Climbing Roses - Part 1: Why Sideways Wins

Welcome, yardeners! Do you know that dreamy vision of a climbing rose blanketing your fence, dripping with flowers from top to bottom? (Sigh. Same here.) But then reality hits, and your climber looks more like a leafy ladder, saving all the blooms for the very top.

It’s not your fault. Your rose is just following its instincts. But here’s the good news: with a little sideways thinking (literally), you can turn those reluctant canes into bloom-making machines. Today, we’re digging into the why behind horizontal training—and trust us, it’s about to change how you look at your roses forever.

The Root of the Problem: Apical Dominance

Most plants, including our beloved climbing roses, are wired to grow up. The topmost bud on a cane (called the apical bud) produces hormones called auxins that flow downward and tell the lower buds, “Hey, no growing—you just sit there.”

This is called apical dominance.

It’s nature’s way of prioritizing vertical growth—great for trees trying to reach the sun, but not so great for yardeners dreaming of roses spilling over fences and trellises at eye level.

Left alone, a climbing rose shoots up a few tall canes, blooms gloriously at the tips, and leaves the bottom mostly green.

The Magic Trick: Break the Dominance, Wake Up the Buds

You interrupt that hormone flow when you train a rose cane horizontally (or even at a low angle like 45 degrees).

Without a “top” bossing them around, the side buds—the ones that normally stay dormant—wake up. They start growing outward and upward, each one becoming a flowering shoot.

Result?

One cane that would have given you a handful of flowers at the tip now bursts into dozens of blooms all along its length. More blooms, more joy!

Why It Works: A Quick Science Snack

• Auxins pool at the tips when a cane grows vertically, suppressing side shoots.

• When a cane is horizontal, auxins can’t dominate.

• The side buds break dormancy, producing flowering laterals along the cane.

• More side shoots = more blooms.

• More blooms = more dreamy rose moments in your garden. 💕

This isn’t just garden lore—it’s backed by horticultural science, and savvy rosarians have been using it for centuries!

Ready to Try It?

Stay tuned for Part 2, where we’ll show you exactly how to do it—from picking the proper support to tying your canes. You don’t need fancy tools, just patience and a willingness to see your rose from a new angle.

❀ Live your best botanical life from the garden to the kitchen. ❀

Happy gardening!

Danielle Fischer

Coming up next: “Wrangle Those Canes: A Step-by-Step Guide to Training Climbing Roses Horizontally”