How and When to Prune Roses

Pruning roses is easier than you think, and unless you have a garden full of roses, it doesn't take long. In this guide, I'll teach you how to prune different types of roses and what to do when faced with a mystery rose.

Pruning roses keeps your plants healthy and helps them produce stunning displays of flowers. Gardeners sometimes find rose pruning intimidating, as there are different methods for different types of roses. The good news is that roses are resilient plants, and you're unlikely to kill a rose by over-pruning – if anything, it will probably bounce back even stronger.

Before pruning your rose, you need to know what type of rose it is. Even if you don't know the specific cultivar, identifying the type of rose helps you understand how to prune it. For the purposes of pruning, this is how we've grouped roses in this guide:

• Climbing roses: Includes climbing cultivars of English rose, floribunda and hybrid teas. Most are repeat flowering and flower on new growth.

• Rambling roses: Vigorous roses that can get very tall, very fast. Most bloom once, around June time, on old growth.

• Shrub roses: Includes old-fashioned roses, such as Damasks, Albas and Centifolias, and modern shrub roses, such as English roses, as well as species roses and Rugosa roses. These roses only need light pruning.

• Bush roses: Floribunda roses and hybrid tea roses that need to be pruned hard to flourish.

• Groundcover roses: Also known as carpet roses, these roses spread laterally and are wider than they are tall. They may be shrub roses or rambling roses.

• Patio roses and miniature roses: Compact cultivars designed for container growing or the front of borders.

If it's the middle of winter and you're faced with an unknown rose, don't panic! Keep reading to find out how to prune your mystery roses. 

 

How to prune roses

To prune roses, you'll need a pair of sharp secateurs for small stems and loppers for larger branches. I'd also recommend wearing heavy-duty gloves and long sleeves, particularly if you're pruning a thorny variety.

Here are some general tips that apply no matter what type of rose you're pruning:

• Make cuts just above a bud. Cutting at a 45-degree angle, so that rainwater runs away from the bud, can help prevent the stem from rotting.

• Choose a bud that points in the direction you want your new shoot to grow. This may be an outward-facing bud if you want to create space in the centre of the shrub or an inward-facing bud if you're training a rose and want the shoot to grow up.

• Remove any dead or diseased stems, cutting dead stems back to the base.

• Cut back or remove stems that cross or rub against each other.

• Remove any weak or spindly stems; as a guide, if it's less than the thickness of a pencil, you can take it off.

• If your rose is very congested at the base, remove some of the stems to allow for better air circulation.

• Consider what height you want your plant to be and how much you need to cut back – remember that the harder you cut back your roses, the more vigorously they'll regrow.

Roses can often send out suckers (shoots from the rootstock), which it's best to remove. Rather than snipping a sucker, trace it back to the point where it's attached to the rootstock and pull it off.

 

When to prune roses

The best time to prune most roses is during the winter months, when the plant is dormant. Mid-late winter or early spring (January to March) is the best time to prune roses, except for rambling roses, which are usually pruned in late summer. If you're renovating an overgrown climbing or rambling rose, this is best done over winter.

February is the traditional time to prune roses, but this depends on where you are in the country. Avoid pruning if hard frosts are forecast and wait until the leaf buds on your rose begin to swell.

 

How to prune an unknown rose

This is the tricky situation I found myself in when moving house in winter to a garden full of roses, none of which had labels! If you're facing a similar situation, then the first thing to determine is whether your rose is a climbing or rambling variety or a shrub or bush rose.

Climbing and rambling roses will most likely have some kind of support structure in place, whether that's a trellis, a wall or a tree. They tend to be tall with long stems. If you have an older rose with multiple stems, you can remove a couple of the oldest looking stems by cutting them at the base. If there's only one thick stem growing from the rootstock, shorten this by about a third.

Pruning is a little trickier if you've got an unknown bush or shrub rose, as the pruning requirements are different. Err on the side of caution by cutting back a couple of stems to the base or to a strong side stem low down, and then shorten the remaining stems by about a third. Keep an eye on how it regrows to determine how to prune the rose in the future.

If you got snip happy and think you've cut off too much, don't panic! Most roses will survive a hard pruning, even if it takes a couple of years to recover. And if it doesn't survive, then you can buy a rose that you do know the name of!

 

Training and pruning climbing roses

You can prune climbing roses in autumn, after the plant has finished flowering, or in winter. Climbing roses flower on new shoots, so you want to establish a framework of stems and cut back side shoots to the main stems each year. The more horizontal you can keep the main stems, the better they'll flower, as they'll produce side shoots (and flowers) along the length of the stem rather than just at the tip. If you're training a climbing rose on an upright support, gently twist the stems around the support instead of letting them shoot up to the top.

Once you've removed any dead or diseased stems, tie in any new stems you need to fill out your framework or to replace older stems. Remove any old stems or stems you don't need at the base.

The next step is to trim the side shoots. Cut these back to just above a bud near the main stem. Choose an outward or inward facing bud depending on how you want the new shoots to grow.

If you've just planted a new rose, then focus on training the young branches rather than heavy pruning. When your rose is around six years old, you may want to start removing some of the woodier stems at the base and replacing them with younger stems.

 

Pruning rambling roses

Rambling roses are very vigorous and can quite easily get tangled up with themselves and other plants. Ramblers flower once, usually in early summer, and the best time to prune rambling roses is in late summer, after the plant has finished flowering and while the stems are still pliable. If you need to renovate an overgrown rambler, it's best to do this in winter, as you can see the structure of the rose more clearly.

As with climbing roses, if you're starting off with a young plant, you want to train it, either in a fan shape up a wall or trellis, or around an obelisk. Unlike climbing roses, rambling roses flower on stems grown the previous year.

Ideally, you want no more than five or six strong shoots at the base of your rose. On older plants, you can remove one or two of the old, woody stems when pruning. You want to cut these old stems right back to the base, but it's easier to do this in stages, untying and cutting off sections of the stem from the top down. Select younger, green stems to replace the old stems and tie these to your support.

Once you have the main framework in place, you can shorten side shoots by two-thirds. You can either do this at the same time as the main pruning or, if you want to leave the hips on the rose, you can trim the shoots in winter.

If you have a tall rambling rose that's growing up and through a tree, you may be wondering where on earth you start attempting to prune it! Personally, I'd just leave it alone to do its thing.

 

Pruning shrub roses

Shrub roses are diverse, but generally they're larger than bush roses, with arching, thorny stems. They flower on old wood and only require light pruning in winter – this allows the rose to adopt a natural, informal shape. Some shrub roses produce a single flush of flowers, while others flower repeatedly.

Your main aim when pruning shrub roses is to keep the plant healthy, so start by removing any damaged, diseased or dead stems, as well as any that are rubbing against each other. If the centre of the shrub is becoming congested, you can remove older branches to create more space. Cutting old stems at the base will also encourage new shoots to form, which can help fill out the shape if your rose has got a bit leggy.

If your rose has a single flush of flowers, you can prune it in autumn, which can help protect larger plants from wind rock. For repeat-flowering varieties, wait until later in the winter and cut back the previous season's growth by about a third, as well as trimming any overlong shoots.

 

Pruning bush roses (floribundas and hybrid teas)

Pruning bush roses can feel a little dramatic, but it's necessary to prevent them from getting overcrowded and to make sure you get the best flowers. Bush roses flower on new growth, so they respond well to hard pruning. Prune roses in late winter, when the buds are just beginning to swell.

Once you've removed any damaged, dead or diseased stems, look at the overall shape of the rose. An open-centered goblet shape is ideal, and you may want to cut back any inward-pointing stems.

To get short, bushy plants, cut back the remaining stems to about knee height for floribunda roses and around four to six buds for hybrid tea roses. Floribundas don't always have to be cut back quite as hard – if you want to keep some height, focus on opening up the plant by reducing the number of stems higher up the plant and removing some of the old growth.

 

Pruning groundcover roses

Groundcover roses are very low maintenance as they require little, if any, pruning. Other than removing dead, damaged or diseased stems, the only time you need to prune them is if they're outgrowing their space and intruding on a path or other part of the garden. If this is the case, simply cut back any wayward shoots and trim strong stems by a third.

Rambling groundcover roses are a little more prone to getting overgrown, so it's worth shortening the side shoots in later summer, once it's finished flowering.

If you need to renovate a groundcover rose, you can prune it back hard to around 10 cm from the base in winter.

 

Pruning patio and miniature roses

These compact roses mostly only require light pruning. Trim back roses in late winter, removing any damaged or diseased branches. You often get a lot of twiggy growth on patio roses – remove this, along with any spindly, weak stems, to leave a framework of strong stems.

Cut back the main stems of patio roses by about a third. You don't need to prune the main stems of a miniature rose unless you think it needs some encouragement to put out new shoots, in which case, cut back a couple of old stems to the base of the plant.

 

Pruning aftercare

Once you've pruned your roses, clear away all the clippings and add a thick layer of mulch around (but not touching) the base of the plant – well rotted manure is ideal.

 

FAQ

How do you cut back roses?

To start with, remove any dead, damaged or diseased stems, spindly growth and branches that are rubbing against each other. How you prune your rose after this depends on which variety of rose you're growing – read our guide above for details. If you're not sure which type of rose you have, then remove a couple of old stems at the base and shorten the stems left by about a third.

When do you prune roses?

The best time to prune most roses is late winter, around February or March, just as the new buds are beginning to swell. The exception to this rule is rambling roses and other roses that flower in a single flush; you can prune these at the end of the summer once flowering is over.

When is it too late to prune roses?

Ideally, you should have pruned your roses by late March, depending on where you are in the country. You can prune roses in April, especially if they haven't got many leaves, though this may delay flowering. As a general rule, if you're pruning later, prune lightly. Focus on removing dead or damaged stems rather than significant cutting back.