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Cutting roses in winter


How to prune roses: for an abundance of flowers

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Learning how to prune roses is a crucial part of keeping these much loved garden flowers happy and healthy. A familiar flower bed staple, roses come in a dazzling array of colors, sizes and shapes. But keeping a good display of healthy roses can be something of a challenge. 

Roses have long held a special place in the hearts of gardeners and non-gardeners alike and there are so many rose garden ideas you can incorporate into gardens of all styles and sizes. They are one of the most commercially valuable plants in the world and prized for their beautiful, scented blooms. 

How to prune roses will depend on the type of rose you have; not all roses require the same treatment. Learn how to prune climbing roses or ramblers, if you are pruning that variety.

When you are designing a rose garden ensure that you will be able to get close to all of your rose bushes or shrubs to prune them when required.

It’s worth noting that while the flowers are delicate and elegant, the plants are tough and hardy. They are very resilient to being pruned, so you shouldn’t worry about getting out the pruning shears or secateurs. Even an overzealous prune is unlikely to harm them, so you can cut with confidence. 

As when planting roses, you will need thick gardening gloves to protect your hands from the thorns – preferably leather gauntlets that will also cover your lower arms. 

If you follow the simple rules in this guide, you can cut with confidence and create stunning blooms ever year. 

How to prune roses – what you need

(Image credit: Melanie Griffiths)

Before tackling rose pruning, make sure you have the right tools for the job – starting with a good pair of secateurs. 

‘It may sound obvious, but the most important thing when pruning roses is that your secateurs are sharp, so they won’t tear or harm the plant,’ says Period Living’s gardening expert Leigh Clapp.

You can sharpen your secateurs at home using a sharpening stone or diamond sharpener, although some tool manufacturers offer a cleaning and sharpening service.

While secateurs are suitable for pruning most green rose stems, for thicker, mature branches and dead wood you will require loppers or a hand saw.

Rose thorns can harbor harmful bacteria, so if you do cut yourself, clean the wound with an antibacterial spray.

How to prune rose bushes

(Image credit: Future / Annaick Guitteny)

It’s important to prune rose bushes at the right time of year. ‘Prune in late winter to early spring, just when the first growth is beginning,’ says Richard Austin from world-renowned rose grower David Austin .

If you prune your rose bushes too early, you risk making the plant more vulnerable to frost damage; too late and you will be removing valuable new growth, and you don't want to reduce the blooms of fragrant roses. The exact timing will depend on the hardiness zone where you live.

Austin advises that it’s better to prune them late than not at all, so even if spring has sprung, you should still proceed. But never prune when the stems are frozen or frost-covered.

Bear in mind that roses take a couple of years to establish, and young plants need a lighter trim. ‘Don’t prune shrub roses too hard until they have established over the first couple of years, to help the stems mature and support the large blooms,' says Leigh Clapp.

‘For correct pruning, check which rose group they are as this will differ. The principles are the same, however: remove dead, diseased and dying wood first, then open up the centre of the bush this will help with airflow to reduce potential issues with black spot,’ explains Jon Webster, curator at RHS Garden Rosemoor , home to one of the UK’s largest collections of roses. 

  1. Prune mature rose bushes down to half their size – or if a young rose, remove up to a third. It is helpful to insert a cane into the ground next to the rose at the new desired height, to act as a gage.
  2. Use your secateurs to cut the stems. ‘Don’t worry about cutting back too much on established plants – and don’t worry about where you cut the stem,' advises Austin. However, to help the new shoots to grow outwards and maintain a more open center, gardening expert Matt James recommends you ‘make a gentle sloping cut, just above a healthy outward-facing bud.’
  3. Remove any dead or diseased stems right at their base – dead stems will be completely brown without signs of green. You may require a hand saw for very hard dead wood.
  4. Remove thin, weak stems that easily bend, as these will not be able to support new growth.
  5. Where parts of the plant are congested, remove a stem or two, to allow in more air and light. Also, where two stems rub together, select one for removal.
  6. Strip all foliage from the plant – you don’t want any leaves left. However, do not compost them, as this can spread disease.
  7. ‘Shaping is essential – try to create a rounded shrub,’ says Austin.
    This will mean cutting the sides a little shorter than the middle stems.
  8. ‘Don’t be alarmed if your rose looks significantly smaller! The growth will strengthen and re-establish quickly in the spring,’ Austin adds.
  9. Finally, clear up fallen leaves that may harbor diseases, apply rose feed according to packet instructions, and mulch the plants. ‘Mulching with a good layer of well-rotted manure retains moisture, limits weeds and suppresses diseases such as black spot,’ says Clapp.
  10. Once roses have flowered in the summer, remove the spent blooms. ‘Deadheading roses regularly will encourage more flowering shoots for repeat-flowering roses,’ says Clapp. ‘A mid-summer tidy up will help to reinvigorate tired roses.’

(Image credit: Joe Wainwright)

How to prune tree or standard roses

Tree – or standard – roses, which are grafted on top of a long central stem, should be pruned in the same way as rose bushes. However, closer attention should be paid to creating a nicely rounded shape.

 

When pruning a rose tree, you want to minimize stems that are growing very upright, favoring those with well-positioned outward-facing buds. Try to ensure you have a good balance of stems growing in each direction.

With tree roses, you also need to pay close attention to ‘suckers’, which are stems growing from the base of the trunk, from the root stock, that take energy from the main rose. Remove these as they appear.

After the first flush of blooms, tidy up the shape by giving the tree a light trim. This will also encourage a second flowering.

How to prune roses for winter

(Image credit: Getty Images)

It is not a good idea to prune roses for winter, as you will leave them vulnerable to the cold and frost. For the best results, time your pruning for the very end of winter and the onset of spring.

However, where rose branches are damaged in the wind, it is best to remove them from the plant.

You could also take rose cuttings in the fall or winter, to grow new plants.

How to prune roses in summer

(Image credit: Leigh Clapp)

Most roses don’t need pruning in the summer, with the exception of rambling roses. ’Prune ramblers just after flowering, as they then will produce new wood for next year’s blooms,’ says Clapp.

However, after the first flush of flowering, you can tidy up your roses with a light trim to maintain their appearance and encourage more buds to develop.

Pruning neglected roses

(Image credit: Future)

If you have inherited a rose that is overgrown or covered with a lot of dead wood, you can rejuvenate it by giving it a hard prune at the end of winter, just as spring is about to emerge. This advice will work for whatever type of rose it is.

  1. Cut back the stems to make the plant around 12 inches tall.
  2. Remove any diseased, damaged or dead wood. You will likely need a hand saw to remove dead stems at the base, as they can be very hard.
  3. Where stems are crossed and rubbing together, choose one to remove.
  4. Remove any spindly, weak stems.
  5. If the plant is congested, remove a stem or two to allow in more air and light.
  6. Remove all foliage from the plant, and clear any leaves from the ground, to minimize the risk of disease.
  7. You must feed the rose to help it rejuvenate. Use a specific rose food and follow the packet instructions.
  8. Finish by applying a thick layer of mulch around the rose.

(Image credit: Peter Chatterton)

When should roses be pruned?

The best time to prune roses is at the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Be careful not to prune roses too early, when they may be susceptible to frost, or too late when you risk cutting off new bloom producing growth.

When should roses be cut back and how much?

Roses should be cut back in late winter or early spring, before the new flower buds start to develop. Pruning should always be done on a dry day with a clean, sharp pruning tool.

You can cut roses back quite hard, and they can be pruned back to around 12 inches tall if necessary, but it will depend on the size and shape of the plant you want, but you can be bold when pruning as they will often come back bigger and stronger with time.

 

The general aim with pruning is to reduce the size of bush roses by around a third, give groundcover roses a light trim and cut back climbing roses after flowering to suit the structure they’re covering. 

David Austin Roses are designed to be very forgiving if you are new to pruning and they need to be cut to generally about half their size, creating a rounded shape. Wild roses, such as the rugosas, need no annual pruning, just cut away the dead branches from the underside of the shrub every few years.

How do you cut roses so they will bloom again?

To cut roses to they will bloom again, remove the dead flower heads to encourage new growth. It is easy to learn how to deadhead roses, and roses can be encouraged to bloom for many months using this method. 

Deadhead any spent blooms unless you also want the rose hips, as setting seed saps energy for flower production. 

Diseased material should also be removed to encourage healthy plants that can support lots of blooms.

 

Do you cut off dead roses?

You should cut off – or deadhead – roses once the blooms are faded as this will encourage the growth of new flowers.

‘If, however, you have roses, such as rugosas, with lovely hips for autumn, leave the finished blooms on the bush,’ says Clapp.

As editor of Period Living, Britain's best-selling period homes magazine, Melanie loves the charm of older properties. I live in a rural village just outside the Cotswolds in England, so am lucky to be surrounded by beautiful homes and countryside, where I enjoy exploring. Having worked in the industry for almost two decades, Melanie is interested in all aspects of homes and gardens. Her previous roles include working on Real Homes and Homebuilding & Renovating, and she has also contributed to Gardening Etc. She has an English degree and has also studied interior design. Melanie frequently writes for Homes & Gardens about property restoration and gardening.

Pruning Hydrangeas: How to Prune Hydrangea Bushes

Learn when and how to prune your hydrangea plants for best bloom results.

Pictured: Let's Dance® Blue Jangles®. Photo by: Proven Winners.

The first step of pruning hydrangeas is to identify the variety, as this determines how, when, and even if it needs pruning. There are 2 main groups of hydrangeas:

Group 1: Those that bloom on last year's growth, or old wood, and should be pruned in late summer:

Group 2: Those that bloom on new growth, or new wood, and should be pruned in late winter to early spring:

There are also new varieties called "reblooming" or "remontant" that bloom on both old and new wood. These types don't require pruning at all, just maintenance for plant health such as cutting out dead, diseased, damaged or crossing branches.

HOW TO PRUNE HYDRANGEAS

The timing and degree of pruning is determined by which group the plant belongs to:

Pruning Advice for Group 1:

Pruning Advice for Group 2:

Flower head size can be related to pruning. With more aggressive pruning, shoots will be more vigorous and flower heads will be larger and fewer. Less aggressive or tip pruning can result in smaller but more numerous flower heads.

The best advice for hydrangeas is to consider their mature size. Locate them in an area they won't outgrow and require heavy pruning to keep them in bounds. Hydrangeas do not require strict reqular pruning; simply keep them healthy by removing dead wood and they will grow and flower well.

Wee Bit Grumpy® bigleaf hydrangea.
Photo: Proven Winners.

DON'T WANT TO WORRY ABOUT PRUNING YOUR HYDRANGEAS?

If the thought of trying to figure out if your hydrangea blooms on old wood or new wood (or both!) sounds daunting, try planting bigleaf hydrangeas from Proven Winners.

"We select all of our big-leaf hydrangeas for a nice, rounded, compact form, so they don’t require pruning to look handsome and tidy." All they ask is that you clean up any remaining flowers from the previous year when new growth begins in spring.

TOOLS FOR PRUNING HYDRANGEAS

You don't need anything fancy for pruning hydrangeas, just a good pair of bypass pruners. We recommend bypass pruners because the blades overlap, making a clean cut that is much healthier for live plants. (Anvil-style pruners should only be used on dead wood as they can crush and damage branches.)

Also see: 12 Essential Garden Tools

More on hydrangeas:
How to Grow Hydrangeas
Different Types of Hydrangeas
Changing Hydrangea Color
8 Reasons Why Your Hydrangeas Won't Bloom
10 Elegant White Hydrangeas

RELATED:
How to Prune Roses
How to Prune Shrubs & Perennials

Updated: 4/8/21

How to prune roses for the winter

Do you want your flower garden queens to look really regal next season? We will tell you how to prune roses for the winter so that they winter safely and without loss.

Roses are usually pruned in autumn in preparation for winter shelter.

But inexperienced flower growers sometimes doubt whether it is necessary to do this at all or whether spring pruning can be dispensed with. Let's take a look at this contentious issue.

Is it necessary to prune roses for the winter

Autumn pruning of roses is carried out in order to prepare them for shelter, increase winter hardiness, provide shoots with access to light and strengthen plant immunity. The fact is that unripened shoots left for the winter on a bush can rot under the covering material. To prevent this from happening, in autumn (usually in the second half of October), all unripened, dry, damaged shoots that thicken the bush are removed from roses that need winter shelter and the remaining stems are shortened to the height of the covering material.

Both adult roses and seedlings planted this year are pruned for the winter. At the same time, it must be remembered that the bushes cannot be cut before the night frosts begin, since any pruning stimulates the growth of shoots.

Winter-hardy flowers (for example, wrinkled rose hybrids) winter well without shelter, so they are not pruned for the winter.

Rose wrinkled Alba does not need autumn pruning

How to prune a climbing rose for winter

Climbing rose shoots are cut as little as possible in autumn: they do not need to be adjusted to the height of the shelter, since the stems of the plant are bent to the ground.

How to prune park (bush) roses for the winter

Among the park roses there are many representatives of winter-hardy varieties that do not need shelter and, as a result, pruning for the winter. Their inflorescences, unripened, damaged shoots and small branches thickening the bush are minimally cut off.

How to cut hybrid tea roses for the winter

Shoots of hybrid tea roses are boldly shortened by half. You can even resort to strong pruning - the plants will winter well and quickly grow new branches in the spring.

In addition, be sure to remove all young unripened shoots. Otherwise, the bush may die.

Remove all pruned shoots from the site and burn them: they may contain pests and pathogens

How to prune floribunda roses for the winter

Quite often, floribunda roses still bloom in mid-autumn. But if the cold has already come, then do not spare the flowers, cut them off and prepare the bushes for shelter.

Autumn pruning options for floribunda roses depend on what kind of bush you want to get next year. If you shorten the shoots much, then less tall, but lush bushes will grow, evenly strewn with flowers. With light pruning (if you cut only a small part of the stem under the inflorescences), a tall and slender bush will bloom next season with a lot of flowers only in its upper part.

How to prune ground cover roses for the winter

Ground cover roses that spread along the ground do not need autumn pruning. For the winter, they only remove flowers.

How to prune indoor roses for the winter

Indoor roses need a rest in winter. In autumn, they stop feeding it, gradually reduce watering, prune, transfer the plant to a bright room with an air temperature of 10-15 ° C and keep it there until spring.

During the autumn pruning of a room rose, 4-6 buds are left on each healthy shoot, small shoots are completely removed or 2-3 buds are left on them.

If a large number of shoots are left, small flowers will bloom on a lush bush next season. And on a bush with several shoots, larger roses will bloom. After all, under cover, the leaves can rot and infect plants with fungal diseases. It is important not to damage the kidney! If the leaves are firmly attached to the bush, carefully break off the petiole with a sideways movement.

Nevertheless, the main pruning of roses is carried out in the spring. At the same time, the bush is given the desired shape. We wrote about this in more detail in one of our materials.

understanding how to prune correctly and without damaging the plant

Roses are the favorite of most flower growers. These beautiful plants adorn many suburban areas. How pleasant it is to watch the blossoming buds of roses with petals of the most incredible shapes and colors, exuding a delicate pleasant aroma. In order to enjoy the riot of color in the new season, pruning roses for the winter should be a mandatory procedure among the activities to prepare the garden for winter.

Autumn pruning of roses for the winter is necessary to strengthen the plant itself. If pruning in the spring aims to form and ennoble a beautiful bush, then the autumn procedure is aimed at providing access to the light of the buds and stems of the plant, airing its crown, and also increasing the winter hardiness of the rose. In addition, pruning old branches provokes the laying of new buds, from which large flowers will bloom, and the formation of new, stronger shoots.

You can also find out how to cover roses for the winter here: https://diz-cafe.

com/rastenija/kak-ukryt-rozy-na-zimu.html

If wild-growing beauties look chic and delight with flowering without additional care, then garden roses need annual pruning

The pruning procedure is subject not only to roses that have been decorating the flower garden for more than one year, but to young seedlings planted this year. The main recommendations include the need to remove all unripe buds and flowers that have already blossomed, as well as cutting out diseased and weak stems.

Unripe shoots left for the winter begin to rot in the shelter. This often leads to fungal infection and disease of the entire plant. After pruning, only lignified powerful shoots with several dormant buds should remain on the bush.

In order to prevent the development of pathogenic microbes, the cut remains of the plant must be removed and burned, not left under the bush.

The bush after pruning has only 3-5 evenly spaced most developed and more powerful shoots that do not thicken the crown

It is also necessary to get rid of old shoots in a timely manner, which include three-year-old stems with many side branches and covered with dried bark.

In order for the pruning procedure to bring only a positive effect, you must adhere to several basic rules:

The best time to cut roses for the winter is on a sunny, windless day. As a rule, rose bushes are pruned at the end of October.

Pruning is performed on the external bud. This will prevent the thickening of the bush and ensure sufficient ventilation and illumination of the crown

In order to prevent infection of plants with fungi and infections, it is advisable to disinfect the tools before pruning by treating them with a solution of potassium permanganate, and after trimming the cut point on the stems themselves, with garden pitch.

And, perhaps, the most important rule that should be followed when cutting roses for the winter, says "do not overdo it." Since the volume of the root system of a rose, like any other plant, must be proportional to the volume of its aerial part, pruning must be carried out correctly and carefully so as not to disturb the nutrition system, which can lead to illness and even death of the plant.

In order for the flower garden to become more beautiful every year, when pruning roses, one should take into account the characteristics of the varietal group of representatives growing on the site. Depending on the size, variety and growth intensity of the bush, one of the main types of pruning can be applied:

Short cut

After pruning, only the base of the bush with 2-3 dormant buds remains. Short pruning is applicable for polyanthus roses, the branches of which are prone to strong tillering.

When heavily pruned, all stems of the aerial part of the plant are cut mercilessly

Strong pruning is also successfully tolerated by miniature roses, mature bushes of hybrid tea roses and climbing representatives of the Rambler group

For other varieties of the plant, short pruning is permitted only as a last resort.

Medium cut

With a moderate pruning method, weak shoots are also completely eliminated. Medium pruning perfectly activates the growth of young shoots.

During medium pruning, the stems of the bush are shortened by half, and low 25-30 cm shoots with 4-5 buds remain at the base of the plant

Moderate pruning suitable for pernepianos, hybrid teas and many other groups of roses

The only exceptions are English and park roses, climbing, ancient and specific beauties of this family.

Rules for planting and caring for garden roses: https://diz-cafe.com/rastenija/posadka-i-uxod-za-rozami.html

Long cut

After pruning at the base there are rather tall shoots on two thirds of the stem with 8-10 buds. Weak gentle pruning is used for delicate varieties of Bengal roses, old and species, park and English, as well as vigorous hybrid tea varieties. The use of gentle pruning on other groups of roses allows you to achieve earlier flowering, but with the constant use of this method for several years, the bushes lose their shape and stretch out strongly, and their flowering becomes less abundant.

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