There is a article on pruning of roses on BexRose web site that you may find
useful:- http://home.btconnect.com/cadoss/bexrose

A tip for forcing growth lower down on any type of rose stem (particularly
climbers) is to pull/bend the stem down horizontal or lower. You will thus
force all the dormont buds on the outside of the curve (the tension side) to
grow.


Regards

Martin Double
CADOSS

Email:
Web Site: http://home.btconnect.com/cadoss

"Martin C" wrote in message
...
We have 2 climbing roses (Handel and Spanish Beauty) which have been
slightly neglected in terms of pruning. Now, all of the new shoots are too
high up and all the flowers appear at the top of the climbers, with next
to
nothing lower down.

My question is, can the roses be cut right back (to say half their size),
thereby cutting into the main stems. There ARE some shoots coming out of
the
main stems below where we proposed to cut it back, but very few. The
Handel
rose, has practically no lateral shoots lower down.

Can the climber be cut almost back to the ground, or would that kill it.

We have looked in books, but pruning instructions of climbers are always
restricted to pruning of lateral shoots. There is nothing about cutting
hard
back.

Any help would be appreciated.

TIA

Martin