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Old 08-11-2008, 10:07 PM
Janet Conroy Janet Conroy is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Aug 2008
Posts: 154
Default Pruning a neglected climbing rose.

I inherited a very mankey looking climbing rose on an east facing brick wall last year. When I sorted it out I was left with only two live stems, both of which rise vertically to about 5 feet. The laterals that have come off them this year have all pointed in the wrong direction - into the wall, at 90 degrees to the wall, etc. Meanwhile, a third stem has popped up to about 3 ft. I know the theory about training climbers onto a wall, but this bugger has me foxed. Should I prune the verticals, and, if so, to what, given that there are no signs of any live buds?