I have a suitable spot where I’d like to train a climbing rose on my exterior of my house. It’s an old house with uneven granite rocks, with a lime rendering. I’ve purchased the rose (le grand huit), which I’m told reaches up to 250-300cm in height. If I can’t dig deep enough into the ground, I may purchase an old oak barrel, cut it to a suitable height, and cut out the bottom , to give it an appropriate growing depth, where the roots can potentially push out the bottom hole of the barrel into whatever top soil is available.
I’m not sure what to do about trellising. I’m assuming one of those zig-zagging wooden trellises would be the best solution? If so, I don’t really want to attempt drilling holes into granite rock (I’m not sure my drill and masonry drill bits are up to the job). Is it easier to try and line up areas to drill into the lime rendering, and maybe install some plastic plugs to hold it up?
In any of the houses I’ve lived in previously which had climbing roses, the classic French solution was to hammer, or drill, metal pegs, or hammer 6 inch nails into the stone/brick/mortar, and then pull a wire in a straight line across the wall from one end to the other, optionally wrapping the wire around intermediately placed pegs . Place as many lines of wire as you would like/need in order to support the growth.
Ideally you get traditional gardener’s lead headed nails that have a spur to hold a shoot, or attach wire. I have some I bought here but really can’t remember where. They are shaped so easy (!) to hammer into joints/cracks etc.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/731087586/vintage-francis-lead-headed-wall-nails
@RicePudding That’s what I’ve seen too. My house has one or two plants attached via this method. I wasn’t sure if it was suitable for climbing roses or not.
@JaneJones Crikey, 70 year old nails. They look impressive. i wonder if there’s a suitable modern day equivalent?
Agreed.
A climbing rose will turn the wooden trellis to splinters inside a few years - they get heavy and stems get chunky.
I ran two parallel cables - third goes in this week hopefully - and a few verticals. Decent galvanised wire - now the cheap way is big screw into wall - wrap cable around screw. Pull tight at next screw and twist around - repeat. It’s a pain getting cable tight but it cheap. Or do it properly - hooks or eyes into wall - use a tensioner to pull it tight.
You need to tie the rose in - RHS website will tell you how
@chrisell Thank you for the reply. I’ve decided to go for hooks or perhaps screw eyes. Seems like a more secure and inexpensive alternative. I’ve been watching videos on tying in. Being new to roses, I didn’t know the trick is to try and get branches growing more horizontally. Unfortunately the area I’m growing in, is between a window and door, so I mostly need vertical growth, but I will try and train branches as horizontally as possible as it gets more established.