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To prune or not to prune??
Roses!! I know for sure I deffo saw a Gardner's World prog where the RHS did trials - 1 bed was pruned the "old fashioned" way, i.e. cut above an outward bud, and the other bed they took electric shears and scalped them - no impact in flower production. Anyone ever tried it?
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Never tried it Typhoo and wouldn't. If I had large beds of roses either at home or to maintain I !ay consider it but it looks neater if pruned by hand plus broken stems can let in disease and mangled stems die back very quickly. Clean cuts are better IMHO.
I remember seeing it and the consensus was that the ones done with shears performed better - much to everyone's surprise. I think it may depend on your conditions and perhaps the types as well. I don't grow roses so it's hard to make a real judgement
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Personally I don't fancy doing it, like you Dave you can't shape them and you would have branches crossing one another. Plus, an awful lot more tidying up to do!!
There was a trial by the Rose Society which found that beds of roses pruned with shears produced more flowers than the same size of bed done carefully tending each individual plant.
I've never tried it as I don't have mono culture rose beds and I find that heavy frosts take their toll on some roses and they need dead stems carefully removed back to the base. Some years I do conventional pruning and some years I leave long stems and hook them down to the ground. Depends on mood. Wouldn't work with shears.
Agree with the concensus, use secateurs Typhoo. They may have had more flowers but did they find out if shears or hedgetrimmers (that was the other way they did it) let in more diseases or caused more dieback - I doubt it. And remember you have to look at the roses and they'll look 'sheared' rather than cared for.