All About Climbers: Pruning and Training your Climbers

Climbers! What a better way to frame the front door of your house, garden trellis, or cottage garden gate. Roses are one of the most common climbers, and the British summer is the peak of the stunning rose flowering season.

These flowers look beautiful from June all the way though to September, and you can keep them flowering for much longer. Keep reading to find out how, or watch the video from our friends at Pots & Trowels which you can check out below.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Climbing Roses

To keep your roses flowering for longer, be sure to deadhead them at regular intervals. You’ll notice them start to go over after a few hot weeks of sun or from lots of downpours of rain.

Keep an eye on fading flowers and then make a quick snip. Get your secateurs close to the flower and remove the dead head or dying bud. It’s also a good opportunity to check for and remove diseased or damaged leaves. The Darlac Cut’n’Hold Bypass Pruner is a fantastic tool for rose pruning and deadheading, as the stems can be cut without the need for touching the prickly growth.

Rose climbers will need support until they are more established, and even then, you may need to tie supports to trellis, or add wiring to keep your roses growing how you would like.

Rose climbers will need their big prune in the winter, when all the flowers have faded. This will allow for strong growth for the next season and, hopefully, lots of flowers.

Who doesn’t love the delicious scent of rose as you step outside your front door? But what other climbers can you add to your garden to bring height, colour and life?

What Climbing Plants are Good for the Garden?

Hydrangeas can make great climbers and you’ll find these make really attractive additions to any garden. The foliage of these plants looks good when they aren’t in flower too. For hydrangeas, the best time to prune them is immediately after flowering, but don’t go too hard. It’s the growth that comes directly from the wall that will bloom next year, so do be aware of cutting too much off.

For some evergreen colours in your garden, why not consider Ivy? The dark green, glossy leaves are impressive all year round, adding depth and life to your garden. You can find a variety of ivy to interchange colours and plants.

Foliage and climbers on archways and trellis can also bring your garden to life. Golden hop can be a great choice as they are deciduous, so they will die down, but with a good prune each year, they will spring back to life and fill out.

Clematis can also be a good choice, but beware of its later growth as it might catch you by surprise. Depending on the variety you’ve got, it won’t start growing in earnest until late summer, and might look smaller compared to other plants at the start of the season.

Climbers can help hide walls, sheds, fences, and unwanted spaces or corners, adding that vertical element to your garden and breathing life and colour. How will you use climbers in your garden?

At Darlac, we’ve got the tool to help you with your pruning jobs. You can find these in store from your local garden centre. Read more about Darlac stockists here.  

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