I have one of the original red, and I can't imagine trying to peg it. Are the canes on the pink double more limber and longer than the original? Mine has short, very stiff canes.

IMO, pegging is best done with roses that have long, limber canes that bloom mostly out at the ends of those canes. Many HPs and some Austin roses are like this. Pegging forces bloom all along the canes close to where you experience it, and way more bloom than you otherwise get. It is a lot of work, both to do it initially, and to clean up afterwards. I don't know DPK, but if its growth habit is not like this, it probably is not a good candidate for this kind of training.

Rosefolly

Sherry, I have a climber, Jasmina which was waving around wildly while there was no room to erect any sort of support system - what I did was tie old tights to the main trunk and make a loop to catch the long canes and pull them back towards the ground, just stopping short of making them bend underneath the canopy of growth. This was a temporary measure to prevent breaking canes in east anglian winds but I actually left it for a season as it looked rather good and I didn't want to lose the long canes. In truth, it was a bit of a 'mare, grovelling around underneath the thorny rose but I only had to tie back 2 canes, both of which then broke out in lateral growth with blooms at the end of each 10inch lateral. As long as there is enough flex to bend the canes without snapping, then I think you could experiment, even causing the canes to spiral around to the sides or front of the rose. If not, then yep, do a cut(much as you want, even up to half the length), now and there will be a later flush in about 6 weeks.Cut the canes below the level of the next tallest to avoid the weird umbrella look of new growth coming high on a cane. I 'prune' my roses when I feel like it, when I have secateurs to hand and especially when my hair or clothes have been grabbed by unruly growth.

Last fall I took several of the long canes of Scharlachglut and pegged them out about 4' from the base of the plant. I have noticed two things: there are definitely lots more beautiful flowers along the parts of the canes that are on the horizontal, but there is dieback all the way from where the canes are pegged to where they become horizontal. Is this to be expected? I don't particularly mind, but I'm wondering if it's because of the rose I chose to try or if all roses will do that at their tips?

Excellent suggestion, Campanula! Where do you get all these ideas?? I have a drawer full of pantyhose and knee-hi's (haven't worn them in years!). Seems like they would be perfect with their stretchiness. I'll go do it now.

Thanks!!

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Is pegging like layer propagation? Or is it just a way for forcing bud breaks along the horizontal growth?

It can be but mainly the latter, I think. Whenever I've pulled the canes all the way to the ground, the ends of the canes died. Maybe that's a normal risk, but this time I just pulled them so they ended up about a foot off the ground. Hopefully, you can see what I did in these photos. It looks pretty messy, but I'm thinking the new growth will hide the ugly mechanics. Just to give you your bearings, the gray, beige and 'nude' straight lines are cut strips of pantyhose. They worked really well since they were springy. Canes that were not as long I cut back by about half. She's much bushier than she was last year though. Hopefully, this will result in more bloom.

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Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Yep, Chella - it was beloved of Victorians with their great swathes of hybrid perpetuals and acreage - a fully pegged, mature rose can extend 6 feet in all directions (more than 100 square feet - I could only fit 3 in my entire garden). It encourages laterals to break along the length of the pegged cane - they are not planted in the ground like tip-layering, just held to a horizontal. Between the altered flowing of sap and the sunlight on newly exposed canes, roses which just bloom at the end of canes can be induced to throw a lot of laterals which will also flower at the ends of each cane, but many, many more of them. Not a method which appeals to a lazy slapdash sort like myself, since it is a full-on seasonal regime and requires some fairly rigid control on the growth of the rose.

I have 2 roses that I've 'pegged'. Reallly all I've done is curve the long canes around and either stuck it under another cane or tied it to another cane. The two are Tradescant and Carmella (a Kordes rose). Both put out longish canes. Here is a picture of Tradescant:

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My issue with pegging is that it seems to work great for a year or two, then you have to redo the entire rose. And sometimes it's hard to do. I had a nice new basal on Tradescant that was sticking straight up and I tried to bend it and it broke, so that was disappointing.

Great pictures! So much better than trying to describe what it looks like.

I tried pegging an old what-turned-out-to-be-a-bourbon rose a few years ago, on the advice of my FIL. I didn't bury the canes, but I did tie them down to the ground with those little wire thingies that look like shepherds' crooks. It worked, although I also found it to be a pain to keep having to re-do it.

One neat thing happened, however - it rooted a new plant in one place where the cane was touching the dirt. My DH noticed it. I dug it up and planted it in the sun (the original plant is in total shade and only bloomed in the Spring), and low and behold, it was ever blooming!

So, if you do use a method that involves the canes touching the ground, look to see if any of them have rooted - I had been trying to root that old rose for years with no success.

Jackie

Didn't I read on here, that if the tip-end of the cane is cut off, that the 'juice' that flows up to make the bloom is now directed to all the new laterals that result, when the cane is bent over horizontal?I have tall fence posts in the ground behind several of mine and a trellis fastened to it, so when I bend the cane over I can tie it to the trellis, and when those laterals get long enough they get tied also... Cl. Devoniensis, Mrs. BR Cant, and the Don Juans are all tied down like that and it seems to work good....sally

Landlady described the problem I experienced with pegging. I did it as an attempt to cope with roses that bloomed only at the top of canes which stubbornly grew to 12 ft.

It was a laborious project, which I would not attempt today, but it gave me one remarkable spring bloom on Mme. Isaac Pereire, Austin's Othello, Austin's The Pilgrim, and a few others.

Then, however, ALL of the pegged canes died back to their highest point -- or the point where they became horizontal.

There was nothing to be done at that point but to prune them back to healthy tissue -- and the roses in question, in my climate and conditions, resented that with great indignance ... so, MORE dieback.

In the end, I found it was far more satisfying to simply remove the plants, and replace them with cultivars that were willing to bloom all over, without all of that labor.

Personally, I think pegging was invented by people who had staffs of gardeners with time on their hands.

Jeri

Pegging works well if the plant has two properties:

1) the bush tends to be a non-"upright" variety, i.e; it produces canes at an angle from the base instead of straight up-ish.

2) the canes are not "stocky" at their base, i.e.; thick or thicker than your thumb.

If both conditions exist, it should be fairly easy to peg the canes. Start out being conservative and peg the canes down to about a foot or more above the groud and see what happens. Try to get the "bowed" part of the cane into as much of an arch as possible. That way, almost every leaf junction will sprout a new cane skywards.

If the cane is flexible enough, peg to the ground with the end of the cane turned upwards. Rest the end on a hard surface so the end won't rot into the ground and risk disease entering the cane from the tip end.

If you feel adventurous, cut the cane midway throgh at the part where it touches the ground. Dust it with growing medium and bury the cut part slightly into the ground. Hopefully, the cut part will sprout roots and you will have a new own-root plant!

Course it was, Jeri. I read that Ellen Wilmott employed 104 gardeners (she died bankrupt, practically friendless as her meanness when alive was legendary).

Well, Bow Bells is definitely an upright type. One cane has bent, and none of them or really arched - more flat horizontal between the rise and fall. We'll see. Thanks, David, for the tip on rooting it.

Campanula, I will never again look upon that lovely rose without thnking about her legendary meanness.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Hi buford,

I see something lovely growing up on the left side of your pic. Please post a few more pics of your garden, I would love to see!

I've shared some of these photos before and I hope they are helpful again. Gertrude Jekyll is as upright a grower as I know of but it also has enough flexibility to be a good candidate for pegging. I am sure that some roses will die back when pegged and sometimes Gertrude will to, but more often than no it will do just fine and produce a new plant when pegged to the ground.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gertrude Jekyll Rose Pegged

Dear Wellrounded,
Thank you for the pics of Gertrude pegged. She is rather stiff and I'd not have thought to try pegging her. Your pics of her pegged are glorious and they certainly do amplify the amount of blooms. I happen to have two Gertrude rose bushes. Yep I'm going to give it a try.
Thank you.
Jeannie

Jeannie, You are welcome. You are right Gertrude is a stiff, upright growing rose but she does surprising well with pegging.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: Red Dirt Roses

I thought you'd like to see what Bow Bells is doing 16 days after being pegged.

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Pretty cool.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Sherry,
Your photos are great! Did you peg Bow Bells again this year?