This isn't an official class, but rose gardeners know what I'm talking about. The last couple of days one of my tasks down in the shade garden has been pruning and training up a species climber, R. longicuspis I think it is. We bought this way back in 2004 and planted it in the spot we had available at the time--a poor spot--on the downhill side of a mature flowering ash, in heavy clay over rock. The rose didn't like it. It didn't want to grow in thin heavy soil poor in organic matter; it didn't want to climb into the flowering ash, a medium sized tree with a dense crown. R. longicuspis comes from the Himalayan area, and most roses from that part of the world aren't best suited even to the better end of our range of conditions. R. longicuspis grew, it died back, it got cane girdler, it refused to climb into the tree in any permanent fashion. It didn't die.

I terraced up the ground around the rose, feeding it year after year with all the organic detritus I could find (autumn leaf drop, storms, pruning), and making occasional efforts to train it into the tree. The rose is tremendously thorny, with long hooked thorns that catch on the gardener, itself, nearby shrubs, growing on long, long trailing canes. The possibilities for conflict and pain are endless. I'm in the middle of working on it, still hoping that, this time, I'll be able to get it into the tree and have it stay there. I'm still pruning the second yew hedge, likewise an intimidating task, as the hedge is on steep rocky ground with a pergola alongside, and setting up the ladder is a pain. Once the hedge is finished, or as a break from it, I'll shift the ladder over to the nearby flowering ash and haul the thorny, flexible canes into the tree's crown. Who knows, perhaps this time it will establish there. I think the rose is getting stronger. It's a large once bloomer flowering late in the season with single white flowers. I'd like to have it growing well at last.

P.S. Other demonic roses: R. helenae, 'La Mortola'.