How to Prune Roses

Broadcast Friday 16 Aug 2013 at 2:00pmFri 16 Aug 2013 at 2:00pm

Jane Edmanson

JANE EDMANSON: It doesn't matter whether you've got one rose bush or many roses in your garden, winter is the ideal time to get out and give them some maintenance so that in spring, they really come blooming into their best. These old roses - they've been in the ground a long time and I can show you lots of jobs to do that'll bring them back to life.

This is a bush rose and you could virtually do this with your eyes closed. Get your pruning shears out and just chop. The idea is to take it back by a third to a half. When it comes to pruning roses, I find that a lot of people are really scared. Now don't be because you can treat them quite brutally and they'll really respond well.

I'm not cutting into the wood at all. I'm simply making the plant a good shape. Ok. Done.

Many of the roses in this garden are hybrid tea roses and they generally produce one rose per stem, so the more healthy stems you have, the more beautiful roses.

This is a neat little hybrid tea, but the closer you look at it, it hasn't been touched for many years and you can see a lot of dead wood in it. The dead wood is the brown looking stems - this one here and that's never going to produce nice new growth on which the rose flowers. Right in the middle, a dead stump. That needs to come out completely cause that'll never produce anything. And what about these? That's a sucker. They even have different shaped leaves compared to the ordinary leaves cause they're coming under the graft. You need to take those out also. The new growth is what you're looking for and it's a different colour. You prune that back and away it goes.

Aside from looking for dead wood, you've got to look for branches that might be crossing over or even rubbing up against another branch and I can see one just there. That's really just rubbing up - it's not doing any good at all, so that will come off and if you go down - I'm really looking quite closely here. Look at that old stem there and basically, if I get my pruning saw onto that, that can come out. There we go.

Now you can see it's opening up and what you're trying to do is make it like a 'U' shape or a vase shape. Get the growth on the outside and that's what you're looking for. There we go.

The next step is to cut down the height of rose and you can do this either a third or a half from the top and you try to find a bud that is facing outwards. There's one there - see that bud and it's got to go out. Put your secateurs just a couple of centimetres above that bud at a bit of a sloping angle so that any rain will actually fall off that way rather than going into the bud. You don't want a bud that goes inwards because that's going to send more growth into the centre of the plant where it's no good at all.

I just love pruning. It's one of my favourite winter jobs and you might think that looks pretty dramatic, but it has done the correct job.

After pruning, spray for protection. I'm using lime sulphur which will kill mites and other insects as well as it's a fungicide that will kill black spot. Black spot starts on the leaf, it develops yellow and the leaf falls off and spraying at this time will help prevent this fungus problem.

Now the final stage is to feed and mulch. I'm going to use a mild fertiliser. Just a good bag of cow manure is such a lovely fertiliser - maybe a bucket around each plant. And this is wonderful. This is one of the lucerne hays. Absolutely gorgeous. I like to lay it down about 7 centimetres thick. It just stops weeds and it also acts as a barrier for any of those fallen leaves that might carry fungus diseases. Mulch is terrific. This smells....oh...it's 'farmyardy' and wonderful! These roses are really going to absolutely burst out of their skins in spring. Magnificent.

COSTA GEORGIADIS: The boys are on the shovels and they're just about to expose the contents of the umu or hangi and I can't wait to see and taste the goodies in there.

Now today, water hasn't been a problem, but drought is a big part of the life cycle here in Australia and it only makes sense that we should save every last drop of water. Here's John with more.

SERIES 24 | Episode 23

Jane explains and demonstrates winter rose care and pruning

"It doesn't matter whether you've got one rose bush or many roses in your garden, winter is the ideal time to get out and give them some maintenance so that in spring, they really come blooming into their best," says Jane. "These old roses - they've been in the ground a long time and I can show you lots of jobs to do that'll bring them back to life."

"With bush roses, you can get your pruning shears out and just chop. The idea is to take it back by a third to a half. When it comes to pruning roses, I find that a lot of people are really scared. Now, don't be - because you can treat them quite brutally and they'll really respond well."

"Many of the roses in this garden are hybrid tea roses and they generally produce one rose per stem - so the more healthy stems you have, the more beautiful roses you'll get."

Jane first examines a hybrid tea that hasn't been pruned for many years. She clears out the dead wood, which won't produce any more blossoms. All the brown-looking older wood goes, along with a dead stump at the base of the plant.

She also removes the stems growing from below the graft - suckers. They're easy to identify, because the leaves are a different shape from the ordinary leaves. They are shoots from the root stock and can take over the named variety surprisingly quickly.

She looks for the new growth, which is usually a different colour - pink, red or purple. She prunes the new shoots back by around a third.

Next, she gets rid of any branches that are crossing each other or rubbing up against each other. The aim is to produce a 'U' or vase shape, keeping most of the growth on the outside of the plant.

Jane then cuts down the height of the plant all over - by either a third or even half. She searches for outward-facing buds and prunes a couple of centimetres above them. An inward-facing bud will send more growth into the centre of the plant, which she wants to prevent. She cuts the shoot on a slant so water doesn't collect on top of the cut and lead to rotting.

"I just love pruning. It's one of my favourite winter jobs and you might think that looks pretty dramatic, but it has done the correct job."

"After pruning, spray for protection. I'm using lime sulphur, which will kill mites and other insects. It's also a fungicide that will kill black spot. Black spot starts on the leaf, it develops yellow and the leaf falls off and spraying at this time will help prevent this fungus problem.

"Now, the final stage is to feed and mulch," explains Jane. "I'm going to use a mild fertiliser. Just a good bag of cow manure is such a lovely fertiliser - maybe a bucketful around each plant. And lucerne hay - absolutely gorgeous. I like to lay it down about 7 centimetres thick - it stops weeds and it also acts as a barrier for any of those fallen leaves that might carry fungus diseases. Mulch is terrific. It smells 'farmyardy' and wonderful! These roses are really going to absolutely burst out of their skins in spring. Magnificent!"