How to get a fence covered in roses...

 ... instead of the usual problem, where you have a fence covered in bare stems, and a bunch of roses so high up that you can't see them.

This is such a common problem: it's really easy to fix, and it's all about the training.

I've already written at length ("how else?") about the Whys and Wherefores of training Roses, and the need for persuading the roses to go horizontally, in order to get more flowers on them.

Here is a perfect example - in fact, Here's One I Did Earlier *laughs*

This is a climbing rose which the Client bought, for a splash of colour on the rather dull fence.

They originally started training it to go straight up the fence, but I stepped in, at an early stage, and instead, trained the rose to go sideways, so that we could cover more of the fence with just the one plant.

This was achieved simply by screwing a couple of Vine Eyes into the fence posts, then stretching strong galvanised wire between them.

As the rose grew, the branches were tied onto the wire - not wrapped around it, but that's an article for another day! - and now, in the second year, you can see that the rose is making good progress along the fence.

And you can see how the branch is simply covered with flowers and buds.

Here is the lower branch:

And again, you can see that it's covered in buds.

Roses always want to climb upwards, so this year, we'll allow a few more branches to grow from the lower branch, but we won't allow any branches to grow from the upper one: they'll all be pruned off. 

This prevents the rose from getting out of control, by growing up and over the top of the fence - and it also keeps all the flowers on our side of the fence, where we can see them!

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