Rose Pruning
Offering unbeatable summer colour, romantic fragrance, and considered to be one of the worlds most loved flowers, the rose deserves a place in your garden. Roses generally require at least 6 hours of sunlight per day, well drained soil, and excellent air circulation. Do your best to water roses around the roots and as much as possible, avoid getting the leaves wet to help with disease prevention. Suckers from below ground level should be removed on any grafted roses, as these are often the result of rootstock growth. For roses that flower on new wood the best time to prune is the end of their dormant period, just as buds begin to swell, but before new growth begins.
Basic Rose Pruning Principles
Rose pruning is done after the chance of severe frost has passed so there is no further winter kill on the stems.
Remove all dead, diseased, and damaged wood (3 D’s)
Remove crossing branches
Remove rubbing branches that are causing damage and parallel branches.
Keep rose plant branch structure open to admit light and permit air circulation
Space branches evenly around rose to give it balance
All cuts should be at an angle to avoid dead wood.
Remove weak stems.
Hybrid Tea, Grandiflora, Floribunda, and David Austin Roses
These bloom on new wood, therefore they can be pruned quite hard in winter to stimulate new growth.
Develop a framework of branches that will radiate out from the center.
Leave 4-5 of last year’s main stems that grow out away from the center. Cut these back to about 2-3 feet from the ground to an outward-facing bud.
Remove any inward growing shoots.
Prune stems to an outward-facing bud. How much a rose shrub is pruned influences it’s size and shape.
For a taller shrub – cut back by less than one third.
To maintain its current size – cut your rose back by one third.
To reduce its size – cut back by a half or even more. This will reduce the size of the shrub without impacting the amount of flowering
Shrub Roses
Shrub roses bloom on new wood, therefore they can be pruned quite hard in winter to stimulate new growth.
First thin out weak branches, dead, damaged, diseased wood and crossing branches.
Shorten remaining shoots down to 2-3 feet or lower.
Climbing Roses
Climbing roses are easy to distinguish from rambling roses as they generally repeat-flower all summer while rambling roses flower generally only in June. Rambling roses also become a much larger plant overtime. See below for pruning rambling roses.
Long whippy shoots can be shortened or tied in during autumn, to prevent strong winds from damaging them
Climbing roses flower on new wood and should be pruned in late winter. Tie in any new shoots. Prune back side shoots by two thirds.
Rambling Roses
Rambling roses flower off the growth of the lateral shoots. For routine pruning, prune in summer after flower and rosehip display is done. Prune in early winter for renovation pruning.
Routine pruning: prune out all stems that have flowered and tie new ones in horizontally to take their place. Shorten side shoots by two-thirds. Remove 4-5 year old canes, leaving younger growing canes in place.
Renovation pruning: Cut some of the old woody branches to the ground, and keep six, young healthy stems for new framework.
Shorten side shoots on the remaining branches and prune back the tips by one third to one half, to encourage branching.
Notes
To keep your rose blooming all summer, cut the rose stem back to a five-part leaf once the flower on that stem has finished blooming.
Post pruning care: Deep watering and mulch.
A great rule-of-thumb is to prune roses that flower on new wood when forsythia is blooming.
