Pruning Roses – Part 2

 Read more from Hayden Foulds

In my last column, I covered a few basics on why and how you should prune your roses and also covered how to prune those tricky climbers which can cause a few problems.

This column, I will talk about pruning roses including bush, standards, old fashioned and weeping roses.

Remember pruning roses is very easy and it is best to give it a go, you can't kill a rose bush by pruning it. It may just sulk a bit.

 
Bush roses include Hybrid Teas, Floribundas, Shrub and Miniature/Patio roses. You want to reduce these by about half in height. Do not try and make a large growing rose 'small' as it won't work!

First, you need to remove wood that is dead, diseased or damaged. After all, it is not going to do much good if left there so get rid of it. Then take out any twiggy or weak growth. Obviously for miniature/patio type roses, the growth is smaller in proportion.

Then remove any old stems which are characterised as being a grey-green colour with a rough appearance. Newer stems are smoother and are a red, brown or bright green colour.

Remove any stems that are crossing and then thin out any crowded stems, particularly any growing into the centre of the plant. Then cut the remaining stems back by about half and you are done. Remember cut to an eye and use a sloping cut. The direction of the eye will also dictate which direction the new growth will grow in. Perfect if you want to steer growth away from a path where you may get snagged.

 
For standard roses, the same principles apply but you can cut them back slightly harder as they are much higher above the ground. You may also have to keep old canes longer as they do not produce as many new ones as bush roses on the ground do. Check your ties and stakes, making sure any ties are not cutting into the trunk of the standard.

Weeping roses are a variation of standards whereby the variety trails down to the ground. You want to retain these long shoots and just remove any dead or spindly wood. Again, check your ties and stakes.

Old Fashioned and Species roses require very little pruning. Remove dead and diseased wood and trim to shape the plant. Once flowering varieties i.e. those that flower before Christmas only should be pruned after flowering has finished.

That gives you a brief overview of pruning roses. One other thing I should mention is that there should be no foliage or flowers remaining once finished. Any left-over foliage will harbour disease ready to infect and any flowers will likely just make a mess.