By Charnwood
Dublin,
Ireland 
Hi, I don't know if this rose is a climber or a rambler, but it is lovely when in bloom. It's a bit stragley at the moment, do I cut it all back or just tie it in, thanks for all advice.
14 Mar, 2014
Do you know the variety?
The best definition of rambler v climber is that ramblers flower once, climbers repeat-flower throughout summer.
Either way best time to prune is either late summer/autumn after flowering which reduces the risk of wind rock, or very early spring before growth gets under way.
That one looks like it would stand a serious sorting out this weekend:
- cut all the ties holding it to the pergola
- lay it down over the patio
- select two or three strong stems for each pergola upright and prune them lightly to an outward facing bud
- select one or two strong, shorter stems for each upright and prune this down to about 2ft height
- prune the rest hard back
- loosely fix the stems to the pergola with proper plant ties or garden twine
Annual 1/3 pruning should then be a lot easier to cut out any stems that are crossing or growing in the wrong direction. Cut 1/3 hard back each year, lightly prune the other 2/3. Check out the RHS pages on rose pruning
14 Mar, 2014