Tending to the Climbing Roses

We have a bunch of vines and climbers in the garden. Autumn sweet clematis on the front fence, grapevines on the back. Honeysuckle on a bird feeder post, ivy on the neighbor’s house, and a newly planted climbing hydrangea to grow on the fence behind the kids’ play area.

And then there are the roses! Mine are not so photogenic right now because they’re not in bloom, so let’s pretend they look like these David Austin garden roses.

There was an arch between the front yard the side garden with roses, and we removed them. That was a mistake. The thorns were pretty scary and encroaching upon us as we passed, and Brandon was worried about the kids getting hurt each time they passed through. I wish I would have learned how to properly prune the roses back and maybe it would have been okay, but we cut the canes back and killed the whole thing. We’ve kept them alive in other spots though! By the front door, the cutest storybook effect comes from the little pink roses growing up the side of the porch. There’s another pink one where the side yard meets the back, and two yellow climbing roses by the garage to soften the expanse of wall. Those were growing on trellises that have fallen apart and fallen off of the garage, so we cut the roses back last summer out of necessity, but not so far back that we killed them (hooray!). I need repair or replace the trellises and attach them more securely. The roses are small, but they’re ready to be trained soon. I think.

Training roses. Pruning them. Both things I had no idea how to do! But I’ve been watching tutorials and reading tips and tricks, and I feel like I have a rudimentary grasp on the techniques now. The best time to work on them is late autumn or winter, so hopefully after I can get out there and get to work, they’ll be looking really good again next year. (Fingers crossed.) If you have any favorite books, videos, or sites, I’d love to hear about them.