Rose Pruning
Episode: # 13 07/07/07
Presenter: Neville Passmore
Rose-a-phobia is the fear of killing a rose by pruning. It is the number one reason why people don’t grow roses and what a pity when you see plants like Iceberg (Rosa, Modern Shrub, Cluster-Flowered, ‘Iceberg’), an absolute flower production factory that will flower over 12 months of the year.
Roses really are incredibly tough and forgiving plants and you can’t kill them by pruning them. In fact, it is better that you make a real mess of the process than leave the bush uncut. Roses need to push out new growth to give you a flower shoer, stagnant growth means no flowers.
Neville has a fail safe formula that will enable you to prune roses for great results every time. It is called a half by a half by a pencil. First up you need a decent pair of cutters, something nice and sharp like Fiskars pruners because clean cuts mean quick recovery.
Size up the bush, choose a spot that is half way between the top growth and the ground and slice straight through. Next, you want to cut out half the remaining canes right down at the base. Look for signs that indicate older growth, these can be grey, scaly looking stems and they are usually quite thick. Prune these away first but hang on to the green or purple in colour with smooth bark.
The plant may look a bit brutalised but in a few months time it will be full of foliage and loaded with flowers.
Flower carpet, or landscape roses are even easier to prune. All you need is a trusty pair of hedge shears and get in there and chop it back by at least half. The plant will recover very, very quickly, within 6 to 8 weeks it will be in full flower again.
Roses really are so tough you couldn’t kill them with a brick and the reward of nine months of continuous flowering and absolutely sublime perfumes make being a bit of a heretic totally justifiable.
Fiskars
www.fiskars.com
Presenter: Neville Passmore
Rose-a-phobia is the fear of killing a rose by pruning. It is the number one reason why people don’t grow roses and what a pity when you see plants like Iceberg (Rosa, Modern Shrub, Cluster-Flowered, ‘Iceberg’), an absolute flower production factory that will flower over 12 months of the year.
Roses really are incredibly tough and forgiving plants and you can’t kill them by pruning them. In fact, it is better that you make a real mess of the process than leave the bush uncut. Roses need to push out new growth to give you a flower shoer, stagnant growth means no flowers.
Neville has a fail safe formula that will enable you to prune roses for great results every time. It is called a half by a half by a pencil. First up you need a decent pair of cutters, something nice and sharp like Fiskars pruners because clean cuts mean quick recovery.
Size up the bush, choose a spot that is half way between the top growth and the ground and slice straight through. Next, you want to cut out half the remaining canes right down at the base. Look for signs that indicate older growth, these can be grey, scaly looking stems and they are usually quite thick. Prune these away first but hang on to the green or purple in colour with smooth bark.
The plant may look a bit brutalised but in a few months time it will be full of foliage and loaded with flowers.
Flower carpet, or landscape roses are even easier to prune. All you need is a trusty pair of hedge shears and get in there and chop it back by at least half. The plant will recover very, very quickly, within 6 to 8 weeks it will be in full flower again.
Roses really are so tough you couldn’t kill them with a brick and the reward of nine months of continuous flowering and absolutely sublime perfumes make being a bit of a heretic totally justifiable.
Fiskars
www.fiskars.com
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