Thank you appreciating the information I shared about different ways of pruning and/or training 2 of my favorite roses. The roses are interesting because they can be grown in colder zones due to their hardiness and still become quite big roses. In warmer zones they also perform well. To many old timers my post may seem fairly basic. But many do not know how to get the most out of these roses, or have not seen different ways of growing them. I wanted to share that knowledge with you, so you can decide how you want to prune and/or train these roses. It is always good to see how other get good results and get inspiration to do the same in one´s own gardens.

I laughed when I read that Terry wanted to go explain to Gertie what was expected of her! This is really what pruning is about: telling the plant how we want it to behave. These long lanky and leggy roses needs direction in pruning or training in order to perform well. (Of course proper feeding and watering of roses also matters as Melissa points out!).

And Terry we certainly are having yet another extremely mild winter. 3. year in row! Just a little sprinkling of snow and almost no frost! All the knowledge in rose books in this area about how to make sure to choose hardy cultivars and winter protect roses seems quite funny. But I know that sooner or later we are going to get a really bad winter again... Winters in Iowa and Illinois are bitterly cold, and you seem to have gotten lots of snow this winter.

Homenovice. Reine Victoria is not a sport of Louise Odier Both roses are Bourbon roses though. Reine Victoria can be pruned and/or trained exactly like Louise Odier! It can be more difficult to grow than Louise Odier in my experience, and at least here it does not grow as tall. If your rose has grown too tall I would rearrange the long canes so they get twisted lower on the support. This way it will bloom on laterals lower on the plant so you can actually see (And smell) the rose-blooms. Keep the long laterals and train them horizontally too. Over the years it will form a nice pillar rose.

Jimmy: I am not sure Cinderella has canes that are as flexible as Louise Odier or GJ ? How tiny are your GJ? If we are talking a few 2 feet canes I would just let leave the plant alone. It will repeat a little later in the fall. (Weird talking about fall on the southern hemisphere, when we long for spring here! But since I know you grow your roses well in pots I would not allow any canes of GJ to get taller than max. 3 feet if you want to grow it as a nice bush. Remember GJ is more Old rose behaving than some of the more modern Austins, meaning it takes longer to shoot canes and build up into a nice bush. GJ typically takes about 4 years to become a really nice bush rose! Some Austins are really nice already the first or 2. season.

Jean: In your warmer climate I would prune Evelyn harder! She can become a really nice bush. Perhaps prune her canes in the spring to about 1-1,5 feet? As for Graham Thomas I simply do not know how that rose behaves in warmer climates. Perhaps you can prune it harder like Anitas friend did? But it also depends on how old the rose is. I am sure others here on the forum have more experience about how to prune Graham Thomas to make it repeat better. Here GT always repeats very good, but it always stay less than 4 feet tall(Or Low?). Sometimes I have had to prune it down to 3-5 inches before I got a clean white pith of the cane. Gardening in cold zones is not the same as gardening in warmer zones.

Veilchen: Pegging is also a good option with Louise Odier. I nearly gave up on my GJs because of the poor repeat, but hard pruning + after the 3. season they began repeating much better. My Madame Issac Pereire Bourbon rose also took 3 years to begin to repeat. Both need hard pruning after the fist flush to repeat well for me.

Krista: I have 8 GJs in that hedge planting. (Bare root plants on multiflora rootstock. They are planted 20 inches apart. Here is what they looked like the the first summer (Cute little roses):

{{gwi:229731}}

And Ingrid: We have a huge space were all on the street can dump all the cuttings and trimmings from our hegdes. " We pay a huge truck to empty that space twice a year and take to the compost facility. I also use an electric chipper on some of the left over canes and other coarse clipping from the garden. I put it on the compost heap I have. Perhaps you can have one of those compost tumblers somewhere on your property?

What a great system, Niels, with the truck. I wish we had that here. We do have a pickup truck and will probably end up carting a lot of stuff to the local dump site. We inherited an almost dead oleander hedge that is several hundred yards long and face the daunting task of cutting down all those (highly poisonous) plants. Also trees that died in the brutal last summer. Ah, country life.

Thank you for your answer.

Ingrid

Thanks, Niels. I will try training the canes lower. They're rather thick canes now and don't take too well to bending, but perhaps I will peg them.

I thought I would bump this thread back up as it is so excellent.

bump - great post

Great stuff. I will feel more confident pruning GJ next spring. This was her first year, so I've been only dead heading.
thanks.

I don't have GJ, but I did this to Heritage this spring. Last year was its first full year and I was not happy with the growth habit. I had several 8 ft octopus canes that only bloomed at the top and the bush was way too gangly. I pruned it back very hard and it has a much more pleasing growth habit this year.

I do have a CdC and it was very broom looking early this year! But I did again prune him back after the first flush and it's already blooming again.

In fact, due to spring freeze damage and drought, I wound up hard pruning many of my roses after the first flush. I am happy with shorter bushier roses. I have some newer roses that I'm just letting go, but next year they will probably get the same treatment.

Isabel, I am lucky that I have a lot of room in my back yard for compost piles. Last year was the first year I did compost. I actually did the pile behind a redbud tree. Well that little tree is now 3X as wide and leafy as the other ones! So now I have a pile behind each one!

For the longer woodier rose canes, I strip off the leaves for the regular compost and try to stack them up to dry. We plan on renting a large chipper and chipping up these canes and other woody prunings I have. I'm going to use the wood chips as compost and or mulch. Why not!

Hi cupshaped

That is one of the best shaped Louise Odier I have seen! I have two and after I dug up some neighboring shrubs mine look very leggy. I migh have to do some hard pruning after the flush or next spring.

It is one thing to know all the "rules" but not nearly as helpful as seeing pictures and trying it out by ones self. You explain very well and your advice is very helpful.

I still remember a dark red hybrid perpetual you posted a picture of. How is it doing this year?

Best Regards

Niels, I too, wish to thank you for this well written information AND clarifing photos. I get unhappy and frustrated that the overwhelming quanity of details for each rose is impossible for me to retain. Applying your words to your pictures enabled me to take a deep breath, relax, and return to my pruning refreshed & inspired. I love my garden and sometimes get so tied tight trying to do my best, I forget, they are my roses, they don't really mind if I make mistakes if I simply keep trying to see what they like and sincerely concider what their reaction to what I've done will teach me. Thank you, you are a skilled gardener AND Teacher!

Niels - I pruned Gertie very hard this spring as you instructed; she was only about a foot tall when I was done.

I cannot believe my 15-year old GJ is the same bush! She grew so many basals and laterals and put on such a show of blossoms that was truly impressive!

Again, thank you so much for teaching and sharing.
I'm sure Gertie thanks you also; she is one gorgeous rose.
-terry

Yes, thank you for teaching and sharing. I accidentally discovered the wonderful results of hard pruning GJ when I cut her back to move her for poor repeat - she took off and rebloomed very well.

I love this rose and fragrance just doesn't get any better than that of GJ!

Great thread. It is great to see one rose look so different just because of the way it is pruned and trained.

Last fall I attended a great pruning workshop and Michael Marriott from David Austin in England was the guest speaker and what he taught us was a real eye opener. I use the same hard pruning method on my Prairie Princess and this year instead of having long floopy canes it now a tight large shrub. It still a work in progress but what a difference.

Many of my roses are leggy/lanky/floppy this year, and practically lying on the ground: Lillian Austin, Champlain, Hope for Humanity, Carefree Beauty, Winnipeg Parks, Henry Cabot,William Baffin. I wondered if the cause was all the cool rainy weeks we had in May. I just got Gretchen Jekyll so will have to see how it behaves for me. Minnesota winters may keep many roses somewhat shorter especially if, like mine, they receive no winter protection.

My Alchymist and M Cochet have long canes that are laying on the ground. I haven't done anything to them, but have been very curious/fascinated watching what and why they are so. Here, it was terribly hot and dry and just as suddenly,the weather turned cool and foggy. I wondered if this is normal or common?

Niels,
do you find that the multiflora ramblers flower more heavily
on the older stems? Just reading Mr. Scaniello's excellent
book on climbers, and he mentioned this.

An excellent post, to be included in the GW ARF book I'm
waiting for someone to write!!

Alida

This is far too excellent and informative a post to allow to fall off the map.

Niels,
I would love to see the pictures again if you are willing to post them. I have a couple of roses that I have not pruned and they were flowering and sitting beautifully until the rains came and knocked them over. I think I need to decrease the size and give them some support with the outer canes.
Thanks,
Joanne

Do you think this can be done with Teasing Georgia? I'd like to keep it from being a monster, some folks have said that it can get 8 to 10 feet high and wide when I asked about it in a post. I don't have room for another climber but if I could keep it around 5 x 5 that could work.

Tea Clipper is another I'd like to try there. I get suspicious of the Austins which are mentioned in his catalog as "may well benefit from summer pruning" or some such language. I'm even more wary when he says the rose can be trained as a climber. Tea Clipper and Teasing Georgia are two of those. In fact looking through the catalog there are few that don't require any summer pruning at all. In his pruning advice he recommends cutting the plant back by 1/2 in winter, and cutting new growth back to 2 or 3 leaves after each flush in summer. That's way more than I think most of us are used to. This sounds very much like the hard pruning you are doing.

I'm going to try this because I really want to use both of these roses in my new bed but I don't want 8 foot monsters. It's a bit more work than I want to do, especially when it gets so unbearably hot and humid here in midsummer, and I'm incredibly lazy, but I'll give it a go. The results will be worth it.

Niels,
Thank you so very much for the lesson! This couldn't have been more timely. DH actually asked me to remove my crazy, messy GJ last weekend, so I pruned the heck out of her and then felt bad about it. He also complained mildly about LO's paucity of bloom, though it's shape is not offensive. I'm going to print this off, and take it out there to redo my GJ and LO asap. I would also love to see those pics if you could repost them. :)

A couple of questions.
1. Would Mme. Ernest Calvat also benefit from this treatment? And, is it ok to remove a lot of basals if the rose is just too dense and bulky to look decent (or fit!) in it's spot?
2. I can't figure out how to deal with CdC. Mine, in its 3rd year, is not even a full 3 ft. tall yet. Every season I get a lot of dead basals on this rose. I am afraid to subject it to hard pruning at this point, but should I just go ahead and try it? It is a great bloomer and repeater, despite these problems. I hate to remove it, but it is a great annoyance.
Thanks so much!
robinia

Ok Avia - By popular request , the full article with pictures can be found on my blog: Roses In Gardens - See link.

I tried to show how 2 different popular garden roses, loved for their beautiful fragrance, by different pruning and training can perform better in different ways and styles. I showed what works for me, and what can probably also work for you.

Joanne: Most shrub roses takes a few years to have built up a cane structure that will be able to carry the weight of the flowers gracefully, even when arching over, weighed down by the rain. I am sure if you post pics of your roses and ask for suggestions about how to prune them to achieve the look you want, some knowledgable rosefolks here can and will give you suggestions and help.

Yes Linrose. I follow the instruction I got from A workshop with Michael marriot - Tecnical manager of David Austin roses. Most Austin grown as shrubs should be reduced with at least half their size when spring pruning and pruning the laterals. I have pruned my TG down to about 1,5-2 feet and kept 2-3 budeyes on the laterals. Every year the rose becomes 5-6 feet tall and gives a huge flush. I then prune the rose again again. pruning the laterals of the laterals while the new basal shots flower. In the summertime I cut the down to about 2 feet and the new laterals formed from these will be the last flowers. It can also be grow as low climber. Best trained fanshaped against a low fence/wall, by beding the long basal canes horizontally. It is a big vigorous rose, that can become very big indeed as you write
but it can be kept lower by pruning if you wish. I will try to post a picture of the rose as it looks now that it has just leafed out after quite hard pruning. It may sound hard to prune for shape for a few years to get the desired effect. Normally It is best to try to choose roses, whose mature size fits better to the spot - but unless we have many years of knowlegde about growing a certain rose, we sometimes gets surprised that the rose outgrow the spot we chose for it. Most Austins do this if people think the size estimates Austin States are acurate - In USA most Austins grow nearly twice as big as over here. And all Austins are a bit different - some are very modern roses - others are more like OGr requiring different pruning - it takes time to know what will work for certain roses. Many roses benefit from sort of summerpruning - I do it to shape the shrups as I want them - Some need more than others. I am not familar with Tea Clipper, So do not feel confident about giving advice about a rose I don´t know.

Robinia - as I have shown you have choices to grow these roses as you wish by pruning them differently. It takes a few years to get the bushes shaped by telling them what you want them to do.

Mme Ernest Calvat can be pruned to form a selfsupporting shrubrose 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide - I do that - Often I remove 3+ years canes to give room for younger more productive basals. Remove the oldest basals at the base, for sme roses it is just 1 every years - in other bourbons I remove 2-4. I would not remove more since it seems that it takes the basal canes a few years to rebloom better. (Somehow it seems less vigorous than the parent Mme Isaac Pereire). But like MIP it probably will do best trained as low climber giving some support.

Comte de Chambord - Se the pictures I posted on my blog I will look for some pictures of how I got them be neat compact shrubs and post them here. Dead basals (Frost damage?) It should be very hardy enough in your zone. It is also a rose that I some times see not thrieving and it becomes a spindly rose, that can´t carry the weight of the flowers. For some I have recommended planting 3 plants 1,5 feet apart in traingle and let them grow together forming one bush. I prune them fairly hard from the start and slowly over 5 year let them grow taller. CDC is a great rose, but really needs a firm hand and plenty of feeding to promote growth of new basals. Too often I see this roses consisting of 5 straggly canes, with new growth only at the top of the canes - that makes them flop over.

Thank you for your post and link. I am confused as to what to do with my Louise Odier and Madame Ernest Calvat. MEC has decided to grow into a climber; unfortunately, I placed it in front of the border, and this has become problematic. I will follow your advice on pruning this rose into a manageable and more productive shrub. Your posting is extremely helpful.

Niels,

Thank you for posting the link to your blog. One of the roses that is long, lanky and falling over is Madame Boll. Your pruning suggestions are just the ticket!

Thank you,
Joanne

I can't wait to sit down and read this and try to absorb the info. Some of the pruning stuff is so confusing to me, particularly as it applies to climbers and lanky bushes.

Thank you for posting that link!

Lynn

Oh thank you Neils for writing all that. I read through everything at work today, came home and promptly hacked the living daylights out of 3 out of control bushes. 2 TG's and one Generous Gardener that was insane. They just finished their first flush and I haven't had the time to string up the lattice work I'm going to train them up on. They've been growing all willy nilly out of control for 2 years now and I've had small children come to me to complain that my plants hurt. I tell them to stay away from the tenticles, the roses bite.
I figure the growth on them was so out of control in order to train them I had to cut way far back. I found that one monster had almost no leaves on the lower 2-3 feet of the canes. That can't be good. We'll see how they behave now that they've had a stern talking to! Or hack and slash as it were.

Very good information, thanks Niels. I will probably move Lady Emma Hamilton from the fence (I just planted it this spring) and put it out in the bed where I was going to put Teasing Georgia. Then I can train some of its canes horizontally along the fence and leave some in the front to prune as you have demonstrated. I believe Lady Emma stays shrubby and doesn't throw big long canes so it should be a better fit for where I wanted to put TG.

Some roses look well growing to their natural size and shape I agree. I think The Generous Gardener is one of them. It has a natural arching form that is self-supporting to some degree. I do have mine along a deck edge where some shorter canes to the front are allowed to arch over and some longer ones to the back are tied up horizontally to the deck rail. It is not a dense plant so looks very nice with an underplanting of companions. It works very well in a mixed border. Of course you still need to give it room.

I'm usually not very good at giving my plants enough space initially which does cause problems down the road. But after 5 years in this garden I am starting to see some things come to maturity and have dug out and spaced plants accordingly. Like a fool I planted Bubble Bath, Sally Holmes, Buff Beauty, amd Darlow's Enigma next to each other along a fence. I did give them 8 feet between but that was not nearly enough. Now Sally is gone, Bubble Bath claimed a big corner and takes up at least 12 feet or more in diameter, Buff Beauty is more or less trained along the fence in between Bubble Bath and Darlow which is huge and bushy and self-supporting. What a nice feeling it is to just maintain and not be constantly ripping out and redoing. My newer beds are still a lot of work though.

Linrose - I think that is a good decision! TG is so vigorous compared to LEH.

Many of us simply don't know the mature size of many roses and place or space them wrong or too close. Especially Austins are hard to figure out. This is why research and if possible seeing some grow the roses nearby is important. In US zone 6 and up I always say they become at least twice the size as they do in England.

Do however NOTICE - especially if you are a novice gardener, that not all roses will respond the same to the pruning and training styles I described. Roses are different and some are not as flexible as these, when it comes to pruning. Some roses do not require much pruning and become better if they are allowed to develop their natural shape. If you are not sure how to prune a certain rose - ask the good folks here on the forum how they prune that rose in your area/climate zone. It is my understanding that some roses in warmer climate zones goes almost heat-dormant in some warm areas - I do not know how to deal with that and how it affects the growth habit of some roses.

Joanne: We believe that Comte de Chambord and Mme boll is identical - the same rose under different names. I grow both and see no difference. I always found it difficult to grow this rose - I pruned the basal canes down by 1/3 as recommended and mine became broomsticks, leggy roses with 1-3 shoots from the top of the pruned canes, that needed support, when it flowered. I nearly gave up on them after 4-5 years, until I saw a friend, who recommended that I pruned it quite hard the first years (promoting more basals shoots) and then slowly allowed it to grow higher over the years - keeping it max 5 feet tall. This turned out to be great.

In a clients garden where I pruned the roses I decided to prune them hard the first 2 years - to my surprise they became much more compact and shot way more basal canes than those I had grown myself - This is what CDC looked like the 3.year ( 3 feet tall and wide):

{{gwi:229733}}

Last year I pruned 2 of them a little different. One was pruned a bit harder than the other, but looked better when it bloomed the first time, while the other CDC next to it that I pruned a little less, was more - "leggy": (The hard pruned one to the right is 4 feet, while the less hard pruned to the left is almost 5 feet tall):

{{gwi:229734}}

I have rarely seen a CDC look good if allowed to grow more than 5 feet tall. It has no flowers or leaves on the bottom half of the plant, if allowed to grow "leggy", unlike other Portland roses that stay neat and compact.

But Joanne I am not sure if CDC is a rose that do well in hot Florida? Even here the flowers fade as you can see on the pictures, if there is a clear sky for some weeks in June and July). The fall flush usually produces the best shaped and most beautiful flowers, a more deeper shade of pink.

Michelle - Teasing Georgia will certainly become a very big rose in Texas if watered and fed well. Buford in GA grew one trained on an umbrella trellis that was gorgeus! It can however be pruned to become a selfsupporting shrub rose. The first year or 2 the canes flop under the weight of the heavy flowers, but when some of the bigger basals come and age they are able to support the roses. I prune mine hard to about 1,5 feet in the spring - it will be be about 5-6 feet tall when it blooms the first time:

{{gwi:229735}}

I hope you get that trellis up soon, if you want to train it as a low climber - as selfsupporting shrub in your climate/area I would prune them to about 2-2,5 feet in the spring and expect them to be 6 feet tall in the first flush. In the fall it will a big rose!

Remember to ask the forum how to prune certain roses and classes of roses in your area - I feel pretty confident about pruning after growing roses for 20 years, and have found what works for me. But not all roses are as flexible as Louise Odier and the climate is a little different due to the higher sunintensity and max.-temps. We consider any temp over 80F a fatal heatwave, and demand a day off (with full pay off course!).

I planted a GJ last year. Now..I have a couple of questions. It's bloomed twice..with about 3 blooms each time mostly at the top of the plant. The plant is around 3 ft or a little over in height now. It's just now having it's third bloom....3 at the top of the main sturdy branch. I pruned just the blooms the last two times. I want this GJ to climb the fence behind it...about a little over a foot behind.

I'm already seeing what you are talking about. She does look tall and lanky...blooms mostly on top. Is it okay then to prune that main branch back to about 2 ft cutting off what seems to be the main blooming area at the top?

I'm new at all of this and guess I picked a difficult one!
I have a Crown Princess,Evelyn,Iceburg,and 2 Teasing Georgias..the last 2 are beside a large lattice arbor my husband made.

The GJ was planted last year and the Crown. The latter looks far better and has more leaves and blooms toward the bottom of the bush.

Should I now just prune GJ back to about 2 feet? Just the branches that have bloomed or all? Also...should I start training her now to the fence and is it okay to take that main large branch and tie it toward the fence?

Sorry..have way to many questions..but I love this rose and the first flush was great..aphids came along so the leaves now aren't looking so well. The 3 top blooms I have now and one bud have brown edges. I want to keep her so I'm willing to try!!

Thanks so much and sorry for so many questions!!!

JLJ--

"cutting off the main blooming area at the top"-- unless canes are trained semi-horizontally, the main blooming area will be the top, whether it's 2" tall or 7' tall-- it's the property of top-ness that yields bloom, not anything else about the stem area you are eyeing.

Your GJ is not really growing yet. After the spring flush, it should start producing canes 6-8' long that don't bloom (didn't for me anyway). It's these that you will train to the fence by stretching them horizontally or in shallow arcs-- place the first long canes low on the fence. Next year they will bloom on lateral shoots from every leaf joint, because the whole length of a horizontal cane is "on top." There should be some repeat bloom the third or fourth year.

The trained canes will produce some short blooming spurs and also some stronger laterals of 4-6'. The strong laterals can be cut back sharply after blooming, if you have plenty of trained canes, or they can be tied in semi-horizontally if you want more coverage. Don't leave them sticking up.

The pruning techniques discussed in this thread are for growing unruly roses without support-- as shrubs, not climbers. The shrubby growth you now have is basically irrelevant to the future climber. Cut it back some if it seems too weak or too long. It is good to have some shrubby growth in the center to cover bare legs, because GJ grown as a climber has the most hideous bare legs. So I would preserve all the weak basal growth and keep it pruned down to medium height to provide leaf cover as well as bloom..

My first paragraph above wasn't very clear. I meant to say, whatever height you prune to, that will be the new top, and growth will come from there. Kind of a "duh" point :)

Opps! I didn't know I had a response...sorry.

Well, the last blooms at the top of the main cane didn't look all that great...but..stupid me...I cut it back to about 2 feet. Talk about NEW AT THIS...I just didn't read the post as well as I should have.I didn't cut the other branches...they are actually getting new growth all the time.I will start training those now that I know how to do so.

So...have I runied her yet for a climber? I guess she won't bloom for awhile now...but she looks okay. Still having aphids and such but stopped spraying..she never looked too good after spraying no matter when I did it. I used fish emulsion and placed bone meal around base about 3 to 4 inches out.

Just been a busy week and I meant to go back and read post again. Hopefully she will be fuller for my ignorance...just hope that main stem grows and perhaps blooms again this year!!

I could KICK myself!! Thanks so much for all your help...wonderful post and we dingys out here need the experts to keep us in line!! :))))

"So...have I runied her yet for a climber? "

No, she hasn't started making climbing canes yet, which will be strong basals. Just don't cut back the strong basals when they come. The weak shrubby growth will never climb, but it will bloom and should be retained IMO.

Again, sorry....I haven't been back here lately.Have had 3 grandkids all week...daughter is moving.

This information is just invaluable to me!! I can't thank you enough!! I've saved it and will do just as you are saying.
Gertrude does have those laterals coming up...I can train them when they get some bigger. Thank goodness I didn't ruin the top....It was quite tall...I did hope that more blooms would come after pruning it down...I can wait however. She's proving to be my most challenging rose..so far. The others are all still so new except Crown Princess who seems to be faring better disease wise that GJ.

I quit spraying GJ though...I have some bad looking leaves but am just watching until I "have" to spray again. I used fish emulsion and bone meal about a week ago...new growth looks good.

Thanks again...I could only "hope" to have roses such as yours...sharing your knowledge is a pleasure to accept!!
:)))))

All of the earlier photos have disappeared from the above information. Any chance of returning them? Your instructions are so superb that I would really love to see your examples in progress.

He posted the information on his blog -- which I wish will be updated soon!

:-)

~Christopher

Hi

I have an Eden that has one bloom and no leaves at all (due to BS). I wonder if this might work for her?

I used this method just by instinct on Bishop's Castle, of which other people complained that it was lanky, with the flowers bending down toward the ground. When I deadhead I cut way back on the stem, and then in spring it gets a good pruning, where I take down one third to one half of the canes, and I've kept this rose short and blooming well now for at least three years and probably longer. In addition to the pretty blooms and wonderful fragrance it's also very tolerant of heat, which makes it a star in my garden.

Hi

My GT has many main canes, and many long laterals that also have laterals coming form them. If I were to cut it hard, where do I cut them? Do I cut the main canes to 2' and then trim the 1st laterals to 6"? Can I apply the same to CPM and Buff Beauty? I am new to pruning and my first attempt with Belinda's Dream was a complete disaster. She sulked big time. I am in 9b Central Florida. Thanks

I think of lanky octopus growers as climbers or candidates for pegging. I lost my old Gertrude Jekyll but have a new one that I'm growing horizontally. The laterals can be many feet tall, but I prune those short

or like Michael says, arch those over too. Last summer my Gertrude plant was blooming in the heat when many others were shut down, and it bloomed again in fall. I don't chop short the basals and just remove dead canes.

Comte de Chambord was chlorotic here so I got rid of it, but I am growing two Gertrude Jeckyll plants. One I am fanning out on a fence. It is still fairly small but I have high hopes for it. The other I am pruning short like Cup-Shaped Roses does. I do get some repeat on this rose.

Fortunately I don't need to spray it here in California.

I also used to grow Louise Odier, but after about 15 years I removed it. Each cane only lived about a year, maybe less, then turned yellow and died. I was training it on an obelisk. Also, It would have benefited from spraying, which I was not willing to do other than my single "dormant" spray right after winter pruning. It was pretty and fragrant, but the blooms were very small here. The heat, perhaps?

Rosefolly

I don't see the link to his blog. I too would love to see the pics. I am going to try to prune some of my english short short that want to grow into monsters just to see if they will stay mini giants instead. Judy

Prettypetals -- I inserted it in the word "blog" in my previous post -- doing so changes the text color to green. Perhaps that's not visible for you, so here it is again:

http://rosesingardens.blogspot.com/2008/08/pruning-and-training-of-lanky-roses.html

:-)

~Christopher

Hello, I clicked on the link for the blog, but I need to have an invitation to join. How do I go about obtaining an invite. Thank you kindly :)

I had the same problem!!

I think the blog has since been taken down. I befriended Niels on Facebook, and I tried pestering him to resume blogging. Hopefully this year he will.

:-)

~Christopher

Niels was such a font of knowledge, I took notes on his posts. Nate

this is rather off topic, on the matter of disposing of pruned rose canes, they are quite nice used as wood in a bbq, or flavoring wood in a glass grill - applewood in flavor.

I have a question about Gertrude Jekyll. I pruned mine after its last flush to about 2-2.5ft and it looked pretty tidy for about two weeks

It's since put out a couple of basals and new growth that has to be 5ft at least at this point.

Gertrude Jekyll on 8/2/16

Gertrude Jekyll 8 days later

As you can see, my GT is looking kind of gangly - Clearly I didn't prune it hard enough!

My question is is it necessary to wait until after the cane blooms to cut it down? This is sitting out in front of a window at my apartment, and is kind of an eye sore to look at, plus, I don't want to draw unwanted attention.

If it helps to know, I'm in NC zone 7b. AKA humid and hot!

Bumping the thread. Anyone in warmer zones able to grow the climbing David Austins as short shrubs as is advertised?

I would move the pot to the side of the window and consider it a climber. It would look great framing the window. You could add a really short rose in a pot under the window, but have the taller roses on the sides.