SPRING PRUNING OF ROSES
I hadn't realised just how much damage had been done by the atrocious winter we've had until I examined them today. Today has been sunny and quite mild, with hardly a breeze. I decided that it was time to take out the secateurs and do the spring pruning. Normally, when I prune, it is in March but this year I delayed it because if it freezes again it could cause die-back on the cut edges of the rose stems. One of my David Austin roses and one of the most beautiful I have, Princess Alexandra of Kent, has become spindly and weak. Several roses, floribundas, hybrid-teas, and old-fashioned shrub roses have been damaged so much that I have had major pruning to do. It nearly killed me doing it after a long winter of virtually no gardening. It's my least favourite job, pruning roses, but the benefits can be worth it.
If the roses continue to do badly - and roses are supposed to be very hardy - then they will have to be taken up and discarded. It's a shame but that is nothing worse than a garden where the owner has let it limp along until it dies a miserable death. It takes too long for things to mature that it's just not worth wasting time when a plant is on its last legs.
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| Princessl Alexandra of Kent rose (left image), with The Generous Gardener |
If the roses continue to do badly - and roses are supposed to be very hardy - then they will have to be taken up and discarded. It's a shame but that is nothing worse than a garden where the owner has let it limp along until it dies a miserable death. It takes too long for things to mature that it's just not worth wasting time when a plant is on its last legs.