question for the experts:

13 years ago

i have a Viking Queen climber that has been with me for about six years in a spot beside an arbor.

it is own root and was very vigorous in it's first four years quickly reaching what i believe is its maximum height and length of around 8-10 feet. it has covered the one half of the arbor from the bottom to the top.

this rose has been pampered like no other and blooms from laterals one foot off the ground evenly to the top.

in the last two years i have seen a noticible lack of vigor even though i prune it correctly, but not too heavily.

my question is this: should i perhaps give a portion of the rose a hard pruning in the spring and see if it re-stimulates the plant? i have heard some say that climbers need occasional hard prunings and thinning out to give them a boost.

it truly is a gem when it is in its zone.

ty for your advice.

P.S. i should also mention that for some reason, this season the bush has produced a number of blind shoots and isn't as floriferous as i recall. the poor spring could be a factor.

i should also say that this rose has never had a disease problem of any sort until this year; downy mildew became a bit of an issue for the first time.

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Comments (7)

paparoseman
13 years ago
Joebar you pretty much hit it on the head. Get some lopers and cut out the oldest canes. And then fertilize the bush again. Yes, I have had a few roses put out blind shoots as well. It has been fairly cool since our nice warmer than normal January and February.

I myself am going to hard prune some of my old once bloomers after they are done with their bloom cycle this year. They have not had a hard prune in seven or eight years and it shows on some of the older canes.

Lance
michaelg
13 years ago
As Lance says, don't just cut the plant back, but remove some of the oldest canes at the base so the plant is forced to start some vigorous new basals. If you haven't deadheaded yet, you may be able to see that certain canes were less productive than others in the spring flush.

Nobody wants to self-identify as an "expert," so you will get more good responses if you leave that word out of the post.
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henry_kuska
13 years ago
Viking Queen was introduced at a time when some/many/most/all? roses were virused. Perhaps the decline you are seeing is due to that if you did not purchase a virus tested plant.
jeannie2009
13 years ago
The above post are spot on. In addition to pruning I have found that a couple of handfuls of Alfalfa pellets scratched into the soil around the bush helps too.
This is the first year that I have seen so many blind shoots. I expect that it is weather related.
Question: if you trim the top off a blind shoot will it grow as a normal shoot?
Jeannie
joebar
Original Author
13 years ago
after i spent some time last night looking closely at the plant,i realized that many of the canes were many feet long producing nothing until the end, and even then just a bloom or two; even after being trained horizontally.
i removed many of those canes and i will cut back more after the first flush;
to answer jeannie:
yes after i cut the blinds off they seem to produce normal growth; must be the spring in the PNW.
if i cut back the plant after the first flush and the plant grows new wood this season, then will it produce more laterals in the spring? i don't mind sacrificing this season the way things are going...
jeannie2009
13 years ago
Joebar...your last line has me chuckling. dont mind sacrificing this season the way things are going.
Boy you got that right. Around here it feels like early April. The high for today was 58...chilli...wonder if we will warm up.
Jeannie
joebar
Original Author
13 years ago
yeah, strange jeannie;
we go from the warmest winter on record to one of the coolest springs on record to perhaps the coolest summer of all time?
not a good situation for rosarians. it certainly won't be a good year for the wineries either.

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