Bush rose: when and how to prune

Bush rose: when to prune it?

JFMAMJJASOND

The main prune comes in late March, when the forsythia is in flower and the worst frosts are over. Prune as early as February and the buds break early, so the young shoots can still be caught by frost.

In summer, only remove the faded flowers, cutting just above the first full leaf with five leaflets: that way the rose forms new buds.

From September you can let the last flowers fade on the plant: varieties with single flowers then form hips, and the wood can ripen before winter.

What else to prune in those months? March

Bush rose: how to prune it?

1. Use sharp, clean secateurs and wear sturdy gloves against the thorns: blunt blades crush the stems instead of cutting them cleanly.
2. First remove all dead, diseased, weak and crossing wood completely, back to healthy wood or right down to the base. Dead wood is brown or black, healthy wood is green.
3. Then choose three to five strong young stems, spread around an open centre. Cut hybrid teas and floribundas back to 3–5 buds, about 15–25 cm above the ground.
4. Cut at a slant, half a centimetre above an outward-facing bud: the new shoot then grows outwards and the centre of the bush stays open and airy.
5. Prune English roses and other large shrub roses less hard: shorten them by a third to a half, and every year take one or two of the oldest stems out at the base.
6. Do you see shoots coming from below the graft union, with different, smaller leaves? Those are suckers from the rootstock: pull or cut them off where they arise.
7. After pruning, pull back the soil you earthed up around the base, clear away diseased leaves and mulch with compost or well-rotted manure.

How much to cut, and how often?

• Hybrid teas and floribundas can be cut back firmly every spring: the shorter you prune, the fewer but larger the flowers. Prune a weak grower harder than a vigorous one.
• English roses and shrub roses grown as loose shrubs: a third to a half shorter, and every few years one old stem out at the base, so the shrub stays young.
• In summer, only remove faded flowers, each time with a short piece of stem down to a full leaf; nothing more is needed.

What does it mean for wildlife?

• Birds seldom nest in a rose bed, but a blackbird or dunnock may build a nest in a large, dense shrub rose. The late-March prune falls in the nesting season (15 March–15 August): take a quick look between the stems first, as disturbing an active nest is against the law.
• Roses with single or semi-double flowers and visible stamens offer pollen to honeybees, bumblebees and solitary bees from June to October; fully double flowers have little to offer them.
• If you let the last flowers fade in late summer, varieties with single flowers form hips: blackbirds and thrushes feed on them in autumn and winter.
• Ladybirds, lacewings and parasitic wasps deal with the aphids on the young tips: so don’t spray, apart from a strong jet of water at most. Healthy prunings can go on a dead hedge; clear away leaves with black spot.

Common mistakes

• Pruning too early, in February, so the young shoots are killed by a late frost.
• Only giving a hybrid tea a light trim: the bush then becomes tall and leggy, with small flowers at the top.
• Cutting English roses back as hard as hybrid teas, so you end up with a smaller shrub and fewer flowers.
• Leaving a stub above a bud or cutting with blunt secateurs: that wood dies back and lets in disease.
• Letting suckers from the rootstock grow until they take over the rose.

Nearby: related pruning guides

• Climbing rose
• Dog rose
• Cabbage rose
• Japanese rose
• Lavender

Plant profile: Bush rose · Pruning calendar and basic rules