Roses

[annedonnelly]

Are there any rose experts here?

I've inherited a few roses with this house. The two climbers seem pretty happy after being cut hard back last year, though they need proper trellises for some support.

The bush ones are a bit variable. I think they're all pretty old judging by the thickness of the original "trunk" that they've been cut back to at various times. One has a nice shape to it - a single "trunk" then branches splaying out in a cup shape. They flowers are struggling a bit but I suspect that could be the weather.

There's another with nice, small flowers but the plant itself is very spindly. It was completed swamped by the one next to it and I couldn't even see it at first.

I don't have any attachment to these but they're nice enough and I may as well keep them if they are happy. But will they be happy? Might they simply be too old?

All I do at the minute is dead-head them and later on cut them back hard.

 

[T4tomo]

All I do at the minute is dead-head them and later on cut them back hard.

That's pretty much what you need to do. Plus you need to feed them in the spring

I have a climber, a David Austin, it goes bananas every year and then gets pruned right back.

My grandad was a prolific roses bush grower, he used to take them back to pretty much stumps over winter and cover them in manure in the spring. The RHS website will have some advice.