Pruning and planting by Michael Marriott

For those of you living in the UK and indeed most parts of the northern hemisphere January and February are the best months for pruning your roses. A lot is written about pruning and making it all sound very complicated but really it is very easy. I have never worried about the usual cutting at an angle just above an outward pointing. Instead, I concentrate much more on trying to create what will become an attractively shaped shrub and at the same time asking myself what size do I want that rose to be in THAT position? Obviously cutting out dead and diseased stems is very important and crucially too those stems that are old and non-productive. I generally like to encourage the once flowering old roses to express their character as much as possible which means pruning very much on the light side. Remembering that if I prune too hard I’ll get fewer flowers as they won’t flower off the current year’s stems. It will also encourage long rangy growth.

Pruning in the depths of winter often means trampling the soil when it is very wet which leads to compaction and which is not at all good. Strategically placed planks will help to prevent that.

Now also is a very good time to order and plant bare root roses. You will find a much wider range of varieties available than if you rely on containerised plants and so will include the rather more unusual and potentially interesting ones They’re also cheaper and will establish much better than those planted in summer. Importantly too they’re much more environmentally friendly as they don’t involve plastic pots, lots of compost and many weeks of being grown at the nursery.

Should you wish to know more or have some hands-on practice, I will be running a pruning workshop in February.  I will also be leading a rose tour to Australia and New Zealand later in the year.  Do contact me directly at michaelrosarian@gmail.com for further information on either the workshop or the tour. (Please note that these are not HRG events).

Wishing you all a wonderful year of roses

Michael Marriott
Chair, HRG