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Pruning Instructions

MillarificMillarific Posts: 28
in Problem solving
I purchased Precious Amber Rose (NOA 75800) last year which has flourished in a pot. The pruning instructions are very strange for a rose (grows to 70cm), "Early in Spring use shears to cut back 15cm (6in) from the base .....". My questions are:-

1/ When is early Spring ?
2/If I do this the rose has a lot of shoots, but these are all above 15cm, which will be lost.
3/Should I ignore the instructions and just prune back to the lowest shoot, otherwise where will this year's growth and flowers come from.

Posts

  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Annual pruning can be done anytime the rose is dormant, usually from late autumn up to early spring - which is usually March, but in colder parts can be up to the end of April. As your rose is showing plenty of signs of new shoots sprouting, your early spring is, well, now I would say 😊 

    Bush roses - Hybrid Teas and Floribundas - grow vigorously flower on new season’s growth, hence hard pruning is common as they soon shoot back up. Usual guidelines say down to 6” from the ground for HTs and 12” for floribundas. Yours is a floribunda. So I would go for 12”.

    You can prune lower than the new shoots, it doesn’t matter as it will encourage dormant buds to break lower down and a bushier shrub shape. It will re sprout from whatever point you prune it down to.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    edited February 2023
    Sounds about right to me.

    Early Spring is around now for where I live. I prune mine late Feb/early March.

    If you leave the growing shoots at the top, you'll get a bush with just a few flowers at the top and not much lower down - that's why it needs hard pruning.
    Don't worry about cutting the growing shoots off - more will come.
    Look at the shoots/buds that are about 6" ish from the base and try and prune to an outward-facing bud - this helps for a well-shaped rose.

    Some of mine may be 5-6ft - I'll cut them right back to about 1ft in the next week or so.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Stated heights and pruning instructions are really only guidelines and not fixed in stone - so much depends on your location, climate, soil etc. Useful to follow when you are starting out, but you will soon learn the growth habits of your rose and how hard or otherwise a prune you need to do. Don’t be scared of it, roses are tough shrubs and too timid a prune with bush roses will result in leggy plants with just flowers at the top, as Pete says.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    We have an RHS garden fairly near here,  many many years ago, when it first started up it was all roses,  when I asked him how he managed to prune all that lot he said they didn’t,  they just run a hedge cutter over the lot.  Didn’t bother about shoots, they are tough plants. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    My SIL takes a chainsaw to her mature bush roses, Lyn but for young plants, a sharp pair of secateurs is preferable!
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Yes Nollie,  chain saws on whipped growth can be lethal😀
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    Many years ago Geoff Hamilton done the same.
    A pathway with roses either side - he used secateurs on one side and a chainsaw on the other.
    The following year both side looked almost identical.
    The only difference was that the chainsaw had left some stubs and damaged leaves.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    They tried this at the garden of the Rose some years ago but returned to conventional pruning after about two seasons.  The jagged cut stems suffered with disease, as well as looking horrible. When I did my RHS course I  discussed this with the lecturer and the rest of the class, the consensus was that you can get away with that method for a while but it's not a good idea long term. 
    AB Still learning

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