Pruning roses encourages flowering, promotes longer-lasting blooms and keeps plants healthy. This guide will show you how and when to prune your roses for happy, productive plants.
Despite being famous for their dainty flowers, rose plants are actually hardy perennials that respond well to pruning. Don’t be scared to lop off too much, as even an overly-enthusiastic prune won’t hurt a rose bush, and it will grow back and re-establish quickly in spring.
Why Do We Need to Prune Roses?
Pruning roses removes dead branches and diseased stems, giving the plant the best chance to flourish. Crossing branches and unproductive stems can also be cut away, leaving the rose bush looking tidier and promoting new growth.
When is the Best Time of Year for Rose Pruning?
As a general rule, late winter to early spring (late February to early March) is the best time to prune roses. However, some types of rose plants respond better to pruning at different times of the year. For example, rambling roses are best pruned immediately after flowering in summer.
Wait until the threat of frost has passed but prune before the leaves emerge at the beginning of the growing season. When the leaf buds start swelling and turning pink or red, you’ll know it’s time to get the pruning shears out.
What You’ll Need
- Thick gardening gloves: Rose bushes are notorious for being covered in thorns. A quality pair of gardening gloves will protect your hands from scrapes and scratches.
- A knee pad: This isn’t essential, but it protects your knees from the hard ground and makes the job far more comfortable.
- Bypass pruning secateurs: Use these for removing unwanted foliage, suckers and spindly growth.
- Long-handled loppers or a pruning saw: Use these for cutting tough, woody stems.
Young Rose Plants
Roses take 2-3 years to establish and only need light pruning during this time. You may wish to deadhead any spent blooms, but leaving stems to mature allows them to become strong enough to hold up large flower heads.
Newly planted roses shouldn’t be heavily pruned for at least their first year. Pruning roses encourages the plants to focus on new growth, but young plants need to concentrate on forming a strong root system first, so don’t cut away more than one-third of the plant.
Mature Rose Plants
Once a rose bush is established and matured, it can cope well with hard pruning. Remove dead wood and stems and check the hygiene of others.
If you notice any symptoms of pests or disease cut away the affected parts. Mature plants can be pruned to around half their height and grow back thriving the following season.
General Tips for Pruning Roses
While some rose varieties need a slightly different approach to pruning some simple rules and tricks apply to all rose species.
Use Clean, Sharp Tools
Ensuring your secateurs, loppers and pruning saws are clean and sharp is essential for keeping roses happy and healthy after pruning. Wash tools with warm soapy water before use to prevent any problems being transferred between plants. Blunt-cutting tools can tear the plant, harming it and limiting new growth.
Cut Away Plant Parts That Don’t Produce Flowers
Prune woody stems, stubby snags and twiggy stems back hard. Then cut away weak, thin stems that aren’t strong enough to support blooms. Remove one or two stems where they are becoming congested to allow air and light to reach the new shoots.
Cut to an Outward Facing Bud
Knowing where to place your cut can be quite tricky. One of the golden rules is to choose an outward-facing bud and make the cut around 5mm above it. Cutting above inward-facing buds encourages new growth towards the centre of the plant while an outward-facing bud promotes wider growth and helps prevent stems rubbing from being compacted.
Cut at an Angle Away From the Plant
Rather than slicing straight across the branch or stem, cut it at a 45 degree angle. Try to slope the cut diagonally downwards, away from the centre of the plant. Doing this allows rainwater to flow away easily, helping prevent disease.
Clear the Area Around the Rose Plant
When you’ve finished pruning roses, clear up around the base of the plant. Remove any fallen leaves, twigs, cuttings and other debris from the area and pull out any weeds that may have sprouted up nearby.
Mulch and Feed
Mulch with well-rotted organic matter to help retain moisture in the soil, suppress weeds and prevent the plant from succumbing to disease. Apply a good quality rose fertiliser to promote fresh spring growth.
Pruning Different Types of Roses
Each type of rose plant needs pruned a little differently. Here, we show you how to prune some of the most common rose varieties.
Bush Roses
Bush roses, including hybrid tea roses, flower on the new season’s growth. This means you can prune rose bushes back as hard as you like, and they’ll still produce a healthy show of blooms. Concentrate pruning on dead wood and overly long stems.
Shrub Roses
Modern shrub roses shouldn’t be pruned back too hard. Doing so results in more leafy growth, which means fewer blooms. Unless you want to keep the rose hips for autumnal interest, deadhead spent flowers to promote fresh new growth.
Climbing Roses
Cut away old wood from the base of the plant to promote new growth and prevent congestion higher up. Prune flowering shoots up to around 2 thirds of their length, and adjust ties and supports accordingly to help climbing roses reach their full potential.
Rambling Roses
Unlike most other rose species, rambling roses should be pruned in late summer to early autumn after flowering. Prune old woody branches back to ground level, keeping the younger stems neatly in place. Cut side shoots around 2 thirds shorter to promote branching and take out excessive growth.
Patio Roses and Miniature Roses
These types of roses tend to produce twiggy growth that doesn’t support flower heads. Cut this away almost to the ground. Prune the more vigorous stems back around a third, cutting a healthy bud.
Rose pruning doesn’t have to be a daunting task. These hardy plants are resilient and tolerate pruning well. In fact, no matter what type of rose you grow in the garden, pruning improves the plant’s overall health, promotes new growth and flowering and produces healthy roses for you to enjoy year after year.
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