Mari, on Microsoft Network Excellent question, Mari. But don't be concerned about your confusion over how to prune climbers.
Many gardeners experience the same frustration.
By selectively propagating and cultivating these sports, we create a climbing rose. Sometimes this mutation is deliberately hybridized rather than voluntarily appearing in order to purposefully create a climbing version of a particular rose. If you will think of them in these terms rather than as a variety or Class, then the problem of pruning becomes much easier to understand. If left to its own desires, a climbing rose would just sprawl out into the landscape. Therefore, by thinking of a climbing rose as a garden form, our real concern is how to maintain its shape, keep it growing where we want it to grow, and force it to maximize its bloom.