Roses, Behave

We have a gorgeous rose bush in our back yard - lovely blooms, that is, but very badly behaved. The previous owners planted it too closely to the windows outside. Every time the wind would blow, the bush swayed and scratched the window.

Irritating.

I was inspired by photos of gorgeous climbing roses and decided that I needed to retrain our rose  bush to grow away from the window.

Retraining required a few simple things: chicken wire, plant ties and brick clips.

First step: Prune the rose bush. After much reading, I realized that I didn't need to fear being "too harsh" with the bush. I cut out all of the dead wood, old canes and spent blooms. This reduced the overall bush size by nearly half.

Second step: Measure and attach clips to the wall. You can purchase brick clips at online hardware stores. I was most impressed with the selection and price at Lee Valley Tools. Brick clips are inexpensive, but you need to know the height of your bricks and order appropriately.

Third step: Attach wire. Use wire cutters to clip the chicken wire to the correct width and stretch to fit over the clips.

 

Be prepared for your husband to declare that you are making the house look like trailer trash. Whatever. He just hasn't grasped the glorious vision.

 

 

Fourth step: Pull your roses towards the wire and clips. Use plant ties to secure the canes to the wire.

 

I don't have any photos of this step because this is when I realized that my rose bush is a crazy hybrid mix of rose bush and barbed wire. It was a bloody battle between the bush and myself. We each took some painful hits, but eventually I won.

 

Voila! Enjoy your newly reshaped rose bush.

Much better, right? I can't wait to see how it grows and fills in over time.

I think the roses will be happier, too. Aren't they pretty?

And, FYI - fixing this rose bush was one of my 101 goals!