Is my rose a climber or a rambler?

This is the single most useful identification a rose owner can make, because the two types are pruned at opposite ends of the year and by completely different methods. If you have inherited a rose on a wall and nobody knows what it is, four observations settle it without any need for a variety name.

Step by step

1. Observation one: count the flushes.This is the decisive test. A rambler produces one overwhelming display, usually in June or early July, and then makes leaves for the rest of the season. A climber flowers in June, pauses, and flowers again — often two or three times — into September or October.
2. Observation two: look at the flowers themselves.Ramblers typically carry many small flowers in large trusses, often single or semi-double, and frequently very strongly scented. Climbers carry fewer, larger flowers, usually the size of a bush rose bloom, singly or in small clusters.
3. Observation three: feel the stems.Rambler stems are long, thin and flexible enough to bend round an arch without cracking. Climber stems are noticeably stiffer and thicker and resist bending, which is why climbers are trained rather than woven.
4. Observation four: measure the year's growth.A rambler can throw up two or three metres of new cane from the base in a single season. A climber extends more modestly. If you are cutting armfuls off it every year to keep it in bounds, it is almost certainly a rambler in the wrong place.
5. Check whether it produces new canes from the base.Ramblers renew themselves by sending up fresh canes from ground level, which is why they are pruned by removing old canes entirely. Climbers build a permanent woody framework and rarely produce basal canes once established.
6. Act on the answer.Rambler: prune straight after the flowers finish, taking out whole old canes at the base and tying in the new ones. Climber: prune in winter, keeping the framework and shortening the side shoots to two or three buds.
7. If you genuinely cannot tell, wait a season and record it.Do nothing but remove dead wood this year, and write down the month it flowers and whether it flowers again. One lost season of tidiness is far cheaper than cutting off a rambler's entire display.

Tips

• A rose sold as a climber that flowers once in June and never again has probably been mislabelled, or is one of the handful of once-flowering climbers. Treat it as a rambler for pruning purposes — the flowering behaviour matters, not the label.
• Ramblers grown into trees are often best left almost entirely unpruned. The whole point of the plant in that position is that it looks after itself.
• 'Rambling Rector', 'Kiftsgate', 'Wedding Day' and 'Paul's Himalayan Musk' are all very large ramblers frequently sold to people with small gardens. Check the eventual spread before planting any of them.

Common mistakes

• Pruning a rambler in winter, along with everything else — It flowers on wood made the previous summer, so a winter cut removes the flower buds. The plant looks healthy all year and produces almost nothing, which sends people looking for a disease that is not there.
• Trying to keep a rambler small by cutting it back hard every year — You are removing next year's flowering wood every time. Either give it the space it needs, move it to an arch or a tree, or replace it with a climber.

Questions people ask