Let's see how well I can answer these questions without going on TOO long. Pruners? My favorite one are Felco #6, which were given to me as a gift. They're comfortable, easy to maintain and sharpen, and I can cut just about anything with them. One thing I failed to mention is the importance of a good pair of gloves. My best ones for pruning like this are made of deerskin ... they are soft and flexible and tough as any gloves out there. Rarely does a thorn make it through a good pair of deerskin gloves. Old wood, for me, is defined as the canes that grew last year or before. Sherry, your Francois Juranville was probably too young to have much old wood last spring. If he were mine, I would let the portion that goes over the arch and into the tree do whatever it wants to do. (That's what I'm planning to do with my American Pillar) Any parts that you want to keep within reach can be trained my way. Jeri, feel free to link to any of my blog posts that you think will be of interest to HRG readers. I'm flattered. Melissa, Leontine Gervais is probably my favorite rambler. Her lax canes are a dream to train, and she rewards the care by blooming her butt off in spring. Sammy, any climber can be pruned using my principles. All it really involves is the removal of old or bloomed out wood and arranging what's left. Don't be afraid to cut out a cane to open up space for new growth. I do the same thing for the climbers on my Arcade, except I spiral the remaining canes upward around the posts. I'm still working out a system that works for me to train roses to an arbor or an arch. I mostly just put the canes wherever, and hope for the best. (With your no-spray garden, you MUST grow ramblers!!!) buford, I've seen photos of your Teasing Georgia, and I would be inclined to keep it to a limited number of relatively new canes to help reduce the mass. Years ago, my husband bought me a Max Tapener (a vineyard tool) to use to attach rose canes to their support. It allows me to work by myself and makes very short work of tying climbers. I linked below to a post where I demonstrated how to use it. I used jute twine before this. The twine is natural, and it will disintegrate in a year or two ... just about the time you'll need to take the rose down and tidy it up. maureen, City of York on an arbor?? Wow! That's going to take some work. With your Veilchenblau, you can do what Robert does with his Cl. Cecile Brunner, which kept blowing off the roof of his chicken house. He keeps it up there by tying the canes to cinderblocks on the roof. It hasn't blown off since. elemire, setigeras are the focus of my newest interest, and I grow them in a different part of the garden. I grow Arcata Pink Globe, Himmelsauge, and Geschwind's Nordlandrose (which are good here). I thought I had Baltimore Belle, but it turned out to be identical to my Arcata Pink Globe. Errinnerung an Brod hasn't done well, and I will probably remove it this summer, along with a few other Geschwind roses. I am very excited to grow a Pennsylvania-found setigera that was given to me by a friend this spring. Most setigeras are American roses, and they are underappreciated and disappearing. My disappointing Geschwind roses will be replaced on their fence with setigeras. All of my ramblers would probably be ground cover if I let them. Each of the ramblers has had basal canes crawl across the bed and out to the grass beyond, only to be chewed off by the lawn mower. Paul Lede, Cl., is beautiful when in bloom. My plant had a difficult time this past summer, with a combination of heat, drought, and fungus that made it practically leafless by mid-summer (I wasn't too diligent with my fungicide.) Despite this, I got a really nice repeat bloom from him in September and October. In the part of two days that I spent pruning, The only roses I have left to do now are Paul Transon, American Pillar, and Silver Moon. A friend was here while I was working on Alberic Barbier, and he and I worked on opposite sides of the fence, which cut the time we spent on this rose at least in half. It was great to have a trained eye to assist with this, because we communicated well and AB looks great! My goal with this is to convince rose growers that ramblers aren't nearly as scary as they imagine them to be ... and the rewards of growing them are beyond compare. Whew. Connie Here is a link that might be useful: Post on the tool I use to attach roses to structure

This is New Dawn in a fairly cold 6a These are about 15 years old now, and about as big as they are going to get. Training them is the definition of garden evil, since the hill is nastier than the thorns, and New Dawn thorns are nothing to sneeze at. I wouldn't even think of putting it on a front porch if anybody ever used the porch. There is a gravel path on the other side of the wall, and any canes that interfere there are quickly zapped. Now I do think that this is a particular good clone of New Dawn since these are cuttings from a plant that was planted in the 1930's. Basically, New Dawn should be hardy, however it won't grow to monstrous proportions and unless we are talking about a small stoop won't be big enough to cover a porch, and training it to keep it in bounds will be a major, continuous job, often requiring a ladder. That's the big advantage of a pillar rose - that most of the training can be done from ground level. The roses I have with endless canes are setigera hybrids. Those are once bloomers, but they are big, hardy and trainable. Those roses you could run up the pillars and across the roof.

I've been given a La Follette for the cemetery so there will be another one here in Northern Cal - it's also on the Santa Clara fence. It is huge, with hips that look like pears. I'm a little afraid of it! We planted our fence roses ten feet apart and some (especially Arcata Pink Globe/Moser House Shed Rose) want to spread twice as far. I plan to put La Follette at the end of the row along the fence where the cane can go 20' or more if that's what they want to do. BTW, Bill Grant says that the orginal name of this rose is simply 'Follette.' Just like it's 'Reine Victoria' not 'La Reine Victoria.' We have 18 roses on the fence bordering the north edge of the cemetery. Santa Clara University has 250 of them on half a mile of fence! Anybody who wants to study ramblers/climbers should look at them. It's an incredible display. I've been there three times and learn (and enjoy) new things each time. Anita

"I don't see how you even get the rose into the soil beneath a tree. Most trees have roots that would make it hard if not impossible to dig underneath them...don't they?" You are correct: you can't plant a rose directly under a tree. That's one reason you need a big rose that can support itself with stout canes, because you don't plant it next to the tree, you plant it out of the direct root zone but under the canopy. Getting a rose to grow up a tree can take a long time and requires a rose that is already growing well. Roses do not do well in the shade and will never overcome a tree if entirely in the shade. Notice that I stated I will plant my 'Long John Silver' by a Yew. The Yew is a multi-stemmed large shrub that grows slowly into a tree. I will plant the rose on the south side so it gets enough sun to power it up the tree. As already mentioned, it can be successful to start the tree and the rose together so that neither over powers the other. I tried this with a rambler and a lilac which, again, makes a large shrub rather than a tree. I should have given the lilac a head start as the rambler is overpowering it already. Other shrubs I am using to support ramblers are Prunus maritima (Beach Plum) and Myrica pensylvanica, the Northern Bayberry. Both these shrubs are slow growing so need a head start before planting the rambler.