from the trellis
  3. Remove some of the spindly growth, smaller in diameter than a pencil.
  4. Cut back any long canes that extend beyond the trellis, if they cannot be used to fill a space on the support
  5. Tip back all long laterals that sprout from main canes to cigarette length (three to four buds), encouraging production of flowering shoots. Make all cuts just above a bud that will grow in a beneficial direction.
  6. Consider removing a few of the most complicated branches that have been formed over the years with annual pruning. These areas are often at the top and sides of the trellis.
  7. Once the bulk of the pruning is done, assess structural concerns: Look at the entire rose and how it covers the trellis; the goal is to have the best possible coverage of the trellis, with no canes growing behind the trellis and with main canes in a horizontal position, parallel to each other. No rose will be perfect, but move and tie any easily-repositioned canes into the best position.
  8. Tie in any strong replacement growth, that was kept aside when pruning begun.
  9. Replace any twine that is disintegrated, being sure all canes are well-secured to the trellis.

Follow these steps to prune Rambling Roses:
(‘American Pillar’, Rosa wichuriana,’William Baffin’, ‘Super Excelsa’, ‘Super Dorothy’ ‘Himalayan Musk’, etc)

  1. Remove any dead branches to healthy wood. Healthy wood will be relatively soft with a green ring just under the thin outer bark. The center of the cane will be white, not brown or hollow. When removing any long growth, cut it into several short sections to avoid damaging neighboring canes as you pull it away from the trellis
  2. Remove a third of the flowered canes from previous seasons. Cut these canes right down to ground level to encourage new strong growth in the upcoming season. Be certain to preserve healthy young canes less than three years old.
  3. Remove some of the spindly growth, smaller than a pencil in diameter.
  4. Cut back any overly long canes that cannot be tied into the trellis
  5. Tip back all long laterals that sprout from main canes to cigarette length (three to four buds max), encouraging production of flowering shoots. Make all cuts just above a bud that will grow in a beneficial direction.
  6. Once the bulk of the pruning is done, assess structural concerns: Look at the entire rose and how it covers the support; the goal is to have the best possible coverage of the support, with no canes growing behind the trellis and with main canes in a horizontal position, parallel to each other. No rose will be perfect, but move and tie any easily moved canes into the best position.