My Five Tips on how I Prune my Old Roses
- Lillian AT MY ROSE GARDEN
- Jul 17
- 4 min read
I've been growing old, Heritage and Heirloom roses for a number of years now, and in the early stages I was a little daunted by the general advice that recommended pruning roses to within an inch of their life. The advice was that roses had to be pruned almost to the ground, and with outward facing buds and to a particular shape. If this method wasn't followed very strictly your roses would not grow and bloom well for you. Eeeek!
Because of this, I was terrified to go near a pair of secateurs, let alone a small pruning saw. But this harsh pruning advice is more suited to northern hemisphere climates than our Australian southern hemisphere climate, particularly for old roses. I have since learnt by trial and error that many heritage and heirloom roses don't respond well to harsh pruning.
So here are my 5 tips for how I prune these lovely old roses:
Tip #1 - Keep those Secateurs Away
Keep those secateurs away until you know what type of rose you have!!
It's important to know the type of old rose that you have and how it behaves.
In some cases, you won't be pruning at all!
Check your rose label and if it doesn't tell you the type of rose you have, look up the name to help you identify its class (or type, such as Tea or Noisette). There are several helpful websites, the best being helpmefind.com
Tip #2 -Have you Identified your Rose?
If you have identified your rose as an old Tea Rose (which is different to a Hybrid Tea), Bourbon, Noisette or Hybrid Musk rose, then minimal Winter pruning is required.
Some of the old Tea roses and Bourbons especially resent harsh Winter pruning, so it's important to know what class your rose is before you think about getting those secateurs out.
The type of old rose that you have will determine how you prune it in Winter, or even if you DON'T prune it in Winter!
Tip #3 - Is your Old Rose Shy?
Is your old rose shy, flowering only once in Spring? Or is your old rose a show-off, repeat flowering in flushes throughout Spring, Summer and Autumn?
If your rose only flowers once in Spring or early Summer (depending on how cold your Winters are), then DON'T prune your rose in Winter.
Some of the old roses flower on year old wood, which means you only prune AFTER they have finished flowering, not before. If you prune your shy old rose before it flowers in Winter, you won't have flowers in Spring or Summer.
Old roses that flower once belong to classes such as Albas, Gallicas, Centifolias, Damasks and Ramblers (although a few old Autumn Damasks flower in Spring which is followed by an Autumn flush).
Tip #4 - Is your old rose a Grumpy Rose, or a Happy Rose?
This may seem a little silly, thinking about roses as grumpy or happy. Yet it can make a difference if you know whether your rose will respond well to pruning or not. I have discovered the hard way that I had a very grumpy old Tea rose, which did not recover after I pruned it hard in Winter.
Many of the old Teas, Bourbons, Hybrid Musks, Noisettes and climbing Teas dislike harsh pruning and will take several years to recover, if at all.
I only ever prune these roses lightly in Winter, depending on how large they've grown. If they need a tidy-up I cut out dead or diseased stems and give them a gentle groom by snipping off just enough to neaten them, no more than one third of their growth.
My favourite method of keeping these old roses shapely and well behaved is Summer dead-heading, by just removing spent flowers and a length of stem similar to cutting a flower for the vase.
Tip #5 - If in doubt, No Pruning ...
It might seem ridiculous to recommend NO PRUNING in a pruning how-to, but I'm not a fan of harshly pruned roses, all neat and tidy standing in rows like soldiers. This advice will go against proponents of strong pruning, but this is my preferred method.
The joy of old roses is that they have a charm of their own with blowsy, scented flowers on generous, scrambling, floppy or flowing branches that form a loose shrub; or in the case of climbing old roses, reaching for the sky. These old roses are generous and glorious when in flower.
An old rose that has been well fed, watered and gently pruned either in Winter if it's a repeat bloomer, or after it has flowered in Spring, is a sight to behold.
So, if you're not sure what your old rose prefers, have a chat to other old rose lovers in your area and see what they've learned over the years. Or better still, join a group such as the Heritage Roses in Australia. They have a wealth of knowledge and experience.
But please don't listen to those growers who insist you must prune old roses harshly like hybrid teas in cold climates. If in doubt, hold back those secateurs and especially those pruning saws, and let the old roses grow at their best, depending on whether they're shy or show-offs, grumpy or happy roses. That way, you'll have lovely, generously scented blooms from your old roses for years to come.
Enjoy xx
@lillianheirloomroses
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