How to prune 'Noella Nabonnand'?

16 years ago

I've had this rose for three or four years and have never gotten the hang of pruning her, so would appreciate some advice.

NN is a climbing Tea and for me is once-blooming, though that may be due to my pruning and to minimal summer watering. Take note that, while a fall flowering would be very nice, I'm primarily interested in having a rose that's a decent-looking plant for the summer and fall. I've tried different strategies after her spring bloom. I've done nothing, resulting in twenty foot canes spreading all over the garden. I've cut out all the growth that NN flowered on and a couple of older canes: NN languished over the hot summer and then began putting out new growth in the fall. That's this year, and the new growth is awkward, mildewed, and is going to get frozen back if we ever get a winter this year. It certainly isn't leading to any flowers this fall.

So what do I do? I'll be cleaning up the rose this winter, cutting back the most awkward growth and removing the oldest canes, and I'll get the usual good flowering next year even if my pruning isn't perfect, and it probably isn't. But after next year's flowering, what should I do? My current idea is at that point to cut out the oldest canes and reduce everything else to about waist high: it seems hard on the rose but she is a wild lady. I'm not convinced this is the right thing to do, and suggestions are very welcome. I have several climbing Teas, and am similarly unsuccessful with them.

Thanks!

Melissa

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Comments (5)

rjlinva
16 years ago
Melissa,

I am following this post. I just picked up NN this weekend, and I don't really know much about it. I do recall reading that it's a good rose.

How are you growing yours? I'm thinking of putting mine on an arch somewhere or on a tripod. But, your post makes me think a tripod would be insufficient.

Robert
carolfm
16 years ago
I love my Noella and I have had her for several years. She does repeat for me but didn't for the first couple of years. I have tried everything. I have whacked her back to about 6 ft.in the spring, cut out old growth. Cut her back after the spring bloom, cut back the longest canes during the summer and she is still determined to throw long canes all over the garden, the berms behind the garden, straight up in the air, everywhere. Mine is on an obelisk and it is not a good way to grow her. She is pliable enough to train the canes, she just wants to be too big! This girl could cover a pergola all by herself. I keep trying to contain her because I love this rose but I think she needs a bigger garden and a much bigger structure to spread her wings :-)

Carol
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First of all, I don't know this rose. I have recently planted Papa-Gontier-the-shrub, still a baby. I know nothing whatsoever about the climber. But for what it is worth, and that means possibly not anything at all, I am moved to share my experience with 'Sombreuil', the climber that is sometimes called 'Colonial White'. I had it on an arbor for a number of years. For several years it had a few (3? 4?) very, very long canes, much like the ones you describe on Papa Gontier Climbing. The time came to re-stain the arbor with wood preservative, and we simply could not do it with this thorny creature in place. I cut it down to about 18 inches from the ground. I know, brutal. I did not know if the rose would survive or not. But to my happy astonishment, it exploded with a dozen new canes. It looked like an octopus! Far more robust than it had ever been before. Now I have no idea at all if Papa Gontier Climbing would do the same with this treatment, or shrivel up and die, or continue on as usual. I only offer it as an example of blind luck. (So of course the very next year I took Sombreuil out and replaced it with a grapevine. It is a very nice grapevine with very delicious grapes. Yum.) Folly
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oxmelodye... ...Now that's interesting that yours is ex Beales as the plant I grew a long time ago, circa 1990-1995 was the same Mons. Tillier from Beales, listed as a small Tea rose.... however, it soon started to throw out long canes as if wanting to climb and it didn't seem quite right, but I didn't know any different then.... ...but what puzzles me here is that my plant doesn't look like the one I remember it, and now you've said that the flowers on your plant are a little less full.... and that's exactly how my Mons. Tillier was, or how I remember it as being.... it was more semi-double and blousy, less full... for these reasons I'm questioning the association with Marie Nabonnand that's been put foward in recent years... ..of course, memory plays tricks and it was a long time ago... and I wasn't so intent on studying roses close up that I do today.... even so, a slight question mark....
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Different kinds of roses require different kinds of pruning. Climbers are supposed to get tall--after all, they're climbers--and yours evidently took being cut back hard unkindly and is now sulking. I pruned my climbing Tea 'Noella Nabonnand' too drastically once, and it sat and refused to grow for the next two or three years. Finally it made up its mind to put out canes again. If you want your climbing rose you'll probably just have to practice patience. Make sure it's fed and watered and mulched, and wait. Even among climbing roses different kinds have different needs, but in general I find it works to cut out the oldest canes and tie in the new ones, shortening them somewhat if necessary. Dead canes can be pruned out at any time. Exactly when and how to prune will depend on your climate and growing conditions, and on the rose variety.
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melissa_thefarm
Original Author
16 years ago
I have my Noella growing in front of the middle of three wooden posts holding up a balcony and loosely espaliered. If she had turned out to be the ten feet the catalog claimed she would fill her space nicely, reaching out to meet 'Jaune Desprez' on the left and 'MarÃ©chal Niel' on the right. But it doesn't happen that way. She mixes up with them instead, which isn't a disaster. But she's not a rose for a tight space. Carol, it sounds like your problems are similar to mine: I certainly recognize the portrait you painted.

Robert, I like NN. She has big, very fragrant, pretty flowers and isn't fussy. On the down side she gets mildew and I don't know how to prune her and her canes are rather stiff, but she's still a very worthwhile rose.

Melissa
carolezone7b
16 years ago
I have a young NN...Trish at Ashdown talked me into this one. This is just its second year and is covering half of an arbor. I been watching this thread carefully to see what I was into. LOL!! I did have a minimal rebloom this year and the canes on mine seem pretty pliable.

Carole
rjlinva
16 years ago
I wonder if I can just plant her on the bank of the 1/2 acre pond and let her climb a tree...any comments on this idea?
robert

How to prune 'Noella Nabonnand'?

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