When and How Should I Prune My Roses?

Pruning is one of the most important tasks in rose care, and the timing and method vary depending on the type of rose you are growing. Done correctly, annual pruning keeps plants compact, well-shaped, and producing abundant flowers. Neglected pruning leads to tall, leggy bushes that flower only at the tips, with a tangle of old unproductive wood at the base.

Bush roses (hybrid tea and floribunda)

Prune hybrid tea and floribunda roses in late February to March in most temperate climates — when forsythia is in flower is a useful guide. First remove all dead, diseased, and damaged wood, cutting back to healthy white pith. Then remove crossing and congested stems to open up the centre of the plant. Finally, cut all remaining healthy stems back to outward-facing buds, reducing them to roughly one third to half their length. Hybrid teas can be pruned harder (to about 20–30 cm from the ground) for fewer, larger blooms; floribundas are pruned slightly less hard for more numerous clusters of smaller flowers.

Shrub roses and old garden roses

Many shrub roses and old garden roses need much lighter pruning than hybrid teas. They flower on mature wood and do not benefit from hard annual cutting back. Instead, deadhead spent flowers through the season, remove a few of the oldest stems at the base each year to encourage renewal, and lightly shape the bush in late winter. One-time-flowering shrub roses (which flower only on old wood) should not be pruned until after flowering in early summer.

Climbing and rambling roses

Climbing roses that flower repeatedly are lightly pruned in late winter — trim sideshoots back to two or three buds from the main stems, and remove any dead wood. Rambling roses that flower once (in summer on the previous year's growth) are pruned after flowering in late summer — cut out the stems that have just flowered and tie in new young shoots to replace them.

The autumn cut-back

In exposed or windy gardens, tall bush roses benefit from being cut back by about a third in autumn to reduce wind rock — the repeated movement of the roots in wind, which loosens the plant and can cause dieback. This is a tidy-up rather than the main annual prune, which still takes place in late winter. Do not feed after the autumn cut-back as this would stimulate soft new growth before winter.

Pruning cuts

Always use sharp, clean secateurs. Make each cut at a 45-degree angle, sloping away from the bud, with the lowest point of the cut level with the top of the bud. This sheds rainwater away from the bud and reduces the risk of disease entering at the wound. Cut to outward-facing buds to encourage the rose to grow outward and keep the centre open.