Plant Doctor Archive

 I WOULD like to know how to train my weeping rose tree so that the limbs hang (weep) down like they should.

 JIM ANTILL, landscaping lecturer here at UNITEC, is a good source of information about trees and shrubs, so he was my first port of call. Jim thought that if it really is a weeping rose, the branches should ‘weep’ naturally. It sounds as if it’s a climber, whose shoots naturally grow upwards. If you want to force it to weep, let the shoots get about half a metre long, then tie them down or hang weights on them, to bend them into the desired form. After 6–12 weeks it should be possible to release the ties or weights and the branches will stay. (If they don’t, tie ’em again!!)

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