Rose Pruning by Example: One of Three

I had a three-part question in this morning, about pruning roses, from Neil (*waves enthusiastically*  "Hi, Neil!") and they were good questions, so I thought it easiest to answer them here, with annotated photos.

The three questions concerned a small rose in a pot, which is this article: the second concerned a shrub rose against a fence, the third was a climbing rose against the house. 

First up is this smallish rose, in a pot:

Neil commented that a lot of the growth was sideways, so he pruned the sideways branches as well as the upright ones.

This is the right thing to do!

It looks like a fairly "young" rose, I suspect it is only a year or two old - and I'm basing that on the large pruning scar, low down, on the side facing the camera, which looks exactly like the sort of pruning done by nurseries. 

They like to send out their roses with three or four short, equal-sized branches, which they achieve by cutting off the main stem very low down, early the previous year, which forces the plant to send out a small handful of shoots.

These are the ones which they then shorten, ready for sale.

And for some reason, these plants are nearly always very one-sided. 

After a couple of years, they recover fully, and you would never know, but they often do look a bit strange for those early years with you, the new owner: and yes, they often send out a lot of sideways growth.

So Neil has done a good job on this one: if it were mine, I probably would have been just a little bit harsher with it:

(Apologies for the artistic interjections, which may look as though performed by a three-year-old, or by a cat, but they are actually all my own work...)

Either way (*laughs*), the yellow slashes represent cuts that I would have made: generally to make it more consistent in overall height, but slightly dome-shaped: and to remove that one crossing branch.

As for the beautifully hand-drawn numbers (*rolls eyes*):

1) is what I call an elbow: it's a shoot, off of a shoot, which is springing outwards at a rather abrupt angle, so personally, I would cut it again, just below the join. Otherwise, when it starts to sprout, there will be a collection of angular joins, which I find unpleasing.

2) is the long crossing branch. Bear in mind that it might be a trick of perspective... but it looks as though there is a long branch shooting off from left to right, curving down and then back up again. I'd lose that one, partly because it is a bit feeble compared to the others, and mostly because it appears to be shooting across the middle, and when pruning shrub roses we aim for - all together now - an Open Goblet Shape. Well done, every who joined in. This means we try to cut out anything growing across the "middle" of the bush, to allow air flow, to reduce disease etc.

3) Again, I may well be doing Neil a disservice here: I've marked that one for harder pruning because it appears to be pointing back in towards the centre, ie impinging on our Open Goblet Shape. But it might be a trick of perspective... in which case, I apologise!

Having done all that, I would suggest checking to see if the soil in the pot is sufficiently damp: an easy way to check is to dab your dry fingertip on the surface. If it comes up bone dry and completely clean,  then the pot needs watering. But if it comes up with a couple of crumbs of soil on it, then it's fine.

Roses are already starting to put out shoots, and this one does not appear to be very active yet, so I would be inclined to check it for dryness, just in case. If it is a bit dry, then watering it should prompt it into action. And maybe a small fistful of balanced feed, such as Growmore - liquid feed, or granules, whatever you have - because the compost which was used when planting the rose in the pot only has nutrients for a few weeks, and I'm guessing that this rose has been in the pot for longer than that. Roses are what is known as "greedy feeders" so they respond well to a bit of fertiliser encouragement: and in my opinion, they are also quite sensitive to water, or the lack thereof.

As for the one-sided-ness of the remaining branches, it looks as though Neil has already done the right thing by facing the pot outwards, to encourage growth away from the wall, ie towards the light. If the wall is facing East, or West, then it might be worth turning the pot so that the least bushy side of the plant faces south, or as near to south as you can get, which will encourage it to put out more shoots in that direction.

And finally, once it starts growing, keep an eye on where the buds are forming - ideally we'd like each pruned shoot to send out some firmly upright new growth, heading upwards and outwards. So if you see buds forming in the "inside" of the stems - that is, pointing in towards the centre of our Open Goblet Shape -  gently rub them off as soon as you see them, which will prevent them from growing. This means the plant can put all its energy into the better-placed, outwards-facing buds.

If all goes well, in a few weeks, this little Rose will have some strong new shoots, and hopefully it will be balanced and shapely for the year!

 

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