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Advice on looking after roses please

Last post 10-09-2009 11:50 AM by hydropiper. 1 replies.

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  • 18/06/2009 05:28 PM
    • new_hobby
    • Berkshire
    • 14 Jun 2009
    • 9
    Top 500 Contributor
    Reply | Contact

     Hi,

     I'm very new to gardening, so have some very basic questions to ask about how to look after roses please.

    I moved into my house last year and didn't really do anything at all in the garden - mainly because I haven't got a clue what I need to do.

    I have a number of roses - but I don't even know how to tell whether they are standard roses or climbers etc. Several rose plants are growing out of my hedge - the rose flowers are in clumps on the end of what look like long stems, so I'm assuming they are climbers?

    The roses I have growing alongside my drive are around 5' tall - are they supposed to grow that high?  I've taken a picture of one of my plants - most of the roses are growing among other shrubs/trees, so the pictures are a bit tricky to take.  Hopefully it will be enough for someone who knows about these things to give me some advice.

    How far back should I prune my roses when the time comes? (and when is that time?) - I really have no idea about any of this so please don't assume anything is too basic to mention.

    A friend at work said something about roses plants sometimes being grafted onto another type of root and that I should be careful not to cut back the root that the rose was grafted on to.  I have noticed that the rose I took the picture of has different coloured stems - the stem with the flowers on is green coloured, while the other stem looks more grey/woody.

    I hope all this makes sense.

    Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

     

    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3340/3637814859_f8dea3988b.jpg

    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3320/3637814851_3627a2cc85.jpg

    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3365/3637814849_31e93cfa74.jpg

     
  • 10/09/2009 11:50 AM
    In reply to
    • hydropiper
    • Cardiff
    • 23 Jun 2009
    • 60
    Top 75 Contributor
    Reply | Contact

    The rose pictures you have posted on here are a hybrid tea variety, not a climber. Hybrid teas should be hard pruned annually to stop them getting tall and woody, as yours has become. But don't worry it's not too late to save it! During late winter cut the green coloured stems back to about 30 cm from the ground. Make your cut using a sharp pair of secuteurs just above an outward facing bud. Buds on the lower stem will appear as small raised bumbs seen at regular intervals along the stem just above semi circular scars (these scars are where leaf stalks were attached to the stem). Stems which have lost their greenish colour and are brownish grey in colour are the oldest. These should be cut hard back to two or three buds above the the graft union (where the cultivated rose variety has been grafted to a more vigorious wild root stock, usually Rosa canina). The graft union will normally appear as a bulbous swelling at the base of the plant, although sometimes they are buried beneath the soil. Cutting back these older stems will encourage replacement shoots that will be less woody and more floriferous. The rose should look something like this after you've finished.

    I hope this makes sense. Good luck. This link may also help:

    http://www.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?PID=176

    Chris