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Rejuvinating old roses
Annie5
Posts: 16
Could anyone help me with a query. I am trying to find out if now is too early to start pruning my old roses to rejuvinate them. These are roses which we inherited when we moved house 2 years ago. I already pruned them last year and they did flower better but there is a lot of old branches which I am wary of taking away but they do not provide many flowers.
0
Posts
Te best time to prune is around February when you can see where the new buds are-doing it now will encourage fresh growth that could be damaged by heavy frosts
Having said that you could still remove any really old and dead stuff now but leave the main pruning till later.
Yes, leave it till Feb/March depending on how cold your area and the winter turn out to be. Then start by cutting out all obvioulsy dead wood plus broken, damaged or twiggy growth and then assess what you have left.
Prune the remaining stems down to outward facing buds to maintain an open form that allows air to flow and reduces disease. Feed them generously with blood, fish and bone, or pelletd chicken manure as general fertilisers for good growth then add some rose or tomato fertiliser as these encourage flowers.