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Climbing Rose pruning

BobbydazzlerBobbydazzler Posts: 1
in Plants

Hi, I'm new to the forum (and garndening I suppose) so hopefully I've posted in the correct area...!

I have recently moved into a house which was previously occupied by an old lady. The term mature garden comes to mind, although in reality, there are a rather large amount of mature plants which have been left to grow and grow without any TLC.

Which brings me to a climbing rose which is sited on a south facing fence. It has clearly had some pruning over the years, but this is a mature rose with thick stems and utter chaos with competing branches!

I could just whip it out and buy a new one but there seems to be some romance surrounding the idea of breathing new life into the old rose.

Now this is where I could do with some advice please. I don't just want to hack it down to the base if thats not the right thing to do. What should I do and when? Can this plant be pruned hard back or not?

Any help would be appreciated... many thanks

Posts

  • sotongeoffsotongeoff Posts: 9,802

    Firstly -roses respond well to heavy pruning-even if you cut this hard back it would still flower next year

    I would be selective-take out the really thick branches, any really spindly stiff anything crossing and rubbing-so thinning out basically-you can do that now to stop it being top heavy-then do a proper pruning job in February -cutting back just above a bud

    And tie in to supports horizontally

    More on rose pruning here

    http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=189

     

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