Training Roses: Climbing, Pegging, & Hedging

Sep 22, 2026

Training Climbers

Climbing roses are quite versatile in landscaping. They can be trained up a pole, on a trellis, on an arbor, a wall, or a fence. Truly, your only limit is your imagination.

Just be sure to pay attention to the size of the climber you're getting and how it compares to where you plan on planting it. Avoid getting a very large climber, like Cecile Brunner, for a small area such as a 6x8' trellis. The rose will quickly overtake the trellis, becoming unmanageable and even too heavy for the structure.

And please, don't put your climber in a pot!

Securing Rose Canes

Keep in mind: while called "climbing" roses, climbing roses aren't true climbers by botanical standards. A true climbing plant will have aerial roots, suckers, or tendrils that secure itself to structures, but climbing roses have no such features. Climbing roses are essentially glorified shrubs. They throw out long canes that can be secured to structures, but will not do it on their own; however, they can pick up the behavior. This is why securing and training your roses is so important. 

To secure canes, you can use twine, gardener's tape, plant clips, or any strong and easy-to-tie household fabric or string. This is easy to do on a trellis, pergola, or iron rod fence (essentially any surface that has pieces you can directly tie a cane to). Even when pillar training a rose, you can use your tying material to go all the way around the pillar to secure the rose.

But for structures like solid wooden fences and walls, you may have to install a third-party support system like a wire trellis. You can even screw hooks into the structure and make your own DIY string support system (just use a strong string material). There are many videos on YouTube that will give you suggestions for various inexpensive options.

Increasing Blooming Potential on Climbing Roses

Roses have axillary buds (points where new growth can emerge along the canes). These buds produce lateral canes during the growing season, which can produce rose blooms. When your main cane is horizontal, it stimulates each axillary bud to produce lateral canes, thereby increasing your blooming potential.

This means that if your climbing rose's canes go straight up (vertical), the interior canes may be quite bare of leaf growth, and blooming will only occur at the top of the rose. If you do your best to train your rose horizontally, it will be lusher and more abundant in bloom.

Example of Will Scarlet, a gorgeous climbing rose display, trained by fanning out rose canes. Notice how the center cane is bare except for the top third, but the side canes are full of foliage and roses. Photo submitted by Judy S.

The rule of thumb is to aim for at least a 45-degree angle in rose canes when you're securing them in place. If growing your climbers on a wide area like a trellis, fence, or wall, try to fan out your rose canes so that most of them are at 45 degrees or more. If weaving your rose around an arch or pillar, you'll do your best to braid the canes around the structure rather than having them go straight to the top. 

Rose canes can absolutely be completely horizontal. If your rose is crawling along the top of a fence or pergola, you're set to see a beautiful display.

Example of Peggy Martin growing completely horizontally along the top of a fence.

Timing

As your rose grows after planting, start training once canes are long enough to tie! Continue to keep up this habit with each growing season as you see loose canes. If there are out-of-control canes that would be too awkward to secure to the structure, it will not hurt the rose to prune these off.

What if my climber is completely unruly because it hasn't been managed for years? 

During your big late winter/early spring pruning, it's time to clean it up! Start by removing dead or damaged growth. Then, prune back everything twiggy or out-of-place. If you see canes crossing and rubbing against one another, remove the one moving in a strange direction. You may want to prioritize saving young, green, but developed canes, then pruning out any old woody canes. Once you've minimized your plant to main canes, you can shorten these to a manageable height, then train them. 

Pegging Roses

What does it mean to "peg a rose"?

Pegging a rose is the act of securing a long cane (from a large rose being grown as a shrub) down to the ground, often increasing the overall width of a rose while decreasing the height. 

What's the point of pegging a rose?

While not commonly seen in gardens, this is a fantastic practice for those who want to increase their rose's blooming potential, cover a wider area, and create something akin to a groundcover.

Covered above under the training climbers section, training a cane at a 45-degree angle will stimulate growth and blooms along the entire cane rather than at the very top, but it's not limited to climbers! Pegging a large shrub achieves this same concept.

Example of climbing rose, Fortuniana, which was partially trained to climb on a trellis, and partially pinned to the ground.

Can I peg just any rose?

Unfortunately, no. A suitable rose for pegging will have long, flexible canes about 5 to 7 feet long. Many Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals make great candidates for pegging, as they are custom-built for this purpose. 

Climbing/shrub roses that reach over 7 feet are not good for pegging because they can quickly grow out of bounds and be unattractive. 

Roses to peg:

How do I peg my rose?

  1. Wait to peg your rose's canes until the season after they grew out. For example, if you got some long cane growth during the summer or fall, wait until the following spring to peg them down. This allows the rose cane to harden so you reduce the risk of breaking it. 
  2. Grab the end of the rose cane and bend it toward the ground- and this part is up to you. You can either secure it into a dramatic arch if you want a bit more height, or you can nearly flatten it to the ground so that it's completely horizontal- but either will work! This choice is dependent on what space and dimensions will suit your garden. 
  3. Once you've determined your preferred level of arch, secure the rose cane to the ground with something like an Anchoring Pin (the photo example below is demonstrated on a young cane, but you will want yours to be more developed).
  4. Continue around the plant, creating either a wheel or a swirl until all 5-7' canes are secured. 
  5. Old canes can be pruned off every three or so years if they do not bloom as much and to make room for new canes.
  6. That's it!

Creating a Rose Hedge

Informal Hedges

Informal hedges are perfect for those who want to double up on privacy and security, all the while softening or masking a wall or fence. Hybrid Musks make great informal hedges, along with large varieties from the China or Rugosa classes. Bonus: Rugosas are very thorny for those who want even more security.

The "informality" of it all means that these roses can essentially be left alone. While basic feeding is helpful, along with watering (especially during dry periods), these roses require little to no pruning. 

Example of Penelope, a Hybrid Musk at our gardens that gets little pruning, used as an informal hedge.

Formal Hedges

Formal hedges are for those who want uniformity within their garden, which can achieve the same goals of security or disguise. Chinas and Teas are excellent for larger hedges (4-6'), while Polyanthas can create smaller hedges (3-5').

Formal hedges require a bit more thought and pruning, according to your aesthetic preferences. You can shape them into rounded hedges or create a box-like effect. Hedges can be pruned pretty harshly for uniform, thick growth, and some even resort to shearing rather than hand-pruning. If you prefer your hedge to be thicker, stagger them in a zig-zag fashion or double up your row (keep in mind that this can make them harder to prune).

Earth-Kind® Roses are a great option for hedging, as they are tried and true, water-wise, and low-maintenance plants, which is fantastic for landscaping.

Conclusion

We hope that with this guide, you will feel more comfortable about training your roses.

If you have any other questions regarding more details on rose information, please see our other blogs or reach out to us at gardenquestions@weareroses.com.
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