There’s a special secret to pruning climbing roses.  But I have found that not many home gardeners take advantage of it.

The first thing to do is to take a good look at your climber first. From a distance.

You’ll probably notice how most of the roses are gathered at the top of the climber while the rest  of the bush consists of canes and leaves with very few flowers.

Now the idea is to get the climber to produce roses all along the canes rather than only at the top of the bush. You don’t want your climber to be bare all along the base.

So here’s the secret of pruning your climbing roses.

A climber must never be heavily pruned.  You need all those supple canes to be as long as possible.

You will only need to clear out the dead branches and weak side shoots and branches that cross over in an unsightly way.  Sometimes these cross-over branches interfere with the canes that you want to encourage – so these can safely be removed.

After cleaning up your climbing rose in this way bend each long cane right down to form an arch.  Then tie it down with raffia or a piece of old stocking.  These will be gentle on the canes.

Soon little side shoots will start developing all along the arched canes to eventually provide you with hundreds and hundreds of lovely roses. You will have arch upon arch thickly garlanded with your favourite roses.

For tons of info about your roses check out:

How to Plant and Care for your Rose Garden