I have a climbing rose bush that I have had for 4 years and it is doing wonderful at growing, but it doesn't flower. I have never seen a bloom on it, does anyone have any suggestions how to get the bush to flower?
Hardiness Zone: 4a
By kelly
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Perhaps the location of where it is planted has something to do with the climber not blooming. I put banana peelings and chipped egg shells around my climber and it's in full sun on a trellis and blooms nicely. Also, give the climber, rose food
to provide nutrients it needs. You may need to prune it back which helps also, just do it at the right time of year.
You may have planted it too deep. There is a "nodule" where the rose was most likely grafted. This graft must be there and able to "breathe", if not there your plant will never bloom. If you don't see this knot at ground level you may have cut it off. I'm no expert, but this is what I learned about mine that never bloomed. Good luck!
I had a lovely climbing pink Queen Elizabeth - it only flowered the first year - I was told by searching online that they won't bloom but once, so hope that isn't the type you have!! I replaced it with the old-fashioned Paul's Scarlett and it blooms all summer long!
Trimming AKA pruning is done in Spring there is a method to get certain climbers to bloom more quickly though. When the top flower is nearly done blooming go ahead and cut off the bud and bend the tip to a horizontal position. There are some types of climbers that have a growth hormone right at the ends of a cane that sends a signal down the entire cane that speeds up the reflowering to that same cane.
Agree with other posts, but also consider a dose of Rose tone fertilizer right about now. And consider getting a soil test to make sure there's nothing you're missing in the soil. I've heard that keeping the can horizontal will help you get lots of nice flowers.
Also, does it get enough sun? Here's a link that should help, too.
www.oldhouseweb.com/
Give it tomato fertilizer, or use bananas to encourage roses to grow. the rose fertilizer will make it bloom more foliage.
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Hardiness Zone: 5a
Beth from MA
You should always trim back the roses as they finish being beautiful blooms, meaning as they start to brown around the edges. My grandfather used to grow old-fashions, which are very prolific, and taught me how to prune them. You take prune shears (little things, not the loppers for tree limbs) and measure back from the bloom to where you see a growth that has 5 leaves on it. You trim just above this, cutting at the angle at which you want the next limb to grown toward. This is more critical (the angling) down near the ground where you walk. My dh used to trim ours and got the thorny ones to start spreading over the sidewalk instead of growing toward the sky.
We also learned, during our first year of roses that up north (we're in Ohio, but came from the deep South and Florida) you need to "winter over" your roses if they are not specifically hardy for your climate. We had to replace all of ours after that first winter. Needless to say, we went to Hardy ones. I believe your local nurseries would gladly identify the kind of roses you have and tell you how to handle them.
My sister (who has a degree in agronomy) and my grandmother both advise me to take things to the County Extension Agent, which I had never heard of before. I did take them some samples of unknown plants in my yard before and had them identified so I could know if they would be poisonous to my toddler. My sister is telling me now to take soil samples there and they can tell me what I have and how to fix it, and they do this all for free. So that is another source of "local" information, which is critical to growing things. The roses should continue blooming until their time is up, but if they are all about to die, then they probably will not bloom again this year. Good luck. (06/06/2007)
By Diane S.
What a beautiful rose. I was always taught that you only prune roses back in fall and late winter. You can deadhead the blooms, which should keep them blooming all summer. Also, you might want to give them some rose food if you have not been feeding them. (06/08/2007)
By Mythi
Yes, trim them back to the point where they have 5 leaves and they will keep growing and blooming all summer. (06/08/2007)
By Beth
