With masses of autumn leaves finally stowed away in chicken wire cages where, in around 18 months time they will have become useful humus-rich leafmould, thoughts turn at last to another important December job: Roses.
Although bush roses that need winter attention don’t get a look in until February, I generally aim to prune my climbing roses by Christmas. Mine are fairly young, so pruning is mainly a question of tying in some of the best new long growth (that I steered in the right direction while still sappy and pliable) to add to the permanent framework, and cutting back the shorter side shoots that bore flowers to within two or three ‘eyes’ – leaf scars – of their ‘mother’ branches. Next spring, the dormant eyes will sprout and eventually become shoots that will in turn bear flowers on their tips. Mature climbing roses need slightly more radical surgery: Some of the older, browner parts of the basic framework should be cut out each year, to encourage the rose to make some new framework growth that will flower with more ‘oomph’ than the old.
Ramblers, identifiable by their single, showy flush of flowers in July and massive unruly growth thereafter, are a different kettle of fish. In restricted spaces, some of the excessive growth may now need to be cut away completely. But care must be taken to save some of the long new shoots and tie them down, since they will carry the best of next year’s flowers. If ramblers are cut back and disciplined (by the ‘neat and tidy’ brigade…) as if they are climbers, flowering next summer may be a bit pathetic.
Tags: Garden, Helen Yemm, Winter
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