So sorry, I couldn't get photos to upload! I'll try again tomorrow

cane with laterals

Overall shrub (note—will be training this onto the wall with the window)

some beauty from last summer

How many hours of direct sunlight will Bathsheba get in a day on that side of the shed? It better be at least 6 hours for maximum bloom and vigorous growth. More is even better.

Your Bathsheba is indeed an impressive bush already, for just one year's growth, 2024. You're taking good care of her, congratulations! Keep up your good work.

You may have to remove almost 1/2 of your bush, the oldest, thinnest, weakest looking canes, to the ground since you planted Bathsheba at the corner of the shed. I don't know if she can make canes long enough to reach the end of the other corner of the shed, if that is your intention. She may be able to. She will still look great if able to only grow most of the way there. Be careful of what you cut, because once cut, the cut canes/growth cannot be reattached.

Climbers are among the most high maintenance needy of roses, but the results are awesome.

BTW, What are you going to use to fasten her to your shed?

Moses.

I rue the day that I planted a climber lol I know the theory of training her but I admit that im not doung a great job. Fortunetely, Quicksilver is very forgiving and continues to bloom in spite of my blunders

These plants look great natural too, without all the pruning if anyone gets tired.

I like that, Sheila. By the time I got to Bathsheba to prune her this spring, I felt like she was the most difficult to figure out how to best prune. I have her growing as a free-standing bush against my rock wall and there’s nothing to attach her to. Besides, she has plenty of room to spread and drape over the wall there, so I just cleaned her up a bit and let her go. I’m thinking she will be just fine like that.

Kristine, you picked a tough rose to train because Quicksilver's canes are very stiff and brittle. You can hear the snap and crack, literally, as you bend a recalcitrant cane to go where you want it to go. I am now growing mine as a bush with limited success because it still, well into maturity, grows octopus canes with flowers only at the tips. Lateral growth that would come if the cane was forced to grow horizontally is in short supply on QS's vertical prone canes when left to its own devices. I would replace it but it's flower is one of my favorites, and the bush has a monster crown now. I'm not really physically up to the task of shovel pruning such a behemoth.

Moses.

This is off topic, but I was so interested to learn Moses' thoughts about Quicksilver, which I happen to have. I was seduced by the color but after this information I'm reconsidering as at this stage, and at its prime location, I don't want a recalcitrant prima donna. Thank you, Moses, and best wishes, lw, with your project.

Quicksilver's colour is what got to me, too. Though mine are still very small, I can see that the canes are indeed stiff. However, back in the days when I had "Harlekin"-also a Kordes and also pretty stiff-I DID manage to train it horizontally,and I'm hoping to do this with Qsilver as well. What I remember doing was taking a very gradual approach- first, taking the very stiff cane and bending it over slightly in the direction I wished, and tying it in place. Then wait. After some time has passed (don't remember how much ; say a couple of weeks), go back and tilt the same cane slightly more horizontally,tie it in place, wait. And on and on, until the cane is finally horizontal. It does require time and patience, and I only think to bother trying this because it's flowers are such a unique colour.

Thanks for that, Bart. I’m going to try the same method with another stiff climber I have, Kiss Me Kate.

Good information Bart Bart. Two yests ago I just pruned Quicksilver and key her grow as scshrub. She quickly went rogue and took over the world. She has really thick, stiff canes, but those blooms!!

What a beauty, Kristine! There's no shortage of petals on Quicksilver's blooms!

Not only are they beauties, but the blooms are durable, almost like they're made of plastic. Fragrance is good but not noteworthy, unfortunately.

Not only are they beauties, but the blooms are durable, almost like they're made of plastic. Fragrance is good but not noteworth, unfortunately.

I'm tempted to cut a shallow notch above some select dormant buds on each pruned cane right after the upcoming spring pruning of my Quicksilver. This should/could disrupt the upward flow of nutrients a bit and 'stall,' the energy at these buds, causing them to break dormancy and be flower producing laterals.

What do you think? Will it work?

Moses.

Moses I had the same problem with Dark desire here and I used a slow approach loke Bart Bart describes. I would grab the canes and since I couldn’t bend them much without snapping the I would tie them with twine and weight them down with a brick or a heavy duty garden staple. A week or two later I would pick up some slack on the twine and after a while it was a nicely shaped octopus.

I've read about that technique somewhere, Moses...worth a try.

@lw (7a SE Pennsylvania) I just want to share what I discovered last year ehen tackling Laguna! It is all about summoning your courage and just starting with the dead and twiggy canes. A vigorous rose is pretty forgiving and as you work at sorting it out and tying canes you'll get a better sense of what "makes sense" in terms of the plant growth pattern and your objective. Just take it one cane at a time and trust the process!

I learned from somewhere that climbers should be trsined by selecting three canes and reducibg laterals to a few buds. In the case of Floretina, now in its fifth year, the laterals are 6’ long and as thick as canes. I still cut them back but wonder what the result will be.

I have Quicksilvers Im training as pillars but now wonder if a different kind of support would be better. Would they cascade on an umbrella type?

Kitasei, my own Qsilvers are too small for me to be sure, but my gut instinct is that qsilver-and in fact, no rigid climber-would be a very good "cascader". What's more, Qsilver supposedly only grows to the height of about 7 feet.

So a rigid climber with few laterals.. What kind of support would be ideal?

Heavy duty support. Any climber not growing upon strong support is headed for trouble. Attached to a wall. Fastened to a sturdy fence. Spiraled around a strong obelisk....or left to grow as a large shrub. As a large, no support shrub, hopefully its arching canes will orient horizontally, encouraging much coveted lateral, flower producing stems, not just at the arching canes' tips.

Moses.

This is Captain Samuel Thomas on an obelisk.

The good Captain is a kordesii Explorer. So like the roses being discussed here, it is really a shrub rose with long enough canes to be somewhat trained as a climber. The 'somewhat' comes from the stiffness of the canes.

I'm going to repeat Moses advice on a *sturdy* support. This rose was originally trained to a cedar post, which rotted out. The obelisk had to be manuevered around the rose, and isn't in there as well as it should be. So the stakes at the bottom are there to hold the obelisk upright, so it can hold the rose upright.

I thought I was a total incompetent when it came to training climbers until I had the pleasure of training Dr. Huey. That was a climber who read the books, and understood what was expected. I'm not aware of a hardy (7a), repeat blooming climber that has read the books.