I know it is too early to think about pruning but what is suggestion for pruning weak stems? All my roses are 1st year and so many have weak stems. I read usually shouldn't prune austins for first three year but what to do about the long and thin stems ? Shall I leave those alone and will they get thicker and stronger in future on their own or shall i prune those to say 2 ft height?
Also all my HTs are mostly one cane wonder. One long thick cane of 2-3ft and then branch off looking like inclined standard rose. leave those alone till spring or cut down?
it had been so windy and rainy that i worry these types of canes will get damaged by wind over winter.
@newbie77 With young roses you don't have a lot to work with necessarily, but the aim with pruning Austins is to create a nice rounded shape, and to remove any twiggy, weak growth, as well as old, non-productive growth. If you have a cane that is shooting out too vigorously compared to the rest, you could cut it back in line to keep that rounded shape. David Austin even said you could use a hedge trimmer if you have a lot of roses(!), so we don't need to be too fussy about it. Bear in mind some roses have an arching shape which will affect how much you prune, so it's best to have an idea of what the end result should be. And some roses that are in the front of the bed, or in a small space, can even be cut back by 2/3 rather than the usual 1/3.
If your roses are in danger of rocking too much in the wind, I would cut those back sooner rather than later. Your HT's should produce some basals next spring hopefully. I always cut my HT's back quite hard but it depends on how tall you'd like them to be.
I'll be interested in hearing what others think as well on this topic as I'm sure we're all itching to get pruning!
@newbie77, it’s the old rose varieties that you should prune lightly if at all in the first 3 years, as they need time to build up a framework, especially those that have an arching habit or flower on old wood. Modern, repeat-flowering shrub roses (like DAs) can be pruned, as @omori says, to create a nice rounded shape, usually by a third to half, HTs can be pruned harder, to roughly 6” from the ground and floribundas to around 12” as all these usually flower on new wood and seem to be invigorated by a good prune. But not now!
The general advice is to leave all major pruning until early spring, because (so far as I understand from reading) roses store the energy they need to get through the winter in their canes. Also if you prune back to the height and shape you want now, frost might get the tips and you may suffer some dieback, meaning you have to then prune off the dead tips again and might end up with a shorter rose than you wanted. I do however, prune back long octopus canes after flowering to roughly the same size as the shrub, but this is during the growing season and doesn’t do the shrub any harm then.
As to wind rock, if you have planted the graft a few inches below ground, this guards against it. In saying that, I do plant the graft below ground, but we had some really ferocious winds the other day and Lady Emma Hamilton and Julia Child, both in an exposed position, were rocking madly so I pruned a third off the top to save them being uprooted. So if any roses are in danger of being battered, it’s ok to cut them back a bit now, just don’t go mad.
Really skinny canes don’t do much, so best to prune them out, but again, in early spring. At the same time removing any dead, diseased or dying branches, plus crossing branches that can rub against each other and cause wounds.
That’s my understanding anyway!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
@Omori, @Nollie, thank you very much for detailed pruning advice. I will leave the pruning to spring and will only cut some particularly swinging branches. Have bookmarked this page to come back to it in spring.
I have been cutting whatever has been flowering for vases in home. I feel that after bringing in, say after 1 hour, once rose have settled to room temperature the fragrance is stronger. The myrhh ones which i couldnt detect anything in garden, i can smell those we well. Anyway i am now a days very scared of sniffing roses in garden. There are some small white spiders hiding in the blooms! I only sniff after thoroughly checking each bloom indoor.
Gosh, that early? That surprises me @omori. I do mine on or around the 1st of Feb (I’m USDA cold hardiness zone 8b, colder in winter than many parts of southern England). I did do them earlier one year, lulled by sunny weather, then they got caught by a severe frost!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Interesting! I usually do them quite late (mid to late Feb, which is usually later than planned) and often remove quite a lot of new growth. Maybe I should do it in January this year. I am coastal enough to be technically 9a. Our February and March weather can be ugly but roses often start to grow very early (I often think way too early).
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Also all my HTs are mostly one cane wonder. One long thick cane of 2-3ft and then branch off looking like inclined standard rose. leave those alone till spring or cut down?
it had been so windy and rainy that i worry these types of canes will get damaged by wind over winter.
If your roses are in danger of rocking too much in the wind, I would cut those back sooner rather than later. Your HT's should produce some basals next spring hopefully. I always cut my HT's back quite hard but it depends on how tall you'd like them to be.
I'll be interested in hearing what others think as well on this topic as I'm sure we're all itching to get pruning!
The general advice is to leave all major pruning until early spring, because (so far as I understand from reading) roses store the energy they need to get through the winter in their canes. Also if you prune back to the height and shape you want now, frost might get the tips and you may suffer some dieback, meaning you have to then prune off the dead tips again and might end up with a shorter rose than you wanted. I do however, prune back long octopus canes after flowering to roughly the same size as the shrub, but this is during the growing season and doesn’t do the shrub any harm then.
As to wind rock, if you have planted the graft a few inches below ground, this guards against it. In saying that, I do plant the graft below ground, but we had some really ferocious winds the other day and Lady Emma Hamilton and Julia Child, both in an exposed position, were rocking madly so I pruned a third off the top to save them being uprooted. So if any roses are in danger of being battered, it’s ok to cut them back a bit now, just don’t go mad.
Really skinny canes don’t do much, so best to prune them out, but again, in early spring. At the same time removing any dead, diseased or dying branches, plus crossing branches that can rub against each other and cause wounds.
That’s my understanding anyway!
I have been cutting whatever has been flowering for vases in home. I feel that after bringing in, say after 1 hour, once rose have settled to room temperature the fragrance is stronger. The myrhh ones which i couldnt detect anything in garden, i can smell those we well. Anyway i am now a days very scared of sniffing roses in garden. There are some small white spiders hiding in the blooms! I only sniff after thoroughly checking each bloom indoor.
https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/blogs/news/pruning-an-english-shrub-rose
If anyone is interested in what they are, I found this link:
https://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-united-kingdom-plant-hardiness-zone-map-celsius.php