Pruning a Tall Overgrown HT Rose

Hi All, roses are one of those plants I've never really grown, however our nextdoor neighbour who is in his 80's has asked me to tidy up his front garden (basically pruning the various shrubs). One though is a very tall; 7ft+ HT rose, it's very old and obviously never been pruned correctly, all the growth and flowers are on the top 2-3ft and there's quite a lot of dead wood. Is it possible to prune it back so far now and then prune back to a healthy group of stems in February or should I just leave it all until then except maybe for dead heading now?? Also will it recover from a severe pruning given it is so old and not been pruned properly??, the growth that is there on the top does look very healthy still.

Thanks in advance :thumb:

 

Yay! Woo's back. Too-wit-to-woo! :happydance:

 

Hello all, I can see this is a very old post but I have a similar question! A friend has recently moved & inherited some old apple trees & a couple of old roses too. They look like they’ve just been left to grow tall and not pruned. They are shrub roses not climbers and have all the new growth about 4-5ft high on the top of an old gnarled looking ‘trunk’ (almost like a standard rose, but not) one of them has a couple of ‘trunks’ with new growth just at the top. I tried to take photos but they are hemmed in with other over grown shrubs and brambles so it doesn’t really show the roses too well. Once we get the area cleared and are back to the roses how hard can they be chopped down? If we cut the ‘trunk’ so basically cut them down by half (to 2-3ft high) would they sprout back from that point ? Eg cut into old wood?

 

It would be a gamble to cut them right down. I'd take out all the obviously dead wood then lop the remaining branches back to just above where you can see 'bumps' on them. These should produce new growth. Difficult to be more precise without photos, though

 

I'd cut it back to about 2ft asap before growth really gets underway.
That will force buds to break on the old wood and send out new shoots.
It'll still flower well this year.

 

Thank you for the replies! I didn’t know if the rose would regenerate from ‘old’ wood as looking on places like David Austin etc they only show how to prune new roses or ones that have been properly pruned in the past.
Thanks again !!

 

I'd cut it back fairly hard, if it doesn't come back from that you have not really lost anything as it sounds like its far too tall and always will be if you dont try.