Should a climbing rose with only a few branches be pruned like a shrub?
A comprehensive explanation of whether a climbing rose with only a few branches should be pruned like a shrub in terms of green plant maintenance. Next, the editor will provide a detailed answer for you.
Pruning of medium-sized climbing roses has been introduced, but some flower enthusiasts continue to ask, how should smaller climbing roses be pruned? For example, what should be done if there is only one long branch and the rest are short branches? Today, let's talk about the pruning method for smaller climbing roses in winter.
Winter Pruning and Training of Smaller Climbing Roses
The above image is from a student's rose in the "Home Flower Training Camp." This climbing rose clearly has only short branches and one long branch. Many flower enthusiasts' potted climbing roses are in this state in the first year. So, for such a plant form, should it be pruned like a shrub in winter, or how should it be handled?
If the temperature in your area is below 10 degrees Celsius, or even below 5 degrees Celsius, and can last for about half a month in winter, my personal suggestion is to prune and train it as a climbing rose.
This method of training small climbing roses is introduced in detail in the book "How to Grow a Blooming Rose from Scratch." Light pruning and training can make this small climbing rose bloom beautifully in spring. Let's talk about the specific steps, still using simple hand drawings for illustration to make it clearer.
First, let's talk about pruning. With these 7 branches, the branch numbered ⑥ is definitely useless because it is a very weak old branch. What about branch ⑤? Should it also be pruned? Branch ⑤ is clearly an old branch, and branch ④ is a stronger branch growing on the old branch.
Should a climbing rose with only a few branches be pruned like a shrub?
In the first round of pruning, only ABCDE were pruned, and it can be seen that branches ④ and ⑤ were retained for the new growth part, and the small branches were pruned, while the rest of the branches were all retained.
Looking at the picture above, the comparison before and after pruning shows almost no difference, right? That's because the small climbing rose plant is in a stage where it basically doesn't need to be pruned, so whenever you ask me how to prune on the Green Plant Enthusiast website, I'm really afraid that after I reply, I might be scolded for being perfunctory, haha.
This type of plant pruning is not the focus, training is, and next, I will teach you how to train such young plants. Before training, you need to prepare some ties or gardening wire ties, and of course, the most important thing is to have a pair of thorn-proof gloves. Remember to choose gloves with the back浸胶, as the back of the hand is easily pricked when tying.