Rose trimming

[Doris_Pinks]

Anyone of you lovely lot out there a wiz with the roses(please!! )
When do I cut them back? and how far back do I cut them? ( I am in Sussex)
Roses are one of those plants I just can't get to grips with over what I do with it and when! (could be the thorns!)
Thank you
Dotty P.

[Hugh_Jones]

Well Doris, up here in the frozen hinterlands of the North Midlands most of us content ourselves with simply trimming back the long growth in November - to stop the bushes being rocked too badly by the wind (yes, even roses get it if overfed). In Derbyshire (so they tell me) NO time is the right time for pruning roses, but both here and in Derbyshire the main pruning is usually left to February or March, depending on weather conditions.  Certainly I have found over  nearly 60 years of rose growing that main pruning in November can lead to a lot of die back and a much later start of growth in the spring.

However, I had a long argument with Pippa Simje on the Beeb boards way back over the pruning times for hydrangeas, and she informed me that the winters in the South are now so wimpish (her words) that autumn pruning is not only acceptable, but de rigeur for both hydrangeas and roses.

All the authorities on rose growing, including the National Rose Society certainly used to recommend autumn trimming and spring pruning, but, again, Pippa insisted that they were all behind the times.

You can`t go wrong with November trimming and spring pruning, you might go wrong with November pruning.  So you pays your penny and takes your choice.

And it won`t be any good coming back here complaining if you pick the wrong one

[teresa]

Hi Doris
I prefer to prune in the spring then you can see where the new growth is comming from and cuts heal a lot quicker so no infection.
Saying that I have cut one last week It had me a few weeks ago as I was mowing the lawn and I have a lovely scar. So as I had the pruners in my hand I decided to do it before it got me again.
That was the only exception.
Teresa

[Doris_Pinks]

Thank you for your replies! I may do some and some, trim the unruly ones a little in Nov, and give them all a good haircut in the spring!  

[campanula]

doris, if you have bush roses, hack them back by half to stop wind rock (sounds brutal but mine do OK) but in general,just a tidy up of dead wood should be OK.