Advice
RHS Help & Advice
Pruning and training rambler roses
Ramblers are ideal for clothing long runs of fencing or walls, but where space is restricted poor pruning will soon result in a mess of tangled stems bearing only a few flowers.
True ramblers flower once only each year. They tend to produce vigorous growth and often flower best on the previous year's stems.
Ramblers should be pruned after planting to encourage growth from the base. Remove dead, damaged or twiggy growth and cut back the main stems to about 40cm. Carefully train the shoots by fanning them out and tie in the new stems horizontally.
Once the available area is covered thin and shorten excess growth after the summer flowering. Ramblers make more new growth from the base than climbers so one in three of the oldest stems can be removed entirely. Where space is restricted all flowered stems can be cut out and new ones tied in their space. Then shorten sideshoots by about two-thirds.
Overgrown ramblers
Old overgrown plants can be tackled in autumn and winter. Begin by completely removing all dead, diseased, dying, damaged and weak growth, taking out large stems in sections to minimise damage to the remaining stems. Then reduce the final framework to a maximum of six young, vigorous stems.
The remaining wood should then have all sideshoots reduced by two-thirds and the leader tip-pruned to encourage branching. A renovated plant will need feeding with a granular rose fertiliser and mulching with organic matter - such as garden compost - in spring. The resulting new growth should be tied in during the summer while it is still flexible.
Tony Dickerson