The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has warned British gardeners that this month is the “last chance” for a crucial gardening task. By the end of March, it’s essential to have pruned your roses to ensure they stay healthy all summer.
In addition, the RHS suggests that gardeners should also consider planting onions, shallots, and summer-flowering bulbs at this time of year. The charity stated: “Spring usually starts to arrive across the country in March, and the longer days provide the opportunity for an increasing range of gardening tasks.”
It added: “It’s time to get busy preparing seed beds and sowing seed, and it’s your last chance to prune roses.” According to the RHS, late winter, from February to March, is the optimal time for pruning roses.
To assist gardeners with this task, the RHS provided the following advice:
- Cuts should be no more than 5mm (¼ in) above a bud and should slope downwards away from it, so that water does not collect on the bud. This applies to all cuts, whether removing dead wood, deadheading or annual pruning
- Cut to an outward-facing bud to encourage an open-centred shape. With roses of spreading habit, prune some stems to inward-facing buds to encourage more upright growth
- Cut to the appropriate height, if a dormant bud is not visible
- Cuts must be clean, so keep your secateurs sharp. For larger stems, use loppers or a pruning saw
- Prune dieback to healthy white pith (the white centre of the stems)
- Cut out dead and diseased stems and spindly and crossing stems
- Aim for well-spaced stems that allow free air flow
- On established roses, cut out poorly flowering old wood and saw away old stubs that have failed to produce new shoots
- With the exception of climbing roses and shrub roses, prune all newly planted roses hard to encourage vigorous shoots
- Trace suckers back to the roots from which they grow and pull them away.
The charity continued: “Feed all pruned roses with a general purpose or rose fertiliser in spring. Mulch with garden compost or manure.” If your roses are climbers, ramblers, or bush varieties, you should consider slightly different pruning steps. The RHS website has more information on pruning these.
The RHS advises gardeners to take precautions while trimming their roses, highlighting the importance of protective gloves and keeping an eye out for common infestations and ailments.
It added: “Wear gloves when handling thorny roses and keep a watch when you are pruning for the following pests or diseases while pruning; rose aphids, rose large sawfly, rose leaf rolling sawfly, rose black spot, rose dieback, rose powdery mildew and rose rust.”