A very large proportion of modern climbers are sports of bush roses i.e. they are genetic variations. Climbers by their very nature want to reach for the sky and inevitably do not flower until they have reached the top. Most have thick canes which resist bending.
It is very difficult to study a rose or smell the perfume when standing on a ladder. So we must fool the plant to give us blooms at a lower altitude and yet have it reaching the top of a festoon, tripod or arch.
During the spring and summer, let the young climbing canes go as far up in the air as they can. Preferably the height reached should be the distance required when the cane is brought to the horizontal. Many climbing canes will not increase their length once they are trained to the horizontal.
In autumn, take the long canes and gently bring them down towards the horizontal without stressing or breaking them and tie them in at that angle. The canes should end up as close to horizontal as we can get them, which may take several weeks of bringing them down, tying, then rebending and retying to get them there.
Canes of climbers do not like going downhill, frequently suffering dieback in these attempts, so do not attempt to take them below horizontal. In your home garden you can bring the canes down by tying an old soft drink bottle to the end of the cane. Add water to the bottle every couple of days to increase the weight until the cane gets to where you want it.
Having tortured the canes into these new shapes, stand back and watch laterals shoot up from almost every second bud. These laterals become the flower bearing shoots.
For recurrent climbers, deadhead the laterals fairly firmly (back to a plump bud three or four from the main cane) to give the best displays of roses. In winter pruning, the team will try to replace old non-productive canes with new ones. They usually restrict the number of canes on each bush to five or six.
For once blooming climbers, the team will prune once flowering is finished, by pruning the laterals to a level of two or three buds from the main cane and then in winter, do a shaping trim only.
