What is the rose?

How old is it?

Where are you?

I think it's a Don Juan, but not sure

3 years old

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Thank you!

Karla, I’m not a professional but I do have more than a dozen climbing roses among my approximately 200 roses. ( I don’t know the exact number and don’t want to know.) I don’t treat them all the same because they vary in need based on their growth styles and my wishes for each one depending on their location, etc.
However, when mine “ go mad” in the autumn, as they frequently do, I mostly let them go mad. If I feel a need to whack them back a bit, I focus on those that are shooting out directly away from the structure I have them fastened to. Those I cut all the way back to the can they came from. I don’t want them now and I know I won’t want them next spring either . Any cane that looks like it might be a good one for next year’s blooming, I simply fasten it in the general direction I want it to go. I’m not particularly trying to train it at this point, but while it’s young and supple, I start it going the right direction. In the spring when I prune and train everything is when I do my final sorting through the canes and lop off anything that doesn’t fit my scheme for that plant and tie in and train the ones I keep.

No pruning of any kind until spring, 2026. When the forsythia and large daffodils are blooming (not the mini-daffodils which start about two weeks before the large dafs), is a good time to spring prune your climber. If you are worried about winds whipping around those long canes over winter, just tie them up temporarily.

Moses.

What zone are you in, Karla? I’m thinking you’re in a similar growing climate as I am in the mountains of Southern Arizona?

Karla is in zone 6/7, Judi. She gets about 12.8 inches of rainfall a year. July, diminishing monthly until October, are Sante Fe's rainiest months. January and February are its driest months.

Moses.

Ok, wow. Thanks Moses. I’ve been to Santa Fe not long ago, but didn’t remember it being high enough elevation to be that cold.