One way is to put up a fairly big trellis behind the rose and then tie the canes, fanwise, to the trellis.

Kate

Yes, Kate is right. The only way to make a climbing rose climb is to tie it to something, trellis, wires attached to the wall or some kind of support. Roses do not climb like vines. They do not have tendrils to hold on to things to enable them to climb on their own.

And be patient. Climbers can take anywhere from 3 to 5 years to do any real climbing. It takes them that long to build a big enough root ball to be able to send water and nutrients up to tall climbing canes. So it will not send up those very long canes until it has that big root ball. Also there is some evidence that the plant will not send up those canes if it does not know there is support. So tie those shorter canes to the support right away. And, spreading the canes out more horizontally will give you more bloom. If they are all just going straight up you'll only get bloom at the top. If you spread them out sideways the main canes will then send up more canes called laterals and each one of those will have blooms. The more horizontal, the more laterals, the more blooms.

thank you , both. that really sounds like it makes sense, so it is probably good advise. so, i guess i'm off to find a large trellis, fan shaped.

Make sure you anchor that trellis so it doesn't fall over. Once the climber gets going you are talking about some serious weight. Just two of our Zeffys cover one whole side of our deck, up about 12-14 feet or more with tons of laterals.

this is a picture of my rose bush.