It’s so important to Prune your Roses, but often we are too conservative and gently chop away at the top creating more and more spindly stems.
If you don’t prune your Roses properly or at all, over time they will weaken and start to flower poorly, the stems will become so weak that they will not be able to support the flower heads meaning that they droop and flop as you desperately try and support them with canes.
Most modern roses have been breed to produce huge double flower heads. Roses with too much to do, with too many thin stems will flop. You will also find that the secondary growth is a lot more susceptible pest and diseases (e.g. black spot and greenfly).
Branches will also cross and rub against each other creating wounds on the plant. Roses bloom on new growth so you don’t want to prune them too late in Spring otherwise you will be wasting the plants energy producing stems only to chop them off.
This will also delay flowering. Traditionally pruning is done in late Winter/early Spring, however we have found that every year after pruning the new growth is burned by a late frost meaning we have to go back and cut them again!
After speaking with a Rose expert that worked at the Royal Palace gardens I discovered that the Queen had all their roses pruned in late Autumn not Spring!
Pruning now in late Autumn while the rose is dormant gives the plant a chance to toughen up and I also have time! They also bloom earlier, the Queen wanted them flowering in time for the Royal Garden Parties.
This Rose is Chandos beauty one of my top favourites and in serious need of a tidy up.
The growth is really vigorous and healthy however I noticed it starting to struggle for the first time so I gave it a serious chop!
Don’t worry too much about finding the outward facing buds, this is best to create an open airy shape. It will take 5 minutes to check them later, however if you look carefully now as it’s been so mild most nodes are already showing. If you don’t have time to prune now then go ahead and wait to prune later (avoid seriously cold weather).
It’s also okay to prune if you still have leaves or flower buds.
Whenever you decide to prune your Roses I thought you might like to see it how I renovate an over grown plant, in case you might have one in your own gardens that are not performing as well as they once did. It can be a bit nerve racking the first time you do it. After all Bare root Roses arrive newly pruned during winter!
Love Zoe
The Roses in this video are
Roses, Queen of Sweden, Gentle Hermione, Tranquillity, Juliet, A Shropshire Lad, Darcey Bussel, Lady of Sharlott, Desdemona from David Austin Roses. Harkness Rose ‘Chandos Beauty’.
