I don't use chemical sprays of any sort so my advice is always to leave it... they rarely do any great damage and roses, if growing away strongly, will grow through greenfly infestations... but I admit to sometimes spraying with the hose, very carefully so buds are not damaged,... but there are loads of ladybirds active right now.. I've got them everywhere, so I just leave things to nature..
I have 12 of those but I don't know whether it makes a difference or not. I have found that roses that are fed and watered and healthy are more resistant, obviously.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
@edhelka, the usual advice re english roses is that they take a few years to settle down and behave themselves. Some of my David Austins send up long shoots in response to heat or just because they do that. Others still look a bit floppy and straggly rather than bushy, but I am beginning to see the difference now in those heading into their third season. As a rose newbie too, I worried and fussed over them far too much, but Marlorena soon put me right!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
@Eglantyne@Nollie Thank you for the pruning advice. They are well-established roses (I can't tell the age but they are not young). I saw them last May while viewing the house and then only again after we moved in in July/August. So I really don't know how they were pruned or cared for before, although photos I made in May give me some idea.
The strugglers are either in the front garden (shallower and poorer soil which needs more amending) or in mixed borders (too crowded with other plants, one rose was completely hidden by a huge miscanthus etc.). And Gertrude Jekyll in my main rose bed isn't well but she looked well in May, I think she was just badly hit by the last summer drought (sandy soil and no watering for a month or more). I hope she will get better this year, I love the scent.
What I wanted to say about the classes is that I try to watch every plant individually, to see how it reacts on pruning or care, how it wants to grow, what it needs, if it is happy etc. This year I have these inherited roses and also newly planted Austins, a lot to watch, compare and learn from.
My other thought about pruning: If you prune roses incorrectly (possibly all in a similar way, maybe cutting back to half), will they look more similar? Or if you decide to treat an English rose as an HT (maybe to fit into a narrow area), choosing an only small amount of upright canes and cutting back all canes growing to sides, will it work? Or if you want an HT to be bushier and less formal, can it be done?
David Austin says you can prune his shrub roses by half if you want them shorter. I'm not sure though, one of my Gertrude Jekyll shrubs wants to be a climber! A friend of OH came to stay and he thought he'd help so he pruned the whole of my Paul's Scarlet climber down to 2 feet tall! The following year it looked like a shrub. Took 2 years to get back to nearly normal.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
...''this week....next week...sometime....never'' the words of a famous rosarian not so long ago, and echo my feelings about pruning... you don't have to do it, it's not compulsory, however there are some types of roses that will benefit and give you a better show if you do.. Generally, if your rose is classed as a 'hybrid tea', then you can prune these back to as little as 4 inches above ground... this encourages them to produce basal growth, which is what you want..
..if your rose is classed as a 'floribunda'.. then generally prune back by half whatever height it is, so if it's 4 foot cut back to 2 foot.. however, I like to leave my floribundas taller, so I don't cut them back too much... 4 foot to 3 foot, something like that..
..Austin roses are shrub roses... they're nature is shrubby... they should not be pruned at all in the first year, just allowed to develop their character, naturally... even if they flop about a bit.. that is the nature of shrub roses... in years 2 and 3 you can start to see what you have to work with and prune some here and there,... I usually prune back to where the canes are thickest... and where I can see a distinct vigorous shoot coming out from the cane..
If your rose has long gangly canes that just bloom on the top, and if they seem flexible, you should consider pegging them down.. pegging is a popular and interesting way to train shrub roses.. it encourages a long cane to produce more side shoots, which in turn will produce more flowers for you.. you have to be careful with the cane, sometimes they can snap off completely as you try to bend it.. you then peg the cane down using a hook pushed into the ground and tied with string...
These are what I use for pegging... you insert one of these hooks into soil, tie green string to the hook [you will have to place a weighty stone on top to hold it], then tie string to cane of rose, which will have been bent towards the horizontal [but not below it]… I also use green metal spikes as in photo, and tie a cane to that... they disappear amongst foliage eventually... or you can hide with an annual plant in front...
This rose which is a climbing rose, has been pegged... here is a long cane but the pegging has been done by attaching to another shrub off to the left, as it's too high above ground,... but the cane is more towards the horizontal... you can see how by doing this it produces shoots going upwards all along the cane... if I didn't bend it over like that, I would only have flowers right at the top of a very long cane... this way I get many more flowers from this cane..
@edhelka with regard to your query re pruning ‘incorrectly’ to change the habit of a rose, not sure if you could ever get an HT to look more like a bushy shrub rose, as even when chainsawing them down to the ground, my two always just send up those long, stiff canes again. Similarly with a shrub rose, some do send up long canes, Gertrude Jekyll and Lady of Shallot being two of mine who want to be vertical (and I believe Graham Thomas is notorious for that too), I suspect you would be better letting them follow their natural course. I let the Lady climb, but my GJ is in a pot and I cut the long canes back down to size after they have flowered... probably a lost cause and I would be better planting it somewhere where it can climb. I’m intrigued to know if its possible though, perhaps @Marlorena can best answer that one...
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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Any suggestions appreciated. Ta
Generally, if your rose is classed as a 'hybrid tea', then you can prune these back to as little as 4 inches above ground... this encourages them to produce basal growth, which is what you want..
..if your rose is classed as a 'floribunda'.. then generally prune back by half whatever height it is, so if it's 4 foot cut back to 2 foot.. however, I like to leave my floribundas taller, so I don't cut them back too much... 4 foot to 3 foot, something like that..
..Austin roses are shrub roses... they're nature is shrubby... they should not be pruned at all in the first year, just allowed to develop their character, naturally... even if they flop about a bit.. that is the nature of shrub roses... in years 2 and 3 you can start to see what you have to work with and prune some here and there,... I usually prune back to where the canes are thickest... and where I can see a distinct vigorous shoot coming out from the cane..
If your rose has long gangly canes that just bloom on the top, and if they seem flexible, you should consider pegging them down.. pegging is a popular and interesting way to train shrub roses.. it encourages a long cane to produce more side shoots, which in turn will produce more flowers for you.. you have to be careful with the cane, sometimes they can snap off completely as you try to bend it.. you then peg the cane down using a hook pushed into the ground and tied with string...
I'll show a couple of photos next..
This rose which is a climbing rose, has been pegged... here is a long cane but the pegging has been done by attaching to another shrub off to the left, as it's too high above ground,... but the cane is more towards the horizontal... you can see how by doing this it produces shoots going upwards all along the cane... if I didn't bend it over like that, I would only have flowers right at the top of a very long cane... this way I get many more flowers from this cane..