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| Help! I love this rose, but it has become a monster. After 12 years, it is about 10 feet tall with the main trunks an inch or more in diameter. The weight of the bloom has caused the canes to bend and droop so that it is difficult to walk around the plant. It is "on" a free-standing 7 ft support.
How drastically can I prune the heavy top growth? Or should I?? The main trunk is bare of leaves to a height of four feet or so. If I prune, do I need to take the long canes out back to the main trunk or can I just shorten them halfway? It blooms beautifully all over and I don't want to ruin it, so am hesitant to do anything. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| If it performs there the way it always has here, you can whack the devil out of it and the thing will explode back to its former glory. It's very close to multiflora and as long as it gets the minimum it needs, it is very exuberant in growth and bloom. I've always loved how shade tolerant it is, too. Kim |
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- Posted by mad_gallica Z5 Eastern NY (My Page) on Tue, Jul 3, 12 at 12:11
| It is possible that it just isn't in the right place. Yes, you can hack it back, but it will grow back. It is going to be an ongoing fight to keep it much smaller. Also, the 'bending and drooping' seems to be part of its natural growth habit. You can cut the ends off, but it won't magically spring back up. What I would do is aggressively deadhead it after this flush. Then next spring, when you can see what you are doing, plan on severely thinning it out. That is taking out a couple of canes at the base of the plant. This isn't going to make it much smaller, but will make it easier to deal with. Then cut it back to 'only' 7 or 8 ft. If that is still too big, then I strongly advise rethinking what you are doing there. Either rework the bed, root a cutting and start a new DE somewhere else and remove this one, or something else fairly drastic. We have chopped it back hard before. The result is an almost unbelievable, unmanageable tangle of new growth, as practically every bud eye the thing possesses takes off. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. If you can possibly get the support out of there, do it. It isn't doing any good, and is just one more thing to deal with when trying to haul the cut canes out of the mess. |
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| I have a Darlow's Enigma about the same age and doing the same thing. I have to walk by/under it to reach my car from the back door. What I do is, whenever rain brings it down and in my face I cut the canes from underneath until it is a height we can walk under. it makes a lovely fragrant umbrella over the walkway. It does take a bit of maintainance but that is better then removing the huge healthy plant. And it is STUNNING! I do wish I had understood it was not a real "Climbing" rose" when I planted it there. It was supposed to grow up and over the gate. I actually like what it does better but would like to build a sturdy log pergola over the walk way to keep it up above us. |
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