Most roses do best if you prune back to a set of 5 or 7 leaflets, and try to cut at a 45 degree angle. Don't cut too close or too far away from the node, a picture is really the best way to see the proper spot. Search for 'deadheading roses' and you might find a nice diagram.

You don't need to fuss over where to cut--that's an old wives' tale. To maximize growth in young plants, just pop off the blooms and leave all the foliage. When the plant starts to get bigger or sprawlier than you want, take off any amount of stem with the spent flower. Generally, with climbers we preserve the long main or basal canes and trim back the secondary or lateral stems after blooming. However, your young plant is not yet strong enough to produce climbing basals.

Start training them to your trellis when the canes are strong enough not to snap when you are shaping them but before they are so stiff as to become difficult to manage.

Agree with michaelg, just snap off the blooms.

One tip of mine that you might use for the front canes...

My Noella Nabonnands are about 4' high as well. To keep them off of the ground, I put in a couple of stakes by the roses and leaned them back toward the trellis. Then I tied the roses on loosely so they can still grow up but are going in the right direction - up in general and backwards for the ones in front.

Thank you everyone for all your help with my roses. So, if I just snap off the rose then I will be left with just a stem with leaves, right? Will new roses grow from this stem?

lagomorphmom, I like your idea of the stakes. Mine seem to be leaning toward the front, away from the trellis.

What are you all using to tie your canes with? Thanks so very much for all your help.

Hi, cadence! New growth will spring from buds in the leaf axils, unless they have been damaged in some way. Essentially you will be left with a stem with leaves, but new growth should produce new flower buds as well unless your rose is a once-bloomer. Then you have to wait for next year.

To tie my canes I have used stretchy green "tape" and green jute twine. Neither are ideal, I think. The tape shows up to much for my taste, but the twine rubs. Of the two I prefer the twine. I think folks have been known to use cable ties or similar to attach to supports, too.

I liked lagomorphmom's suggestion, too. :o)

Here are some photos of deadheaded roses in various stages, from grown out and blooming to the "sticks" being all there is. It is something that last year I didn't do, and my roses are a good 1-3 foot taller than they were last year. last year I followed hte book and went to the 5 leaflet area. I still WILL do that on roses I am trying to control height on, but most others I jut pop off the dead flowers and go on with life. Its faster and easier.

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Some of them are not as clear as I would like them to be (Phone pics) but you can tell what I am showing you in all of them. the last one was a rose I actually cut to bring inside, and you can see the new growth is coming up in the place where the 3 leaf cluster is at....

Greenhaven, thank you very much for explaining this to me. Now I will just snap of the faded blooms. Also, thanks for letting me know what you tie them with. I just purchased a roll of velcro ties. You can simply cut off the length you need. I hope this will work for me.

particentral - Thank you for sharing your photos. Gives me good idea of where you cut them.

I recommend that you listen to michaelg. When your roses get large and you don't have the time to do all that cutting, you can learn to snap off spent bloom at the abscission layer. It makes absolutely no difference whether you cut at an angle or cut to an outside facing bud. In fact, you may slow rebloom by doing so on some cultivars. Don't believe me. Look at my garden and judge for yourself. I've been doing this for years. Your precious time is better spent watering, weeding, and mulching.

Exceptions are long, tall, narrow Hybrid Tea-types that grow 30 inch stems, roses you're planted in the wrong space that are too large for the area...and roses I never deadhead at all because they rebloom no matter what.

My top 10 roses.

My next 20 or so.

Warning: links to the Galley are graphics intensive.

Cass

berndoodle - OMG - Your roses are amazing. I could only dream of having a garden of roses like this. Truly beautiful and thank you so much for sharing.

Awesome roses, Cass. Thanks for sharing those links.

I snap off blooms on regular roses, unless I want to take them down a bit. But on climbers I'd have to get on a ladder. I usually just leave them or wait and get the ladder out or use an extended pole pruner like the one mentioned in the first post. But 4' isn't very tall.

berndoodle, no fair! Such amazing opportunities for growing, in warmer climes. Cadence, you could. In fact, I order you to, on virtue of being able too! :oP

You're right! It isn't fair to compare a zone8/9 garden to a garden in really cold climates because it's easy to grow big roses here.

This Spring, I planted 3 Blaze Rose climbing roses on a new trellis that my husband built for me. The two on sides are blooming very nicely but the middle rose is just
growing nicely and not blooming. What is my problem or is the rose defective? I also purchased a Blue Girl climbing rose and that one is also not blooming only growing nice shoots. Do I just have defective roses or is there something that I can do to encourage them to bloom?

Norma,

The middle Blaze will probably bloom some later in the year. Shoots cannot grow and bloom at the same time, because setting a flower bud causes the shoot to stop growing for a few weeks until new growth starts.

I am not familiar with Cl. Blue Girl, but even the bush form of Blue Girl does not bloom very much.

Hate to say this, but if you are in USDA zone 4, these roses will not be cane hardy through the winter. Blaze may survive and grow/bloom some each summer after losing most of its top growth.

Hi Norma,
If you don't have luck with those roses in Zone 4, you may want to check out the Canadian Explorer roses which were developed for that zone. Rosa John Cabot is one of those, and looks similar to Blaze in color and petals I think. Also Capt. Samuel Holland (another dark pink), and William Baffin are 3 that I know of that are really nice climbers in my zone (which is called 7, but can go down to the same temps you have for weeks at a time in winter).

Good Luck!

Cass, I really enjoyed looking at your pictures. Your garden is amazing, and absolutely the kind of garden I have been working towards and hope to one day achieve. I just love your Charles de Mills and Bouquet Parfait. I will definitely put them on my list!

Cadence, I suggest natural jute chord to tie the climbers. It blends in, and breaks down after a few years so it won't choke the plant when it gets big, and you don't have to bother removing it. I haven't had issues with it rubbing my plants badly either. I also use it in my vegetable garden to tie peas and things, and they have pretty delicate stems. I have also seen climbers completely on jute without a metal trellis at all, though I haven't tried that myself yet.