Prune Roses In Winter Each Year
Today’s Old Husbands’ Tale is a cracker!
We are told to meticulously prune your roses in winter each year. Cut to an open vase shape with all of the top buds facing outwards. Cut back to 3 or 4 vigorous stems etc. etc.
Roses do need annual pruning in winter, but all of those complexities are unnecessary. Just prune them off to around 50cm (a bit under 2 ft.) and walk away. Cut them off at knee height and go inside and relax.
Tests were done by Ross Roses, a large nursery in South Australia, where they used a hedge trimmer to butcher their roses. The roses performed perfectly and produced the same number of flowers as a nearby group that were pruned the old fashioned way that took many hours to do.
Roses do not need to be fussed over – they even survived the recent droughts really well.
Hooroo! Don.