When & How to Prune Roses for Healthy Growth (with Pictures)
Last Updated on 23rd February 2025
Pruning is essential for maintaining healthy and beautiful roses in your garden. It's important to understand when and how to prune your roses to ensure vigorous growth and abundant blooms, while preventing diseases. In this article, we cover the basics of both rose pruning and deadheading, to ensure your roses are at their best!
When to Prune by Rose Type
Roses have different pruning needs based on their growth habits. While most roses can be pruned in late winter or early spring, it's important to distinguish between roses that bloom continuously throughout the warmer seasons and once-blooming varieties, such as rambling roses and some climbers.
Continuous Bloomers: Roses to Prune in Late Winter or Early Spring
Bush Roses, Shrub Roses, Miniature Roses, and most Climbing Roses can be pruned in late winter or early spring. This includes modern roses such as Hybrid Teas, Floribundas, and Grandifloras. These roses bloom continuously throughout the warmer months on new growth, meaning that it's safe to prune during late winter or spring and remove old wood.
When to Prune: After the last hard frost, typically in February or March. You can also do light pruning (deadheading) in summer to encourage new blooms.
Once Bloomers: Roses to Prune After Flowering in Summer
Once-Blooming Roses (Including Some Climbers) and Rambling Roses should be pruned immediately after flowering. This includes older varieties such as Old Garden Roses. These roses bloom on old wood, meaning that heavy spring pruning can remove the wood necessary for that year’s blooms.
When to Prune: Immediately after flowering. This typically means pruning in late spring to early summer.
Pruning Rambling Roses: Rambling roses typically flower vigorously once per season, with flowers forming in small clusters on old wood. It's best to prune them immediately after flowering, rather than in late winter or early spring.
When Is It Too Late to Prune Roses?
Timing is crucial when pruning roses. Pruning too late can affect flowering, cause weak growth, or leave plants vulnerable to frost damage. However, the specific answer to this question depends on whether your roses are continuous bloomers or once bloomers.
Continuous Bloomers (Repeat-Flowering Roses)
If continuous bloomers are heavily pruned too late (after March), you risk removing developing buds and encouraging soft growth vulnerable to frost. If you’ve missed the late winter/early spring window, do only light trimming, removing dead or weak stems and shaping the plant for better airflow.
Remember that continuous bloomers encompass most garden rose varieties, including bush roses, most climbers, and modern varieties like Hybrid Teas and Floribundas.
Continuous bloomers: if you're late to prune, light pruning is fine, but avoid removing buds.
Once-Blooming Roses (Ramblers & Some Climbers)
If once-blooming roses (including rambling roses) are pruned in autumn, winter or early spring, you’ll remove flowering stems. Instead, only remove dead or tangled branches to maintain plant health, and wait until the next pruning window after the rose flowers in late Spring or Summer for heavier pruning.
Once bloomers: If you're late to prune, only remove dead or tangled branches. Don’t prune heavily in late Autumn, Winter, or Early Spring as you’ll lose flowers for the upcoming period of blooming.
How to Prune Roses: A Step-by-Step Guide
Follow these simple steps for successful rose pruning:
- Use sharp, clean pruning shears or secateurs. Blunter tools such as hedge cutters may not leave sharp cuts in your roses and can damage the plant, increasing the risk of disease.
- Cut at a 45-degree angle, just above an outward-facing bud. Cutting above an outward-facing bud encourages the rose to grow outwards and reduces inward growing, crossing branches. The angle of the cut ensures that water runs off the stem and doesn't pool, reducing the risk of rot and fungal infections.
- Remove dead, diseased, or crossing branches.
- Remove suckers from the rootstock of the plant. These are vigorous canes from the base of the plant, which are undesirable in roses because they can reduce blooming.
- Thin out the center of the plant to improve air circulation.
- Apply mulch and feed with rose fertiliser after pruning.
Pruning Diagrams for Beginners: Pictures showing how to prune garden roses in the UK. Pruning is an opportunity to remove dead, diseased and crossing branches, as well as removing suckers from below the bud union of the plant. Aim to make sharp cuts at 45 degree angles, above buds that face to the outside of the plant. Credit to UCANR for the rose bud images.
Common Pruning Mistakes to Avoid
Pruning roses can be tricky, and even experienced gardeners can make mistakes. Avoid these common errors to ensure healthy plants and abundant blooms:
- 1.) Pruning Too Early or Too Late: Pruning too early can expose roses to frost, while pruning too late may remove important buds. Prune in late winter or early spring, after the last hard frost.
- 2.) Over-Pruning or Cutting Too Much: Cutting too much can shock the plant and stunt its growth. Only remove up to one-third of the plant at a time.
- 3.) Failing to Remove Dead or Diseased Wood: Dead or diseased branches can invite pests and disease. Always remove these parts during pruning. The University of Tennessee has a great guide on identifying common rose diseases.
- 4.) Not Using Sharp Tools: Dull tools can crush stems instead of making clean cuts, which may slow healing and invite disease. Always use sharp, clean pruning shears for precise cuts.
Avoiding these mistakes will help you maintain healthy, beautiful roses year after year.
How to Prune Rambling Roses
Rambling roses can be pruned using the same technique outlined above. However, the step of thinning out the centre of the rose plant is particularly crucial, as rambling roses can become dense if not thinned. Thinning out the centre of the plant helps improve air circulation and avoid fungal issues or disease.
How to Prune Rambling or Climbing Roses on a Pergola
When pruning rambling or climbing roses on a pergola or trellis, begin by removing any old, flowered canes to make space for fresh growth. This encourages new, healthy canes to emerge, which will bloom the following year. Cut back the older stems, leaving younger, more flexible shoots that can be trained along the structure.
As you prune, focus on directing the remaining buds along the horizontal beams or trellis of the pergola. This will help the rose plant grow and spread evenly across the structure, creating a balanced and full display of blooms.
Once the new canes are growing along the pergola, secure them gently with soft ties to hold them in place. Be sure to avoid tightening the ties too much to prevent damage to the stems. Regularly check the plant and adjust the ties as necessary to support the growth and prevent any canes from straying off course.
Rose Deadheading: Deadheading involves removing spent blooms from continuously blooming roses during the warmer months. This helps maintain plant health and redirects energy toward producing new blooms, extending the flowering period.
Deadheading Tips for Roses
For roses that bloom continuously throughout the growing season (e.g. rose bushes), deadheading is another valuable step during the warmer seasons to support the health of your plant and ensure it keeps producing blooms until Winter!
What is Deadheading Roses?
Deadheading roses involves removing spent flowers (the blooms that have already faded) to encourage more blooming, improve plant appearance, and help prevent disease. It is a simple and important process for maintaining the health and appearance of your rose plants during the growing season (late Spring and Summer).
When to Deadhead Roses?
Once the flowers start to wilt, and the petals begin to drop, it’s time to deadhead. Deadheading is most effective when done regularly, ideally as soon as the flowers start to look spent.
For repeat-blooming roses (like most modern varieties), you can deadhead throughout the growing season to encourage a new flush of flowers.
Where to Cut When Deadheading Roses
Deadheading can be done similarly to the pruning that is done in late Winter/Early Spring. Make your cut to deadhead just above a leaf or a new bud that is facing outward. This ensures the plant will direct its energy to a healthy new shoot or flower stem.
Ensure you cut the spent flower head completely off, including the stem. Don’t leave any part of the wilted bloom, as it can encourage disease or pests to settle on the plant.
Conclusion
Pruning roses at the right time and in the right way can help ensure healthy plants with abundant blooms. Get your pruning and deadheading right for a flourishing rose garden all throughout the warmer months!
