This week at college I have been learning about pruning roses. I have a few roses in the garden, although I don't know what species they are, I know there are two rambling roses in the front garden and a climbing rose on the front of the house. I know this because Ramblers have 7 leaflets and climbers have 5 leaflets, I have photographed the leaves from my plants and you can see they don't look healthy, so I am going to need to give them lots of TLC this year. That means, feeding and water them regularly, (see feeding roses page), mulching them and prune them well. Ramblers have long pliable stems with huge trusses of flowers, the flowers only flower once in summer, around June. They are good for trellis and arches, but also good to climb through hedging and trees and hide unsightly things in the garden. Climbers have stiffer stems, large flowers and smaller trusses. The rose, flowers on mature wood so pruning and maintenance is easier and they are generally less vigorous and they are not self supporting so need to be tied to something, also climbers repeat flower throughout the summer. Formative prune ( for example: creating shape with a young plant-, training in against a wall or trellis). because climbing roses are not self clinging the need to be tied into a support or trellis or grown on horizontal wire. If grown on wire then the lowest wire should be 45 cm of the ground and then 30cm apart. If you prune out the main stem then this will increase side branches. Routine Pruning: |
I have pruned it slightly, but now know that because the rose has not been pruned for a few years it could do with a renovating prune, so I will remove the dead wood and old woody branches to the base of the plant, and I will cut back the side branches which have flowered, leaving 2-3 leaf buds per shoot. Always make your cut to an outward facing bud and make slanted so that the water runs away from the bud.
The new shoots which will flower next year can then be tied into the supports.
If there are not enough new stems, trim the best of the old lateral stems to about 3” of the main stem.
There are a few very tall, straight and thorny shots that appear to have no buds, these are old watershoots that have been allowed to grow, that I will remove as they will not provide good flowering shoots.
This is my climbing rose, which I now know I should have pruned in the autumn after the flowers started to fade. I always thought it was good that the flowers were still flowering into November time, but have since realised that actually I will get better blooms by pruning and giving the plant time to store energy for next year.
So Prune in Autumn or early Spring, when the buds will have begun to swell but there are no leaves. Always start by removing any dead, diseased, damaged or displaced branches. Remove any really old branches and any crossing branches, if the plant is heavily congested, as this will stimulate the plant to produce new growth. It will also allow more air flow and light to the plant.
Prune the side branches back to leave 2-3 leaf buds and again always cut to an outward facing bud. Also if there are any suckering growth from the base remove these.
Summary:
Ramblers - Prune late summer or autumn, after flowering.
Climbers - Prune in the autumn or early spring, after flowering.
The other good reason for pruning in Autumn is to reduce root rock, because you will be taking the height of the plant down. Root rock can also cause the plant to shoot from the base which we don't want.
Always clear away any old leaves and debris from the base of the plant and give a good mulching with something like bark chippings.