EXPERT TIPS… PREPARE Your ROSES FOR WINTER
The place of the rose in an English garden is essentially unrivalled. These colourful shrubby plants have been popular for centuries, but it was only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that they became a ‘garden essential’.
FIRM UP
November can be seen as both the end and beginning of the cycle of rose care. In all but the mildest districts, roses will have stopped flowering, and now need preparing for the winter. In exposed locations, bushes may have already been subjected to autumn gales; something that can rock the plant and lead to a conical hollow around the base of the main stem. This can lead to problems in terms of the plant’s stability and – if the resulting hollow fills with water – can promote rotting or frost damage in cold wet winters. If any roses are already loose in the ground, then firm around the base to avoid this.
TIME TO PRUNE
Preventing further wind rock simply involves reducing the plant’s wind resistance, by taking off the outermost growth and particularly any remaining foliage. In the case of Hybrid Tea or Floribunda roses, take off about a third of the branch length, but in modern (English) bush roses, clipping should be lighter. Do not worry too much about where you cut a stem at this stage, as the main prune will not take place until around February/march. Late-season pruning is also a good opportunity to carefully dispose of the last season’s foliage. Leaves and clippings should never be composted, though. Dispose of these by burning or remove them from your garden completely – this greatly reduces disease-causing spores that would otherwise affect the plant.