General Chat

It's the first year we've grown one. Is it usual for them to bud and bloom in October? :-S

I had them flowering until December in the East Midlands if there were few frosts, I never pruned until March.

Just checked. We have no buds but the climbing rose on the side fence still has five or six beautiful red blooms.

Thanks ladies. What with the weird weather we've had in the last 6 months or so, I'd wondered if that had effected it. We live in NW Kent which does tend to be mild.

Durham here, Det. :-D

We have roses blooming here in Aberdeen,
obviously hardy ones for this area :-)

Still got roses blooming on both big bushes and small ornamentals in the front garden

Got new buds too on a couple of bushes

It's usually the frost that knocks em back

I am in Kent too !

I've got lots of roses out in my garden, lots of flowers in fact - poppy just about to come out of bud, penstemons, cyclamen, begonia, Japanese anemonies - white and pink, geraniums, nasturtiums, pinks, hydrangea, hebe

Whether they late bloom or not cut them well back before any serious frost and in any event by November. It will ward off the many health problems that roses are prone to and stimulate next year's growth.

Rollo modern thinking cut late Feb - March

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=176

and fuchsia!!!

disagree prune em before the winter sets in - why on earth give the quoted list time to feed n thrive ?

..... rose aphids, rose large sawfly, rose leaf rolling sawfly, rose black spot, rose dieback, rose powdery mildew and rose rust.... to name but a few.

guess it depends how much chemical you are prepared to throw at the plants killing most everything at the same time . Eschew chemicals and work with nature, use old methods.

Apart from dead heading, I haven't even thought about pruning yet. :-0

me neither - in a week or two probably

Det ,

I and others on our allotment show Roses at local HCSs and also belong RS of UK and we never prune till late Feb to late March where you get a better growth of new flowering woods. for the next season,,,,,,like all roses a clean outward cut is needed with clean tools is a must and if a bush type cut some inwards to give straight upgrowth,,,,,,,old ramblers can be done almost anytime after last budding.

clean up all cuttings and fire them.

I prune lightly October and cut hard in March/April. I have loads of roses in my garden so a bit of a task :-D

Thank you for the practical advice :-)

Like LaGooner, OH prunes lightly in late October/earl November, usually cutting back by about 1/3 to 1/2, then he prunes back again by about 1/2 in the early spring before new growth starts.

We've grown roses for over 40 years with great success, and this is also the routine followed by many botanical gardens.

It's not like other flowering shrubs that do have early and late flowering times, eg clematis, when you do prune the early flowering forms in the fall and the late flowering ones in the spring.


and Rollo ............ we don't use chemicals.

Best treatment for most of the diseases you mention is to continually remove affected leaves or twigs during the season and BURN them. Do not compost them, or let them lie on the ground.

One lives with aphids and greenflies ..................... wash them off under the tap if you cut flowers to bring in. Otherwise, regularly examine your roses and squish them with your fingers.

To answer DET's original question .......

it is quite common to get second flowering, especially if it has been mild.


We have a Green rose that is in flower all year. It's derived from cuttings we brought from England in the early 1970s that were taken from a plant originally bought on Kendal Market over 100 years ago. That plant was grown in a garden near Kendal, and then taken to Cheshire in the 1950s.

But we have also had other roses that have had a bud or flower on Christmas Day.

Prune by the end of this month,spray with Roseclear,and to give them a boost cut up banana skins and dig in at the base,then re prunemarch or April if required.Merlin. :-D