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How to Prune My New Dawn Climber?

16 years ago

Hi All-

As always I come to the experts when seeking advice. I have a New Dawn Climber that bloomed beautifully this year and some canes are about 8-10 feet long trained to grown across a homemade archway that I can walk under. I need to cut back all the bloom caps that are left on the bush (what are these called; please excuse my ignorance). Trouble is the bush is on a slope and if I was to climb a ladder and trim away w/pruners it would probably take me all afternoon and might be dangerous. I thought I read I could take hedge clippers and give it a good haircut but don't want to make a mistake. I always thought you had to make a precise cut above a 5 leaflet stem. It really needs to be pruned as it is getting unruly and out of shape.

What would you suggest? Also should I fertilize now since it is done blooming?

Thanking you in advance for any suggestions,

suebot in CT

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Comments (5)

michaelg
16 years ago
You can certainly cut off the spent flower heads with hedge shears or a power trimmer; many people do this. The 5-leaflet business is basically superstition. If you do not deadhead, there is no damage except some reduction of growth and repeat bloom. Many climbers are never deadheaded because it would be too difficult or dangerous.

If ND is already over the arch, you don't need to be pushing growth. It is very likely to get too big for the spot unless a -15 winter comes along. Big rose plants can go for years without fertilizer or (in the East) watering.
roseman
16 years ago
DO NOT PRUNE IT until after that first flush of blooms, and then only take out the old, diseased, or dead wood. Climbers bloom the following year on wood produced this blooming season. There is nothing wrong with deadheading to promote new blooms this season, but only prune as specified.
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With climbers more than 4 years old, it is good practice to take out some entire canes each year. Take out the oldest 1/3 of the canes at the base. This helps to control size; also, with most varieties, canes are most productive when they are two and three years old. This kind of pruning is traditionally done right after the spring flush of bloom is finished. If your arbor is only, say, 4' wide and 2' deep or long, it is way too small for New Dawn; the best thing would be to remove it now and plant a smaller climber such as Renae, also light pink, but much less vigorous and thorny. As long as stems are nearly vertical, roses will bloom only at the top of the plant. To get bloom further down, you have to train canes semi-horizontally (45 degrees or flatter). If your arbor is deep (long), you can do that on the sides; if not, use the upper faces of the arch as much as possible. Just cutting the canes back as you have done can produce some lower bloom only provided it is done about six weeks before the spring flush of bloom normally occurs. At other times it will result in lots of long canes developing.
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Marijon, You don't say where you are located -- but if you were in my area, I would say that a major pruning of this rose is not needed at this time. In my Southern CA area, a 2-year-old climber of this type is still immature. Can you say where you are located? Jeri
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Hm-m-m-m, my New Dawn is leafing out but did have more dieback than normal. I had to prune it pretty far back. I say give it a little more time as it may show signs of life at the base. I presume you had planted it with the bud union buried 4-6 inches deep or it was an own root plant? If not, and the bud union is above ground, it may have bit the dust. In our areas we need to begin winter protection when we first plant.
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I put one in about the same time but it was a potted bush from antique rose emporium and it has had bloomes. Now the flowers were really small and so far I have new canes about three feet long but really small in diameter. I have found that the first year you plant a rose bush you should not expect much. The bush has to establish a root system before it can do much of anything and bare root bushes will take time to do so. I prefer bare root bushes myself and exoect the first season to be slim. If you are getting good growth that's all you can expect. Next season should be much better and the third season should be great. ND is a really good bush. I have a white dawn that's about 6 or 7 years old and it has 5 good blooming cycles a year. All I do is feed it and deadhead it and it keeps on blooming. New Dawn should do the same.
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berndoodle
16 years ago
New Dawn reblooms. Removing the spent bloom, called deadheading, should be done in the smallest possible way with this rose if you want the best rebloom. The farther down the flowering cane you cut, the longer it will take to rebloom. Remove the least possible amount of rose, just the flower head, unless, of course, the rose is in the way. If that is the case, tie it!

New Dawn is a Large Flowered Climber and will bloom and old and new wood. However, for best rebloom this year, you should deadhead as lightly as possible. Hedge trimmers won't do it lightly.
reg_pnw7
16 years ago
How old is this rose? climbers should be left alone without pruning for the first three years.

New Dawn can be deadheaded like any other rose for best rebloom, just snip off the spent flowers wherever you can reach them. Or, if you can't reach, just leave it alone. Whatever you do or don't do in the pruning department, you won't kill it. I think I have whacked back the rampant new growth in summer on these things but it's been a while since I had one. With less wild growing climbers, you get new shoots off the long arching canes that you prune back lightly after they're done blooming.

Late summer is the time to train climbers, take the long arching canes and tie them where you want them. I don't know about fertilizing schedule in your neck of the woods but usually one fertilizes repeat blooming roses as they finish blooming.
love_to_garden62
16 years ago
Hi Sue,

Greetings from across the Sound. I'm south of you, on LI.

I have five New Dawns growing along a fence bordering my yard. After they finish blooming, what I normally do is take manual hedge clippers (not the electric trimmer) and clip off all the spent blooms. I also do some shaping with pruners (or loppers!) if needed, but I try to leave as much green as I can (there is no need to cut the leaves off to a set of five).

I know what you mean about trying to deadhead up on an arch--I have Westerland (another big thorny rose) that has made it up over the top of an eight foot arch and is starting down the other side. It was a spectacular sight last month. I also use the hedge clippers and deadhead as much as I can, but I don't get crazy if I can't reach. I fertilized Westerland on July 4th and will fertilize the New Dawns sometime this week.

I like how "bloom caps" sounds; much nicer than spent blooms. My daughter sometimes helps me deadhead; she calls it giving the roses "haircuts" (she went to beauty school!).

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