How to Train Climbing Roses

One of the questions I am often asked is how to train climbing roses around a doorway. We planted Eden roses on our back porch a couple of years ago, and have trained them to grow around the doorway using a super simple technique. Today I wanted to share exactly how we trained our climbing roses, so you can do the same in your garden.

We planted these roses in the ground, close to the wall, on either side of the porch. They were about 6′ tall when we got them, but since the planter sits a couple feet below the porch, they did not reach very far up the side of the doorway at first.

This i show they looked after a year of growth.

The original roses came with stakes attached, which we left in place when we planted them. Once they started growing, we attached wire (fairly heavy gauge to hold the weight of the plant) to the wall on either side of the doorway so we had a place to tie the new growth. To secure the wire, we placed wood screws 18-24 inches apart and then wrapped the wire securely around each screw.

Using plant tie, we gathered together any new sprouts and tied them to the wire as seen below.

Once the growth reached the top of the doorway, we attached another piece of wire, horizontally above the door and continued to tie the new sprouts with the plant tape.

After just two years, the roses surrounded our doorway completely and produced a ton of blooms in the spring.

The same technique can be used with climbing roses in pots.

On our back patio, we planted the same Eden roses in 20″ square pots. These roses were a bit shorter when we got them and we removed the stakes.

We attaches wire to the opening where we wanted to train the climbing roses and as they grew, we used plant tape to attach them to the wire.

While we planted these at the same time as the other roses, they have not grown quite as quickly because they are in containers.

They have still made great progress in just two years and have just about surrounded the opening on our patio.

I hope this gives you an idea about how to train climbing roses that is simple and easy to achieve. We truly love the look of these beautiful blooms surrounding our doorway and patio opening and know you will too!

Tour our garden HERE.

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17 Comments

  1. Hi Karen! Can you tell me what kind of wire you used and how you attached it? Like to the wall? Thanks! So beautiful! I need to do this to my new arbor and have some crawling the fence right now but would love them to climb my side of the house as well. 😘

    1. Hi Summer! Yes, we attached heavy gauge wire directly to the wall/posts using screws and then wrapping the wire around to secure it. Sorry if this wasn’t clear in my post…I’ll add a bit more detail to that section. Thanks for stopping by! Good luck with your roses!

  2. This is exactly the information I need. My family planted two yellow climbing roses last year outside my bedroom window in the expectation that it will climb like yours. Incidentally, I have read your article. It was great for me because my 2 plants have grown a lot higher and this is the best time to train it.

  3. Karen, we live in northern Nevada where we have very hot summers and very cold winters. Since this is your Montana home I assume the Eden rose will take the cold, what about heat? My Western wall needs something and I think climbing roses would be wonderful! That wall gets 100° consistently during the summer, do you know if that rose can take it?

    1. Hi Andera,
      The climbing roses are actually at my home in Southern California, where we also get very hot summers but not terribly cold winters! I would check with your local nursery about their ability to withstand the cold but I know they will survive 100 plus temps in the summer.

  4. Do your roses get a lot of sun? I’d like to plant them in the front but they only get an hour of two of sun

  5. Do they get stacked on top of each other in order to be attached to the wire? Do you also have a video tutorial on this? I purchased a climbing rose bush off the internet and now I’m trying to figure out how to begin my rose’s climbing journey to my roof.

  6. Beautiful all around! Would you mind sharing what type of pavers you used? They look like bluestone but I’ve never seen bluestone in that format. Thanks!

  7. Your roses (and garden!) are beautiful! I am from SoCal but have a home in SC (zone 7). In my front yard, I have an arbor with two Lady Banks vines, a Red Rambler vine on one side and another climber on the the other. They are so small and not fast growers this time of year (planted in summer). 🙁 BUT, I just received my first Eden Climber in a 1-gal pot. I have so many ideas for where to put it and love the idea of growing as you did over your door; for me it would be my front door. What do these look like in the winter? Thanks!!

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