Growing rose climbers in a pot before planting

DubLad69

Hi all,

I am buying a house that won't be finish being built until January, and it will have an ugly 2.8 meter concrete wall at the back of the garden. We want to cover it, and part of the covering we want to use climbing roses. We are looking at maybe 3 sections of climbing roses that are about 2 meters apart.

What I am wondering is, if it is possible to progrow these roses in large pots at our current home and then plant them in the new garden once we move. This will give us at least some coverage in the first year and I am hoping it will give them time to grow in full sun, as their new location will be partially shaded.

Is this something that could work?

Reckless Abandonment

Should work alright . The plants will be bigger and stronger when you do plant them in the ground.

looksee

No problem, you are only continuing what the nursery would do. Plant them into a slightly larger pot. Pot them into a straight-sided normal plantpot using either good soil or 'compost with John Innes' and let them continue growing. Don't be afraid to prune down any straggly branches, you are not growing for height and flowers yet, if you have a good root system and sturdy branches the height will come when you have them in place.

I didn’t have great success with pots my mistake was I didn’t water/ feed consistently or enough but if you get that right it’ll be perfect!

looksee

I'm not a great believer in shrubs in pots, though I do have a truly splendid Pieris that is about 4' tall and wide that has been in a pot for years, completely ignored, and it continues to look lovely. On the whole though, I prefer to plant in the ground.

Still, holding roses for a while till they can be planted is not a problem - I had half a dozen newish roses that I took out of the ground and that survived in an assortment of holding pots for 12 months, again badly neglected. They have been planted out now and all but one are doing fine, and I think that one will rally eventually.