Pruning Roses (and other stuff)

My roses are gangly. They could gangle for England. They are as gangly as a gangly thing. I am almost certain that their gangliness is due to my incompetent attempts at pruning and I would welcome advice. Should I have at them with garden shears or should I talk to them soothingly and just snip bits off down to a pair of buds? The soil is very Essexy (mostly clay) and I have not really nourished them and it is now too late to put horse manure in. Could I feed from the surface, and if so, with what? Tomato feed? Fisons? Baked beans?

Come on, rose experts, help Trux.

 

Hi trux,i dunno about pruning gangly roses(or much else,)but ive given mine a sprinkling of super rose food by Gem.I bought it at the �£1.oo shop.

 

Tougher than old boots! I remember a Gardeners World where the presenter (could have been Titchy or Donn, can't recall) had two beds. One was pruned with care and skill and the other was 'attacked' with a hedgetrimmer! Guess which one was most abundantly in flower that summer!!

However, if your roses are gangling for England, then you need to get to and cut back hard. Just be carefull you identify the graft area where the hybrid is attached to the base. It looks bulbous and different to a normal stem base.

Make sure you leave about 6-12" of stalk above this point. And take off all the dead or diseased stems so what remains is nice healthy, green growth.

 

Trux - I was reading an excellent article on rose pruning in I think the Garden - if you can lay your hands on it it would be helpful.

However if your gardening on clay, then whilst roses are greedy feeders, they shouldn't need much in the way of feeding. If theyre growing lots of sappy new growth the chances are your soil nitrogen rich - unless of course theyre climbers :D

I just reduce mine by a third in the autumn, to prevent windrock and then prune lightly for shape in the spring - about now. Forget the pruning to an outward facing bud - all that does is ensure there is not a short non leafed stem, but it soon disappears under the normal growth. I tend to remove the very spindly growth and any dead wood, but the current thinking is that roses do better, if they are not (as was done traditionally) pruned hard back. They lose vigour and flower by trying to make back the growth.

The trial of traditional pruning, and pruning with a hedgetrimmer was done both at Capel Manor, and by the Society of the Rose. The hedgetrimmered roses did better.

 

Give them a good prune mate, back to the thick stems. Get yourself some chicken manure pellets. Soak some in water over night in a bucket. Stir the next day and use it diluted as a liquid feed. Sets mine off a treat in the spring.

I give you Rhapsody in Blue a'la Chicken Poop !

 

You lot have given me real hope! I like the chicken sh.... (oops mustn't say that) idea. The hedge trimmer sounds good too. Many thanks for ALL of the advice. I will let you know later in the year. I have five Granpa Dixon that excelled the first year before joining the rest in gangling.