have you pruned yet?

22 Jul '06 5:06 pm

Dear all,
Just curious as to when those of you living in Oz and NZ prune your roses?
When I lived in Melbourne I always pruned in July ...early July... but up here in the central highlands we get savage frosts right through winter and even into spring so I've been told by my local rose guru that late August would be better [ and as he's offering to do the pruning, well I'll go with what he says ]
but oh dear, they are looking SOOOOOOOOO bare and tired and straggly...except for one lone Bonica [ sheltering under the overhang of the verandah ] which is STILL in flower
The garden as a whole looks pretty grim.... except the winter iris which have been gamely flowering for ages and the true irises which are budding. Roll on spring.

grey and grim in Castlemaine
Susan

23 Jul '06 4:55 pm

I've had that same advice here, where we do get a few frosts. But I tell myself to ignore it and start pruning in July anyway - well, actually I start pruning when I remember to!

Trouble with leaving it until August is that one can then run out of boring, garden maintenance time. Sometimes Augusts here are full with plants, and seeds, and growing things - if you know what I mean.

There's always that glib question and answer saying:
Q. When's the right time to .......... in the garden?
A. When YOU have the time to .........!

Just substitute any garden task in the space!
Cheers, and hope the 'grey and grim' is strictly external!

23 Jul '06 6:57 pm

When the roses start budding ,as then I can tell where to cut . Except for rambling roses.I pruned mine once when I did the others ,and didn`t get any flowers --Apparently you have to prune them after flowering .We are still getting severe frosts here ,but the perennials are sprouting up cheerfully.I don`t know how they do it .Snowdrops are flowering under the trees -Lovely.!
Dixie.

23 Jul '06 11:17 pm

Except for rambling roses.I pruned mine once when I did the others ,and didn`t get any flowers --Apparently you have to prune them after flowering .

Yup read that somewhere so I always do the banksia roses in autumn [ should be even earlier but I just don't get around to it ]
I inevitably get roundly told off by the colony of Superb Blue Wrens that live in there but they seem to survive the experience :]

cheers
Susan
in Castlemaine where it's still grey
but not-so-grim cos IT'S RAINING
yippee

25 Jul '06 11:26 pm

Hi All

Well here goes - I'm going to try and post my first picture!

These are the roses I rescued from the clutches of 20ft high rhodedendrons. They never flowered whilst smothered by them, with only a few leaves poking out from the dense growth!

No idea what they are, but obviously like poor acid soil and dry conditions. The small cluster double flowers are almost white, but the buds have a distinct rose pink colour to the base and they have some perfume, flowering in June just the one time, so I am guessing it is a rambler rather than a climber???

Any suggestions?

They are now gradually getting new homes on smart black obelisks

2 Aug '06 11:48 pm

The rose guru came over this arvo, and we have duly hacked and chopped everything to within an inch of their lives. A Souvenir de le Malmaison and a DA The Prince have gone in, and a deceased Chicago Peace has come out. The Radox Bouquet just near it looks terminal too so maybe it's the spot that's the problem.
Susan

4 Aug '06 8:14 pm

Traditionally mid July was pruning time in our family, but I also favour early-mid August as the buds swell, as that minimises the chance of frost damage. My mother is still a July girl, and though a little wobbly, has gamely gone out in the window between too warm and too cold/dark and pruned a few roses every afternoon for a few weeks now. It is a personal triumph to her that she can still do it, and I am thankful for the help as we have several hundred roses.

I have many happy memories of my mom in the rose garden over the years, and my love of gardening - and roses! - has very clear origins. In addition there are pics of me aged 2-ish and looking more gorgeous than I've ever managed since, in front of a breath-taking "Peace"... no doubt there are millions of such pics of people in their 40s and 50s around the world today!

I have tried to prune the old-fashioned (once flowering) roses earlier of late, because they flower late October/early November, just as the rainy season kicks in. I've tried to get them flowered by mid-October, but they have been remarkably unco-operative to date, and the pruning time has not affected the flowering time much at all.

Welcome, Silvercloud! Now you know how, let's have plenty of pics! Your lovely rose might be Felicite Permantier, (sp.?) although the individual flowers look slightly large and the trusses slightly small... check on a Google Image Search: a gardener's salvation!

7 Aug '06 4:32 pm

Thanks, Silvercloud, it's wonderful to see photographs of real roses blooming! Here in NZ I have mental images of what my roses will be like, come early summer. And I worry that I am an unscientific pruner. When I peep in a book, guess what? None of the diagrams remotely match my - for example - climbing Iceberg roses. Hmm... I try to think of pruning as encouraging, but I fear that a few of my climbing Icebergs may never bloom again! Eek!

7 Aug '06 7:34 pm

Thanks for your replies..... I have been having a search around and this seems to be the nearest..

http://www.classicroses.co.uk/roses/m/mme_alfred_carriere.html

although in some other photos it looks completely different, but I'll go with "Mme Alfred Carriere" until I find out differently!

My patio rose, "Sweet Memories" which is growing in a pot, has really struggled in the high temperatures we have had this summer. I've been feeding, spraying for blackspot and watering, but very little growth and/or buds until now.... 3 small buds are just developing - hooray!!

It was so pretty and profuse last year (it's first year)! Hope it doesn't bloom and go over whilst I am on holiday!

Off to Brittany on a canal boat at the end of this week, so maybe I'll poke my camera over a few French hedges to see what they are up to in the gardening stakes!

Take care all
Silvercloud

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