Pruning Zephirine Drouhin?
Comments (38)
cincy_city_garden
15 years agocincy_city_garden
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Zephirine Drouhin as a bush?
Comments (7)Many short climbers can be turned into nice large shrubs if you keep cutting back the long basal shoots (to 3 or 4') until the mass of laterals is so great that the plant doesn't feel the need to make a lot of long basal shoots. I have seen pictures where ZD seemed to have been turned into an upright shrub. However, my ZD was indefatigable in producing 8'-9' basals, so I suspect they had to hack on it constantly. I have also seen it grown as a very large fountain-shaped shrub maybe 8 x 10' and composed mostly of many arching basals, probably not pruned much. I guess you would thin the thicket by removing some older canes each year at the base. This is just to get your thread started. Others may know better....See Morezephirine drouhin - pruning
Comments (1)That's what I would do. You want the longer canes to be trained to the support and then try to bend them horizontally so they will produce laterals which will then bloom. Also, if the rose is old, removing a lot of older wood can then spur the rose to put out new canes which you can then train. I did that to my ZD last fall and she responded with many many new canes....See MoreHow to manage my Zephirine Drouhins
Comments (2)Zeffy produces a lot of new canes each year, and it will be a tangled mess if left alone. What I do is cut out some of the older canes to give the new ones room to spread out. I find it's almost always best to control the size of climbers by thinning them out instead of shortening the canes. This is a good job for early spring, before the roses are fully leafed out and you can see the structure you're working with. Unfortunately, Zeffy isn't that great of a rebloomer. Her spring show will take your breath away, and she will give you a smattering of flowers here and there from mid-summer onward. Connie...See MoreNeed help with Zephirine Drouhin Climbing Rose
Comments (22)By "substantial" I mean thickness -- and those laterals are substantial enough to be considered future canes. And something to keep in mind is that if you train substantial laterals as though they were canes, and they sprout their own laterals, you'll find that the rose will not be producing as many new canes. This is because, as I hypothesize, the root system can support only so many actively-growing buds. When you prune all the laterals down to a few bud eyes, you're removing actively-growing buds -- and this sends a signal to the roots to activate buds lower down which will become new canes or basal breaks. If you instead allow the laterals to grow, then train them as if they're main canes, they'll sprout laterals of their own. This means more actively-growing buds, which tells the root system "we're good up here -- no new canes needed." Which way works for you depends on the rose -- some can flower for years on the same canes, while others' canes will be exhausted after a year or two. You'll know as you go. If the cane looks somewhat "deflated", and new growth is thin and spindly, the cane is probably exhausted and should be cut back hard. If your rose is own-root, you can remove it entirely, and a new cane can come from the roots. If your rose is on rootstock, you'll want to cut it almost all the way off, leaving a few inches of it remaining. If you look closely, you'll see the "sleeping" bud eyes -- there's usually a sort of red freckle in the middle of a thin line going around the cane. If you cut back to one of these, it'll wake up, and a new strong cane should spring forth. If you can't see them, just leave four or five inches of cane and wait to see where a new bud starts growing, then cut back to just before that. I'm not personally familiar with the rose you pictured, but based on what I see, I'd leave those laterals and let them grow. When they start to harden -- but before they're totally stiff -- I'd start guiding them to go in the opposite direction from the main cane against the wall. In your pictures, that means to the left. If and when the rest of that main cane going to the right becomes exhausted, you can cut it back to the first strong lateral, and let that lateral function as the main cane. It's all something you'll learn as you go and become familiar with your roses. You'll get a sense of when a cane is exhausted, and you'll just cut back to the first "not exhausted" growth emanating from it. Remember that more laterals will form the closer to horizontal a cane is trained, and let that guide you. If a strong lateral is growing too long for where you want it to go, just prune it back to a set of leaflets with a bud eye facing the direction where you want new growth to go. :-) ~Christopher...See Moreteeandcee
15 years agobuford
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11 years agozeffyrose
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11 years agoTayinnawin_Nell
11 years agoogrose_tx
11 years agoI've had my Zepherine for about 7 or 8 years now, and have only fertilized with Alfalfa mixed in water.
One year in February I pruned the laterals way back; big mistake, the blooms were so sparse, and not pretty at all. Now I just cut out old canes and let her rip, she gets to do whatever she wants.
A few years ago Zeffy posted a picture of her Zeffy; an Autumn Sunset had mingled in, and what a beautiful sight! Of course I ordered one and love it. Thank you, Florence, you have made such an impact on so many of us "novices"!
meredith_e Z7b, Piedmont of NC, 1000' elevation
11 years agozeffyrose
11 years agochicagomarianne
10 years agoI'm in the city of Chicago. My own root ZD from Heirloom Roses is in it's 5th year and gets full sun. It grew a little the first year, a lot the second, and then exploded the third year. I didn't know anything about pruning and just cut it back heavily. It only bloomed a little in the 4th year as a result.
This year I watched the Ashdown Roses videos on pruning (see below for picture of pruned roses). This year my ZD just started to bloom the other day (about 6 blooms - the first two to pop shown) and has hundreds of buds. I trimmed all the laterals to 12" and cut down a few canes (there are just so many!) completely at the ground. I trained the canes horizontally across the fence. I plan to prune the laterals (and new canes as needed) all summer just to keep it in control (middle picture is pre-bloom about a month ago). I'm not sure how that will affect bloom but otherwise it will overwhelm all the plants in the garden in front of it.
Prior to planting the roses, I raised the whole garden (a six foot wide strip around my yard) up about a foot using cow manure, pine compost (my soil ph is high), garden soil that was there, top soil, and mushroom compost - holding it up with a short landscape wall of Home Depot interlocking pavers. I spent a small fortune on dirt. I fertilize a few times a year with granular organic rose fertilizer. Last year I used some Epsom Salts but this year I didn't have any. I sprayed in Feb. with a copper fungicide and put down copper dust around the dirt. I had bad black spot last year. The garden centers around here said everyone did.
I mulch with cocoa shells. In Feb. I top dressed with the pine compost and cow manure before mulching last month. I have 3 other climbers (Jude the Obscure, a red one?, and Darlow's Enigma) across that same fence. They haven't yet bloomed this year. They were mostly all planted the same year (except the mystery red climber) and all bloom profusely and repeatedly but the first spring flush is the most intense. None of them are the monsters that ZD is. I've got 3 more bush roses in front of the climbers mixed in with my perennial and herb garden. It smells great in my yard.
buford
10 years agotoolbelt68
10 years agoGreat info above everyone, I'll use a ton of it. Thanks
Great site you have here, I'll be back.
Here is a shot of about 70 feet of ZD's on the South side of our house. They go all the way around..... love them.... 30 total.
HU-834701357
5 years agotoolbelt68
5 years ago
zeffyrose