Rose pruning kept simple

This is my no-nonsense rose pruning method that I’ve used for years to nurture healthy roses and encourage bountiful blooms.

When I first planted my roses, I was astonished at the bewildering amount of unnecessary, overcomplicated, and confusing ‘rules’ for pruning. Why all the complication? I’m guessing that it’s because there are specialist professional growers looking to grow perfect specimens and they share their extraordinarily nuanced methods as they maximise and perfect their blooms.

But let’s take a reality check… For starters the vast majority of us are not exhibiting at Chelsea, even if our egos aspire too. Neither are we selling to florists. Unless you’re growing roses specifically for cutting, you don’t need especially long stems and award-winning single show blooms.

As gardeners, we really just want healthy roses and lots and lots of beautiful blousy flowers. So, let’s lower the expectation level and just apply a reasonable approach that’s simple, quick and effective.

My garden roses

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Do roses need pruning?

Technically, no. However, you would then eventually have a thicket of thorns with flowers limited to the very tips of the canes. The real question is actually: “Do you want a tangled thorny mess?” Probably not… So prune! If you find the thought of cutting your beloved roses rather terrifying, let me assure you that the chances of doing long-term damage to a rose is next to zero. They are tough plants that will flower more prolifically with simple pruning.

In my garden, there are over 30 different roses - rambling, climbing, English shrub, hybrid teas, floribundas, etc. In fact, there are so many, the Flower Garden is actually a Rose Garden. Almost all of the roses are from David Austin and the majority are fragrant English shrub roses. Personally, I don’t see the point of a rose without a beautiful fragrance, but that’s just me.

Part of my yearly gardening schedule is the rose pruning and it’s something I have really come to enjoy and look forward to - setting up those stunning plants for a healthy season ahead. I prepare my secateurs and loppers, clean and sharp. I always start on the Terrace. I always take my time. I’m methodical and thorough. As a result, the roses are healthy, vigorous, and flower wonderfully.

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When do I prune shrub roses?

Over the summer, climbing and shrub roses produce abundant growth, which needs to be reigned in. They throw up long green canes that bend and sway in the wind. By November, here in the UK, roses are quickly running out of steam and those long canes are battered by storms. Any roses still trying to flower do so with little vigour and tiny flower buds that usually mould and ball in the dank weather.

You can prune shrub and climbing roses anytime from late autumn to early spring, even into March. If the leaf buds are bursting and unfurling, you can still prune, but regrowth maybe just be a little slower to get going. The one exception to winter pruning is Ramblers, which are pruned after flowering in mid-summer, because they flower on the previous year’s growth. If you prune ramblers in winter, you’re actually chopping off the flowering stems!

Personally, I prefer late autumn or early winter for pruning my roses. If you defoliate the rose entirely, like I do, you avoid carrying over diseases like Rose Rust and Rose Blackspot. Plus autumn storms risk broken stems and root rock and I can clear up all the fallen leaves and detritus as part of my late-autumn tidy.

There’s an added bonus too… If you prune roses in winter, you can take those prunings and make free rose plants with the hardwood cuttings! And who doesn’t like free roses?!

Do wait until after the first hard frosts of autumn which should send the rose into dormancy. If you prune too early, there’s a risk of sparking new regenerative growth that could scorch in the frosts. But again, these are tough hardy plants, so don’t worry too much.

Most of my roses are still relatively young and in the formative stage. If you have aged roses and want to rejuvenate them, wait until late winter. You can simply remove the oldest woody canes, right down as low as you can go. Just prune out one or too of the oldest gnarliest canes each year so you gradually rejuvenate your established rose over a few years.

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Tools for the job

There’s no need to be too fussy when it comes to pruning roses. I simply make all my cuts just above a leaf bud, but this isn’t essential. I naturally cut stems at an angle, but that’s not essential either. Chop them with loppers or sheers if you like. Even a hedge trimmer! Whatever you use, just make sure your blades are sharp! You want to avoid crushing stems and leaving tears.

Rose canes and branches can be very tough and woody. To my mind, sharp bypass secateurs or bypass loppers and a diagonal cut is the easiest and safest cut to make. It’s crucial to keep those blades clean too. If possible, wipe them down before moving on to another rose. You don’t want to spread any diseases.

Tip: I carry a little Tupperware pot with a dilute mix of water, dishwashing liquid, and bleach. Before pruning any rose, I dip my blades in the solution and wipe clean. If they’ve become sticky and grimy, I’ll use a Niwaki CleanMate to remove the gunk.

Rose thorns are vicious and very unforgiving! If you take pride in the appearance of your hands, then you can use thick gauntlet gloves. However, if you’re like me, you’ll accept that a blood sacrifice is completely justified! Yes, my hands look like I’ve wrestled a feral cat in a bag! But, I find most gloves very restrictive and prefer the dexterity of bare fingers for finer pruning and tying in. It’s a personal choice.

A good compromise are these Niwaki gloves that offer just a smidgen of protection, but dextrous enough to tie knots and reach in to grab those freshly-pruned weedy stems and leaves. These are my favourite gloves!

In this video I take the classic ‘young and burgeoning’ English shrub rose, an Emily Bronte, one that’s been in the ground for about 3 years. You’ll see the initial assessment, cutting, thinning, height reduction, etc.

Let’s get pruning! Chop! Chop!

To keep your rose healthy and blooming freely, take these easy steps as you prune each rose in turn. And when we’re pruning, ideally, we’re looking to prune down to an outward facing bud. Why? In theory, new growth from an outward-facing bud will grow away from the centre and, repeated across all the canes, creates a nice open goblet framework, meaning light reaches the middle and air circulates.

I say ‘in theory’ because a rose will never read a gardening book, no matter how well written, and will do exactly what it damn well pleases… probably producing the new growth from an inward-facing bud, simply out of spite. It’s not the end of the world. Don’t worry. We can only try to encourage the rose to grow as we want.

1. Assess

Before we get chopping, assess the rose first. Take your time. Your first priority is the “3Ds”: Dead, Diseased, Damaged stems. Be methodical. Investing more time here brings rewards for next year and for years to come. Healthy rose stems/canes will either be brown and woody, or smooth and green, depending on their age. Look out for black sores, fungal infections, breakages, etc.

If you’re unsure whether a stem is living or dead, scratch-off the outer surface with a blade. If it’s green underneath (the cambium layer) then it’s alive. If it’s brown, it’s dead, so prune it out or prune back to living healthy growth. Once you’ve identified the 3Ds, also look for thin and weedy stems that are unlikely to produce or support flowers.

2. The Cuts

As with any pruning, it’s good practice to cut down to something… a leaf bud, a side branch, back to a trunk, etc. If you take these cuts right down to another stem/branch, leave the collar intact and any pruning wounds will quickly heal over on their own. Do not tape over cuts or paint anything on them. The rose will heal perfectly well without your intervention, no matter how well intended.

For health: The 3Ds

The Dead, Diseased, Damaged stems. Cut these down to healthy growth, or remove the branch/cane entirely. Also the snags - short dead stubs, the dieback leftover from previous pruning.

For space: Weak & Crossing

Next remove those weedy stems, the ones thinner than a pencil. Then remove any inward and crossing stems that are rubbing or congesting the centre of the shrub. With all those sickly and congested stems removed, you should be left with a strong open framework of canes, ready for vigorous growth fully-maxed with blooming potential.

For regrowth: Height

Now to reduce the height. Pruning in winter will promote strong regrowth in spring. For established shrub and bush roses, simply take the canes down to roughly half their height, evening out the overall height for shape and balance. For newly planted roses, cut down to around 30cm from the ground and be sure to thin out the stems so you’re left with only the very strongest.

For defense: Defoliate

Remove all remaining leaves! In the UK, especially in the south, it’s rarely cold enough for garden roses to drop their leaves. But as those old leaves can carry rust or black spot spores into the next season and infect the new foliage, I recommended that you prune off all the leaves, leaving just the bare framework.

The leaves can usually just pulled off with a sharp downward tug. If you look closely, you’ll see most leaves already have a tiny shoot of new growth tucked between the old leaf and stem.

I know it looks stark but these are strong plants that will grow away vigorously in Spring. I realised the risk of leaving the foliage on first hand. For the past two years I’ve left the leaves until early spring and suffered the worst cases of rust since they were planted, although that could be the dreadful spring weather compounding the problem. So I’m going back to the process that has kept my roses healthy for years - prune in winter and defoliate!

For the season ahead

The very final act is optional but strongly recommended… Clear away any and all fallen leaves and detritus below the rose. Lightly rake around the rose and clear away old mulch that might be harbouring infectious spores, dropped during the summer. Then redress around the rose with a generous helping of nourishing compost or manure.

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The Happy Rose

Going forward, into the growing season, water your roses deeply if there are prolonged dry spells in spring and summer. Don’t water the leaves. Direct the water to the roots. One long deep drink is better than little sprays that will evaporate before reaching the roots. I will empty an entire watering can on one rose alone!

Container grown roses naturally have limited access to nutrients and should receive a weekly liquid seaweed root drench, just to keep them in tip-top shape. You can also treat your roses to a fortnightly foliar feed like Uncle Toms Rose Tonic. As counterintuitive as it sounds, nutritional uptake is faster via the leaves, compared to the roots.

Mulching thickly around the base of a rose, nourishes the rose, feeds the soil life (furthering nutritional uptake for the rose), and prevents evaporation. Mulching is might! Limiting evaporation is particularly important for young roses as they’re more at risk of drying out. They haven’t established their deep roots and shallow roots dry out quickly in the summer heat.

My roses have all grown surprisingly quickly and are very healthy. It’s difficult to say definitively, but I believe this is, in part, due to my garden being ‘no dig’. The soil is healthy and the roses thrive, despite the strong alkalinity and relatively dry conditions. They were all planted with Empathy Rootgrow and they’ve established themselves with the (undisturbed) soil biome. I have yet to find a single leaf with blackspot.

By simply pruning out the 3Ds, plus crossing and weak stems, you will encourage a healthy, open branching framework. Keep your roses mulched, well fed and watered (when required) and you’ll tick literally every box in the rose care manual, with bountiful summer blooms to come!

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Coming up…

This season (2025) is a year of simple, straightforward, wholesome gardening and enjoyment. Without massive projects overshadowing everything, I’ll get to revel in the fundamentals: Pottering, weeding, deadheading, supporting, clipping, mulching, sowing and growing. It may sound a little dull but I am more excited than ever!