Late April and time to start getting excited. Pruning time is coming fast and we need to get ready for it. We wander round the garden mentally taking out old canes and shortening “back and sides”.
Like many another new chum, back in the 1990s, I was daunted by the amount of facts I had to learn to become a pruner of roses. Each cultivar had a different method of attack with some to be pruned lightly, some medium and others heavily. The cuts had to be half an inch above the ‘most suitable bud’ sloping away from the bud so that the water would not lie on the cut and create ‘dieback’. I had to remember to sterilize my secauters after tackling a bush that had any disease, in case I passed the disease on to the next bush. Every piece that was cut off and every leaf had to be picked up and disposed of ‘properly’ as any debris would create a haven for future diseases.
I very nearly gave the whole idea of roses away to go back to fuschias. They didn’t have thorns or all these diseases or need mollycoddling. However, those who know me will tell you that I am a little stubborn and occasionally unorthodox. I began to question the need for this entire mystique. After all, at the Victoria State Rose Garden there are some five to six thousand roses to be pruned by a large group of volunteers. Each season there are new people starting with us. If we make the procedure too difficult, they will not be with us at the end of the season. Pruning must be simple to explain and easy to learn.
First of all we must understand why pruning is done. When you speak to an orchardist, he will tell you he prunes to remove un-wanted, non-productive foliage; to maintain a shape that is easy to work with; to remove dead, dying, damaged or diseased branches; and most importantly from his point of view, to increase his crop yield. I think the same requirements apply, as a general rule, to pruning our roses.
I accept that there are different techniques of pruning dependant on the background classification of the rose. Ramblers, species, climbers, and some of the Heritage classifications require different treatment to bush and shrub roses. However, the orchardist’s principle above, in my opinion, remains valid if we want better production.
The following simplified instructions are given to our new pruners at the start of each season. Before you start, have a good look at the bush to see what new growth there has been since last year. The amount of growth, particularly basal growth, will indicate how much you can afford to take off. Little growth, light prune; massive growth, heavy prune. If there has been a lot of basal growth, we try to remove some of the three to four year old canes. Our aim is to reduce the growth to about five productive, young canes
Next, remove all Dead, Dying and Diseased branches, cutting them back to healthy growth. Then look at Damaged canes. You may have to live with a damaged cane if it is part of the shape you want to achieve, but where possible, they should be removed. For the majority of Hybrid Teas, Clustered Flowered, Bush and Shrub roses, we tell them to remove the Diddley bits, the twiggy, unproductive growth.
I know there are some cultivars that produce their flowers on the didley bits, most of which have a fair percentage of China in them. We have to explain to our new chums why we treat these particular roses differently.
The new chums have great delight in removing the old canes and the five D’s, which they can easily understand, and they soon pick up the need to shape the bush by cutting canes to a bud at the “best thickness”, and cleaning out the center of the bush for air circulation.
We start our new people on the HTs, progress them to Floribundas, and for those with the interest, they can move on to Standards, Weeping Standards, Arches, Tripods, Festoons, and the Heritage Border. We have a team of long term members who act as trainers for each of the specialty sections. Of course, with the variety of roses we have, some pruning starts at the end of spring when the spring flowering has finished (late November, early December. This includes some of the Heritage and ramblers on festoons and weepers.
We do not have to meet a specific timetable like Terry Freeman at Flemington Racecourse, nor do we have to produce single prize winning blooms for particular shows. We want to produce mass displays for the enjoyment of the masses. At the time of writing this, the results of our efforts are well worth a visit if you are in our vicinity.
