I'm happy today, the weather was dry and mildish, about 11c so I got started on the rose pruning. I've done three, Winchester Cathedral, Gertrude and an HT Royal William. I've also taken off rusty steel rose baskets from GJ and WC as they don't need them any more and it's difficult to prune right to the base with them on. I'll try to remember to post pics tomorrow so you can all tell me if I've pruned them correctly!
If anyone is thinking of getting rose baskets for supports, my advice is don't!
I have also made a start on winter pruning of the roses. A few potted roses today. At this rate, it is going to take ages to complete this task. Climbing roses are going to take more time 😌 I have the added task of repotting a few which are now around 3-4 years in the same pot. Always better to get started early and work through them little by little, rather than doing it all in a rush in March 😉 that is what happened last few years; and I'm determined not to do the same this year. 😊
Oxford. The City of Dreaming Spires.
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils (roses). Taking a bit of liberty with Wordsworth
I'm starting next weekend, i have 21 shrub roses to tackle. They have just completed their first year, so it's going to be my first attempt at pruning. DA recommends taking 3-5 inches off first year, but i was wondering if it would be ok to take a little bit more off, maybe 8-10? I ask because most of them have reached a good height already and if i only take a few inches off they're still going to look a bit wispy as there's plenty of thin stems top end. And would taking a few more inches off help them stay a little more compact?
I've just seen Ronnie O'Sullivan at the garden center. I think he was eyeing up a plant.
I am planning to take 2 days off work once kids go back to school and it is not raining and doing it all in one go. My garden is so soggy muddy that doing anything there involves changing and washing a whole set of clothes plus jumper etc so can't do little a day routine.
Hi all and HNY from me and best wishes for a great rose season to come!
@HarryWhite that latest advice from DA is nonsensical imo, feeble snipping for the first prune is not the way to encourage stronger, bushy growth. OK for the naturally compact ones like Harlow Carr, maybe, but not for the ones like Lady of Shallot or GJ that can easily shoot up to 4ft in the first year. Do a piddling prune on those and you will end up with tall, weak canes and little flowering lower down. Equally nonsensical is the contradictory advice on the accompanying video which tells us to cut everything down to a uniform 15” from the ground regardless of what size they have attained or what each actually needs to form a pleasing, rounded shrub.
My advice FWIW is always to look at each shrub individually and decide what it needs/you want from it. The old DA advice was to prune back by a third to form a larger shrub or by a half or more for a more compact shrub. No need to treat the first prune any different from subsequent ones.
Also their advice - whichever version you choose - applies to English shrub roses, not floribundas or HTs (which they also sell) that benefit from harder pruning still, so check your varieties!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Sounds like many of you had a constructive rose related new years So did I. I haven't started pruning anything but I carried out an inspection, snipped off dead bits and tied in the climbers (one of my least favourite garden jobs).
Out of necessity I chopped a chunk out of the lawn in order to move the stepping stone path out the way of some gallica overhang. As it happens I can use this space to under plant with some upright new perennials or bulbs but that was a mere side effect of this operation .
To celebrate here's Gallica officinalis last June. It enjoyed the hot summer without rain and has since put on a nice amount of rounded growth.
I've also made a bulk manure order for the first time. I can see tips of snowdrops starting to show already so hopefully it will arrive and I can get it all down by mid-month.
I've also been forward planning for water since I'm on a meter and I had the brilliant idea of filling my garden wheelie bin with water from the fastest filling butts since collections don't start til spring. Seems brilliant so far anyway, it doesn't leak and I weighed the lid down so nothing manages to fall in. Worst case scenario we have a wet spring and I don't need the water but I'll deal with that if it happens or skip the first few bin collections.
Posts
I'm happy today, the weather was dry and mildish, about 11c so I got started on the rose pruning. I've done three, Winchester Cathedral, Gertrude and an HT Royal William. I've also taken off rusty steel rose baskets from GJ and WC as they don't need them any more and it's difficult to prune right to the base with them on. I'll try to remember to post pics tomorrow so you can all tell me if I've pruned them correctly!
If anyone is thinking of getting rose baskets for supports, my advice is don't!
I'm starting next weekend, i have 21 shrub roses to tackle. They have just completed their first year, so it's going to be my first attempt at pruning.
DA recommends taking 3-5 inches off first year, but i was wondering if it would be ok to take a little bit more off, maybe 8-10?
I ask because most of them have reached a good height already and if i only take a few inches off they're still going to look a bit wispy as there's plenty of thin stems top end.
And would taking a few more inches off help them stay a little more compact?
@HarryWhite that latest advice from DA is nonsensical imo, feeble snipping for the first prune is not the way to encourage stronger, bushy growth. OK for the naturally compact ones like Harlow Carr, maybe, but not for the ones like Lady of Shallot or GJ that can easily shoot up to 4ft in the first year. Do a piddling prune on those and you will end up with tall, weak canes and little flowering lower down. Equally nonsensical is the contradictory advice on the accompanying video which tells us to cut everything down to a uniform 15” from the ground regardless of what size they have attained or what each actually needs to form a pleasing, rounded shrub.
My advice FWIW is always to look at each shrub individually and decide what it needs/you want from it. The old DA advice was to prune back by a third to form a larger shrub or by a half or more for a more compact shrub. No need to treat the first prune any different from subsequent ones.
Also their advice - whichever version you choose - applies to English shrub roses, not floribundas or HTs (which they also sell) that benefit from harder pruning still, so check your varieties!
I'm quite pleased with the result.. it starts to flower early so I needed to get on with it..
Out of necessity I chopped a chunk out of the lawn in order to move the stepping stone path out the way of some gallica overhang. As it happens I can use this space to under plant with some upright new perennials or bulbs but that was a mere side effect of this operation
To celebrate here's Gallica officinalis last June. It enjoyed the hot summer without rain and has since put on a nice amount of rounded growth.
I've also made a bulk manure order for the first time. I can see tips of snowdrops starting to show already so hopefully it will arrive and I can get it all down by mid-month.
I've also been forward planning for water since I'm on a meter and I had the brilliant idea of filling my garden wheelie bin with water from the fastest filling butts since collections don't start til spring. Seems brilliant so far anyway, it doesn't leak and I weighed the lid down so nothing manages to fall in. Worst case scenario we have a wet spring and I don't need the water but I'll deal with that if it happens or skip the first few bin collections.