I have a climbing rose bush, however it hasn't bloomed for about 4 years now.?

Question

It still gets beautiful foilage but no roses.

Answer 1

Climbers left to their own devices grow vertical canes that bloom only at the tips. There is hormone produced at the tips to block lateral branching beneath. Climbing roses produce two kinds of shoots: the main structural canes and the lateral, flowering shoots, which grow from the canes. If allowed to grow straight up it may have failed to produce laterals. If the main stems are slow to branch, tip-prune them to the first strong bud to encourage the flowering sideshoots and fan out the canes so they are closer to horizontal. This encourages flowering from laterals that grow from the main cane. Another method is to train along a fence or spiral the growth around a pillar.
In the late winter, around Valentines Day in zone 7, shorten flowering laterals to three or four buds but do not remove them entirely unless dead. This encourages regrowth in a controlled horizontal mode. If the laterals are not trimmed they will also grow straight up.

Does your rose get more than six full hours of sun? It does not have to be continuous but it must be at least six hours of direct light total. Roses like lots of sun so a full day with 8 hours is best.
If you feed the rose to much nitrogen it may be putting all its effort into growing at the expense of blossoming. Stop feeding it or shift to a low nitrogen fertilizer for roses like Whitney Farm's 4-6-2. A simplified way to remember is N->leaves, P->flowers, K->roots, so you need a fetilizer with high phosphorous levels.
Try Alaska Mor-Bloom 0-10-10 if you have a hose end sprayer since this is liquid. Just spay foliage.
www.lillymiller.com/labels/2007/09301300.pdf


Check the website: www.Everyrose.com, and look under gardener's experiences to see what they have to say about this rose and whether it blooms for them. There are some roses touchier about their conditions than others.

Answer 2

somebody along the line must have hacked it all the way down to the ground. Certain climbing roses you cannot do this with or they will not bloom (for a very long time). As yours has been 4 years though it should start blooming again at some point. Mine did. Good Luck and read up about how to trim them for next time.

Answer 3

I'm going to suggest that something else might have happened ... your rose might be sending up too many 'suckers' from the rootstock or the flowering graft might even be dead.

Most commercially available roses have a flowering portion grafted onto rootstock - this overcomes many deficiencies with the root systems of most rose varieties. If your rootstock sent out too many 'suckers" (canes from the rootstock and NOT the desired grafted top) then these canes will have the characteristics of the rootstock (obviously used for reasons other than flowering ability) and not the flowering portion you bought the rose for.

The graft is usually visible if you look for it - a not so subtle bulge near soil level on the plant. If that's been pruned off or most of your canes are coming from below that union, that's probably what's happening.

If it's still there with viable canes from above the graft, you can revive it with judicious and aggressive pruning - and cutting all new suckers as they shoot up.

Good luck-
...

Answer 4

My only guess is that it's not getting enough light. Roses need at least 6 hours of full sun in order to bloom. If this is not the case please provide more detailed information.

Answer 5

have you pruned the rose bush--roses only flower on new growth. don't be afraid--and when it blooms, prune the flowers as they fade, taking about a 25% prune with them.