Pruning time?

By tradition rose growers say it's best to prune roses in February for the forthcoming season, but with the changes in our weather patterns I'm now tending to go against that. At present my roses still have leaves from last year and also have new shoots up to three inches long so I've decided not to leave them any longer and get them pruned, I actually first thought about pruning them three weeks ago but with the weather being so bad I've not been near the garden. I think in future I'll go by what the roses are 'telling me' and not the growers.

What does everyone else think please?

 

its a difficult choice as if we do get hard weather , the new shoots may get frosted after you have pruned , I tend to just tidy up and later in March do the final cuts , works for me Sheal and the weather so variable all over the UK.

 

I did my rose climbers on thurs sheal but not the stems with buds on as i wasnt sure,ive stuck my cut offs in the ground ....ya never know they might sprut x

 

Spruce, March is much to late for me here, being a small island the climate here is warmer than the mainland.

 

Woo, I understand what you're saying from the mainland point of view, but we get very few frosts here and with the exception of last Easter we've had no snow to speak of for nearly twenty years.

 

Il be pruning and mulching from now to early march as and when each bush needs something. I think you've got to do what the individual bush and the weather forecast is telling u. If u look their all doing different things at the moment. Some are just finishing last years flowering. (I will b starting with these) Some have got big shoots on already. You will always be first to prune coz of your geographical location

 

Wonder if I can add a question to pruning discussion re my 'silver jubilee' roses. They've been attacked over last summer by the neighbouring cat, apparently he thought they were a scratch post or something. It has had the effect that some stems were completely torn off. My instinct is to let them be , although they are a bit ragged due to rather haphazard cat pruning. :( some of the branches are brown and have totally given up.

 

Afternoon
Regarding "Silver Jubilee" roses I would cut off the brown bits and the ragged bits. Cut back to either a healthy bud or to a healthy main stem if there are no buds.
Nigel

 

Thanks Nigel and woo! Some of the main canes have been damaged so I will do as you suggest woo. Some of the other branches already have leaf buds, if I trim these back will that be a bad idea? I had just readied myself to install some kind of barrier when the cat suddenly decided it was bored of destroying my roses. So hopefully they will fare better. I put a mulch of well rotted manure on a couple of weeks ago.