I'm not in a hot climate, but I will just tell you -- when I did this, I tied the tips of the canes low on the plant.
It was beautiful for one spring, but by Fall all of those canes had died back to the highest point.

Jeri

Jeri, is this dieback peculiar to Bourbons in your experience? Or do other rose classes react this way, too? Does it indicate that Bourbons don't like pegging? Does pegging normally have a less deadly outcome?
Thanks.
Sherry

How awful, Jerijen. Have you tried self-pegging? Clair Martin at Huntington Gardens recommends it for long-caned roses.

I saw ground-pegged bourbons at Descanso Gardens (near Pasadena) and they did beautifully. But that climate and mine are very different. I think Descanso's rose garden is the reason I fell in love with old roses.

Er, well, it WAS self-pegged.
And I don't know if it is peculiar to Bourbons. I did something like it with Othello, with similar results.
So -- Maybe it's peculiar to my conditions here. I don't know.
The thing you have to remember is that the hormones that trigger growth and bloom do rise to the highest point on the cane.
In this case, they went that far, and stopped.

By contrast, when i did it with The Pilgrim, the parts that were pulled down low turned into vine-like growth that wriggled across the ground and wrapped itself around your ankles. ICK.

I just know that I wouldn't do it again here.

Jeri

Jeri's description recognizes that pegging is a high-maintenance display practice good for a single season. And in a hot climate, you have the added problem of exposure to sunburn. If you can peg and maintain a lot of foliage, your results may be spectacular, but apical dominance cannot be overcome. Growth horomone and nutrient don't flow down stream. It's probably an issue of physics.

Jeri's description recognizes that pegging is a high-maintenance display practice good for a single season.

*** Probably great if you have a dedicated team of professional gardeners to do the job.
For one person, working alone, it can be done, but blood will be shed in the process.

Jeri

So are you saying that a better growth choice might be training the rose horizontally along a bit of fence for support against the wind? Kind of a compromise with apical dominance - not straight up and not pulled down. I think that could look nice in a garden along a property line or walkway. Just a thought.
Sherry

When I visited the Huntington some years ago, I asked one of the rose garden volunteers to show me their self-pegged roses. They didn't look anything like I expected - the roses were tied around themselves horizontally, rather than in the hoop-like shapes that Clair has written about. (He also talked about self-pegging Graham Thomas, which is not possible, IMHO, because the canes are much too stiff.) We did the horizontal self-pegging some in the cemetery, and it does increase bloom, but it is a lot of work. Here are my observations:
1. Most of the bourbons and HPs will indeed die back to the highest point, as Jeri describes.
2. Sunburn is an issue, particularly on roses like Mme Isaac Perriere.
3. Best results are in pulling the canes horizontally, wrapping them around a tripod or other structure, or encouraging them to arch over.
4. You need to remove the pegged canes after one or two years.

We even played with tying fishing weights onto long canes of one of the HPs to encourage the branches to arch - that worked but was rather odd-looking!
Anita

Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmm. Well I don't have anything to espalier them on. I'm thinking now that I will try a mild (more horizontal) type of self-peg. Sunburn is a problem whether I peg or not, though most of my bourbons get afternoon shade from an olive tree. The alternative to pegging is to let their long canes whip around on windy days and that's not working either. I *have* tried pruning them hard and found the cane structure unattractive; unlike my Austins, MIP and LO just looked stunted. I've also tried tripods and can't get them to work with the pots, mainly because of wind.

I'd love to hear additional ideas if anyone has them. Thanks to Jerijen and everyone who's commented so far. It's been helpful and informative!

In my experience, all Bourbons HATE to be pruned hard in a hot dry climates. At least if it's done in winter. The shortened thick branches put only few, short new shoots, and very often tends to die-back. The overall cane structure become quickly ugly. I prefer to use them as short climbers.

I have a big part of my English Roses pegged down, it helps me to have a better shape in the mixed planting and promote a glorious flowering in spring, but also block the plant, and that's really important in my very windy climate.
I also use to peg Hybrid Moschata, Damasco, Alba, Gallica... everything starts to put long, vigorous canes, is pegged, to restrain their rampant growth.
And the branches are always trained in arch, the tip fixed to the ground or to a short bamboo cane. Never seen any die-back in my pegged roses.

Ciao! :o)
Maurizio