Someone (Adam?) demonstrated this earlier this year on GW.
It's about controlling the behaviour of a lateral bud or branch.
Notching: If you make a small wedge cut just above the bud, it reduces the effect of apical dominance, by preventing downward hormone traffic, and the bud will grow faster, without needing to prune off the leader.
Nicking: If you make a small wedge cut just below the bud, it will either not grow or grow much more slowly, because nutrients from the roots are prevented from reaching it.
Called notching, not nicking, I think - you make a shallow slit above a dormant bud on the rose cane. This link was posted recently for a different reason (edging your lawn with geraniums) but Toby Buckland also demonstrates in this clip how to do notch a shrub: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08lk4lg
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
It's to do with interrupting the flow of sap up through the stem. You have to place a nick above a bud which you want to develop into a shoot. Frankly, with roses, it's just as easy to prune the stem above an appropriate bud. It's also called notching if that helps with google searches.
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@Nollie Thanks for putting the video on your post. I have just watched it and found it very interesting. He makes everything look so easy. I have yet to find out if it is. @Grajean If you have watched it you will see you weren't far out as there is "notching" and "nicking".
Don’t think you should do it now tho, Grajean as your rose is heading for dormancy, best to wait until the rose is leafing out in late spring/early summer. Useful when you don’t want to reduce the height of the plant much but want to encourage it to shoot lower down and get fuller coverage, say on a climber or large shrub. It was Marlorena of the Rose thread fame that first mentioned this technique and I’m going to try it on one of my leggy roses next year. @Fran IOM, I thought he was very clear and helpful in the video, as a presenter he seems to irritate a lot of people, but he does know his stuff.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08lk4lg
@Grajean If you have watched it you will see you weren't far out as there is "notching" and "nicking".