Pruning
Roses: shrub & climbing
Wear thick gloves and long sleeves, as rose thorns can give nasty scratches. When pruning climbers or ramblers up walls, arches or over a pergola, use a firmly footed ladder on level ground, do not overreach, and ideally have someone steady it. Keep tools clean and sharp and make a neat cut, because every pruning cut is a wound that disease can enter, so wipe blades between plants. Rose sap is not toxic.
- Where to get help
- NHS 111, or seek medical advice
Keeps them flowering and in shape.
When
After flowering, or late winter
How
Shrub roses: light prune, take out a third of old wood. Climbers: tie in new shoots, shorten side shoots to 2 or 3 buds.
Notes
Ramblers are pruned in summer after flowering.