I have a list of plants that I have in the indoor and outdoor spaces of my cozy cottage, and climbing roses are at the top. We collect them and place them all over the farm, including the kitchen garden here around the greenhouse. We’ve been training them with our DIY system of making our own, and we haven’t added any new growths this year yet, but messy growths are such a cozy cottage garden, right? But it would be nice to be able to use the door, right?
How it all started:
This was taken in 2021 when we painted the greenhouse floor.
How it’s happening:
It’s clear that the new growth still needs to be trained this year, but I wanted to shoot it in its natural gorgeous state before pruning and tightening.
Purpose of climbing roses:
we planted these Bare-root climbing rose [HERE] About three years ago I planted roses in the four corners of this cute little greenhouse right off my kitchen garden. The goal is to walk through an archway of roses when you enter the greenhouse. We have planted, pruned and trained these climbing roses and hope to one day completely cover this greenhouse and prune the window and door openings. People often ask me what I do to grow roses, we have taken a few different approaches, one of which has been very successful for us and does not damage the plants. I feel like I never gave.
How to train and prune roses:
Starting very early in the spring, prune dead branches and buds that cross each other and identify the main steam to make sure it has enough energy to continue growing. Finally, prune and shape the plant so that it does not encroach on the main walkway and grows along the window contour. We attached an eye hook to the greenhouse and a teach wire above the main base of the plant to keep it close to the greenhouse and let it train. A little trick to shape and train your upcoming roses to attach small electrical NM cable staples using plastic sleeves and pin nails.
Non-metallic cable staples come in several different sizes and are very inexpensive. If strategically placed, you will need 5-10 staples for the entire rose bush. You can purchase packs of 25 at hardware stores (Link) for less than $2. In early spring, before they’re big enough, find a little-finger-sized sprout and nail it in place with this plastic stapler. We guide plants around doors and windows and help prune them to encourage continued growth where we choose. We love these staples because the pin nails are so small that they are very easy to nail into place, and the flat bottom of the plant sleeve allows the plants to sit It reduces the need to measure and rub the plant as it grows. Also, the claws are so tiny that it takes very little effort to pull them out or slide them over bushes as they grow. And if the plants exceed the staples before you reach them, we had the bushes simply push the staples out onto the floor. This is a great cue to retrain the plant. I have included these items we talked about and other rose care/vine rose items in my ‘roses’ folder [HERE] for you. If its helpful then im happy!
As you can see in the photo below, the eye hook and wire need to be tightened and rewound to bring it into the rose bush. We also need to add new eye hooks and wires to move up the greenhouse for new growth:
Other training methods we use:
We follow a more conventional method for training plants. Fence staples, nails, and screws were attached to the sides of the greenhouse and pulled securely to the greenhouse with a baler or landscaping twine. Tiptoeing is another great way to tell plants where you want them to go. Just pull it down so you don’t apply too much force. Give the plant a little time for night and growth on the windowsill.
There are many mysteries about growth and size every year, so I will investigate year by year, but the size below this year is growing at an amazing speed. We want it up against the wall in our garden, so we’re thinking of some fun ideas on how to plant roses all over.
I hope you enjoyed this quick tip on how we train our roses here at White Cottage Farm. We also hope that these tips are useful for your garden.Get daily updates Instagram, Facebook, Pinterestand tick tock. Thank you for visiting my blog today and every other day. Blogs are really meaningful to us.
xx Liz Marie
