(GENTLE MUSIC)
There are plenty of ways to warm up in winter.
But one of the very best, I reckon, is one of the most fun
and that's pruning roses.
Now, a lot of people can be cautious about it,
but I'm gonna show you that all you need
is some tools and the right attitude,
and you can do it.
(TOOLS CLATTER) (GENTLE MUSIC CONTINUES)
Roses are one of the world's most popular garden plants
and for good reason.
They're really tough and they're really beautiful.
And at this time of the year,
there are thousands of varieties you can find and buy bare root,
which makes them really cheap to get a hold of.
But as well as planting roses at this time of the year,
no doubt any old garden you've taken over
will have some roses in it.
So I'm gonna show you how to look after them.
There are two times of the year that you might do a big rose prune,
and that depends a bit on the type of roses that you're growing.
Things that flower once only in spring,
like some of your species and old roses,
they are best pruned by about 50% in early summer,
when they finish flowering.
But the rest, well, it's time to attack.
Now, pruning a rose is much like pruning any other plant.
You remove all the rubbish first
and then you can assess the rest of the growth.
Now, on a rose, it's things like old growth that's dying back
and looking pretty tatty.
That's gonna come completely out.
Over here, we've got some diseased wood
and that's also dying right back.
We want to take that out completely.
And be careful because these thorns
can cause all sorts of problems up here too,
so a little bit of protection for your eyes
will give you a much clearer view.
Once you've cleared out all that dead and diseased and damaged growth,
you can then start to thin out the centre of the rose
because air and light penetration into the middle
will be the biggest thing you can do to prevent fungal disease.
So what you do is just come in, snip out anything that's pointing inwards
and create a nice open shape in the centre of the rose.
Now, this is the part where you need to be a bit brave,
but I promise you it's worth it.
Reduce the overall growth by about a half
and your rose will thank you for it.
And the only trick to it is that you want to keep that open vase shape,
which means pruning to an outward-facing bud.
But buds are very, very helpful.
They tell you which way they're gonna shoot.
You can see this one is pointing out that way.
So that is absolutely perfect.
Just above it. On an angle so the water runs off.
Some buds will be less obvious than others.
Of course, some you can actually see shooting.
But others are easy to spot.
You just look for the line on the stem
and that shows where that bud is lying underneath the bark,
and so you can prune to that.
(GENTLE ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC)
(LAUGHS AND MUTTERS INDISTINCTLY)
When it comes to something like a climbing rose,
apply the same principles.
Remove that damaged growth, anything diseased,
take out the congestion,
and then trim it back by about 50%.
But it is a much bigger job.
When it comes to pruning something like a weeping rose,
which is just a climbing or a groundcover variety grafted up high,
the temptation can be to prune to downward-facing buds
'cause you want them to hang,
but, actually, that'll shoot straight to the ground.
And instead, you still want to prune
to an upward and outward-facing bud,
which means you'll get that lovely growth response
and a lovely arching cane.
Now, I love rose pruning,
so I love fussing with my secateurs and my saw and my loppers
to get the perfect cut.
But the truth is that if all you have is five minutes
and a set of hedging shears,
that is just as good.
And pruning them is always gonna be of benefit,
particularly if it's something as multi-stemmed and congested as this.
Of course, this time of year,
it's also a really good idea to check your stakes.
You can see it's a really serious stake for a pretty serious rose,
and it comes right up into the head, which is important.
You don't want it finishing below.
You also need to tie it right underneath the head
because once that foliage fills out,
on a windy day, it is really top-heavy.
And if you've got it tied only below,
it can snap clean off.
But that - nice expandable tie, nice and firmly staked -
be right as a rose.
This is an 'Iceberg' rose,
and it's one of the world's most popular varieties,
and for good reason.
It's a floribunda rose,
which means it produces clusters of flowers
repeatedly through the season
and it flowers all the time.
And it's also a really, really tough rose.
Now, this is so tough
that it's actually already been pruned
with mechanical hedging shears
just run straight over the top,
reduced it by about a half.
And truthfully, it will be fine.
But there's a couple of things that I would come back in
and then follow up and remove.
And one of them is here, where you've got these branches
that are crossing over.
They're rubbing on each other, which is a point of infection
and die-back in the rose.
So I'm just gonna remove one of those stems to stop that happening.
Of course, if your roses do suffer from things like black spot,
which is a fungal disease on the leaves in the summertime,
cleaning up in winter can be a great way to break that cycle.
Pick up and clean up as many of these leaves as you can
and then cover over with a fresh layer of mulch
and that'll help to stop that re-infestation
of the new foliage.
Pruning your roses will give you great rewards, I promise.
You know, pruning makes plants grow,
and in this case it's gonna be lots more flowers.
Once you got that pruning arm in, you got your confidence,
keep going.
Deadhead them when the flowers are spent
and even cut some blooms to bring them into the house.
It'll make them much healthier.
But the main thing I want you to remember -
don't fear it, just prune it.