Pruning climbing plants (roses, vine)

Hi everyone,

I have three climbers in my garden - all three were planted this spring.

The roses
I have read somewhere that climbing roses should not be pruned in their first year and thereafter need a winter prune? Is this correct or some random myth I picked up?

One is quite bushy and not very tall (about 2ft, started out 1ft) and still covered in roses (I dead head regularly all blooming season). The other is very "leggy" and shot up to 5ft over this one summer (started out less than 1ft) and didn't produce any roses this year -- Both are looking very healthy and green!
Should I lop anything off this winter? If so how much and when!

The vine
This is a green grape vine grafted on a rootstock. It has grown very vigorously all summer and has about four strong vines stretching about 6ft to one side. The other side is less exciting! I read this should be pruned back to one single vine-branch - is this correct and if so how much should I leave and when should I do it?

Many thanks for any help!
First year anything is growing, so it's all new to me!

 

Hi Soot,
I see nobody has replied so I thought I'd put my oar in. I recently joined the site myself but am a keen gardener.
You don't need to worry too much about pruning yet as it's the first year, the roses just take out any dead wood if there is any. The rose which has shot up is probably a rambler and those would produce side shoots next year which will then hopefully flower.
Just tie in anything that you can and start to train them to the wall/fence. That includes the vine,spread them out and tie them in.

 

Thanks for your advice!
I just don't want to kill everything in its first year!

 

Soot, like scillonian said, pruning for the roses isn't imperative for the first year. For the upcoming years, you would want to cut out the dead, diseased and old branches in addition to forming your climbing plant to whatever structure it is on (trellis, pole etc.)

Best of luck with the climbers!

 

I only just saw I had more replies on this in November!

Thanks for your help, everyone. Would be just my luck to have abnormal plants! I had to move the bushier one and of course in doing so managed to damage it :( :( I know roses are fairly tough, so I kinda just propped it up in its new location on a fence trellis and am hoping for the best.

The long gangly one is just as long and gangly as ever! My friend mentioned it might have had a super growth spurt due to a chicken buried underneath? Don't know if that's some odd urban myth :D ... But it seems happy and healthy and very gangly so I'll let you know if there are any flowers this year!

 

If the leaves are perky, green and sheeny there's probably nowt much wrong. Wait and see what happens this summer.