Gardeners often say they don’t plant climbing roses or large
shrub roses because they’re difficult to keep under control and
they take up too much space, especially if the garden is small.
This may be true, but the problem is easily solved. Simply
arching a rambler’s long canes confines and controls them and
produces more blooms at the same time. The technique is called
self-pegging. To understand this technique and why it works, it
is helpful first to know a little bit about a climbing rose’s
physiology. Even though they are commonly called climbing roses,
climbers are really just large shrubs. Truly climbing plants
have runners or viny structures that reach out to latch onto
anything around them. Unlike wisteria, which winds itself around
a support, sweet peas, which grasp with tendrils, or ivy, which
has specialized root structures for attachment to surrounding
supports, roses do not attach themselves to anything on their
own. To clamber upwards and reach sunlight, roses that climb
simply take advantage of