This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Rambling Roses that are still flowering
Geordie Shelley
Posts: 8
Everywhere I look it is now the time to prune rambling roses, however mine are still flowering and have a lot of buds.
It seems cruel to cut them back- so do I?
Another quick question as I am fairly new to gardening what is meant by high potash feed?
Thanks in advance
0
Posts
I grow Moonlight which is a repeat rambler and putting on a fine second show now.
I tidy it up a bit when it's finished, removing a few old stems right back to the base. Mine scrambles through a big Euonymus hedge so I mostly leave it to do its own thing.
High potash feed is a fertilizer biased toward producing flowers/fruit - an example is Tomorite used for feeding tomatoes - but is suitable for most flowering plants too
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Thank you Pete.
I thought that's what Potash was but wasn't sure - will take you advice on the roses.
I think the general idea is to remove about 1/3 of this year's flowered stems back to ground and tie-in new growth near to horizontal to encourage flowering shoots for next year. This is best done while the stems are still young and bendy.
I try and leave the unwated new stems until winter then remove the stems I don't want back to the ground.
I give them a handful of blood,fish,bone and a good mulch in spring, and another handful of BFB after the first flush if it's a repeat flowering rose
If you get balck spot try and remove all the dead leaves at the end of the season (don't compost them) or the spores wait on the dead leaves and soon as new leaves appear in the spring they start to get infected. I often mulch autumn and spring hoping that I smother any leaves I've missed
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.