Winter Pruning Roses
Climbers on obelisks, arches and poles:- after planting, simply tie the stems up as they develop to create an attractive climbing rose. Allow the rose to reach the height you want. During this stage, just tidy the plant, trimming out any damaged growth. Continue to tie in the stems where necessary to support them and to maintain a good shape.
Once the rose has reached its full height, new flowering stems will start to grow out from older growth lower down on the plant. During the summer, as each of these stems finishes flowering, cut it back to three or four sets of leaves to encourage repeat flowering.
At the end of each season, cut out any dead or weak stems and tie in the strong new ones.
Climbers for fences and walls:- the aim here is to fan out the long, new growth and tie them to the structure so it will eventually cover it beautifully. The closer the stems are to horizontal, the higher the percentage of buds will develop into new flowering stems.
Once the basic framework has formed, after the new flowering stems finish blooming, summer prune them back to 3 to 4 sets of leaves. In winter, reshape the plant removing very old, damaged or weak stems and replacing them with fresh new growth from near to the base of the plant.
- Bush roses (hybrid teas and floribundas) should be cut down by between 1/2 and 3/4 thinning out some of the main stems.
- Other repeat flowering shrub roses should be cut down by between 1/3 and 2/3 but only thinned a little.
- Non repeating shrubs should be left alone or lightly pruned by no more than 1/3 and thinned very lightly.
- Other climbers should have the previous year’s flowering shoots reduced to 3 or 4 buds or about 6″ and the strong stems tied in.
- Ramblers should be left to ramble at will unless they need to be constrained. Tie in new stems and cut out old stems as necessary.
To see a full list of all our handy fact sheets click here