Gardeners' World: Monty Don provides advice on pruning roses
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Roses flower abundantly from early summer in a variety of gorgeous colours including pink, peach, cream and yellow. Pruning is a very important job in august, and Monty Don has shared top tips on rose pruning. The expert said it a “good time” to prune roses, adding that it is “very straightforward”.
Monty explained: “Now that the roses, the shrub roses anyway, have finished flowering, it’s a good time to do some pruning.
“One tends to think of rose pruning as something that happens in winter, and you can prune roses in winter.
“Often it’s easier to see when all the foliage has dropped.
“But actually, these shrub roses, the Gallicas, the Albas, the Damasks, produce their flowers on the previous year’s growth.
“So if we just neaten them up slightly, taking off these long shoots that either are out of proportion with the rest of the shrub or maybe so long that there’s a risk of them rocking in winter winds.
“Just trim them back, just take them back.”
Monty said gardeners shouldn’t worry too much where they cut or which angle they cut at.
Shrub roses are tough plants and can withstand cutting at any angle.
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The Gardeners’ World host added that he tends to trim roses with shears.
Monty then showed viewers how to prune back rambling roses.
Rambler roses are perfect for covering a large wall or pergola, or growing into a large, established tree.
They are often vigorous and need strong support to grow in the right direction.
The expert explained: “Pruning shrub roses like those in the cottage garden is actually very straightforward and if in doubt and you do nothing, you’ll do no harm at all.
“Now, this is a rambling rose and you can see it’s generating this new growth, this is a typical rambling growth.
“It’s slender and arching and you can see new growth coming down here. Because it’s young, it’s yet to go up into the tree.
“Quite frankly, the best thing to do is to leave them to it. Don’t try and prune them.
“However, I have got a rambler growing over a shed, which does need quite a lot of pruning.”
Monty said that the rambler, Felicite Perpetue, was very vigorous and wasn’t growing in the direction he had hoped due to a lack of light.
The expert pruned the rose back to make sure its growth was the best it could be next year.
If pruning a rambler, gardeners should make sure there are around five or six strong shoots from the base of the plant.
This means if you want to prune an old one out, it needs to be done right at the bottom.
To prune this type of rose, Monty recommended folding it down from a wall, fence or trellis.
He said: “I can then cut out the old wood and then put the new whip growth back up and tie it in.”
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