Roses are the quintessential English garden plant found in gardens worldwide. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who isn't fond of roses. Whether it be that bridal bouquet, Valentine's Day, or visits to English country gardens, the rose is one of the most iconic garden flowers. However, the rose's beauty also comes with some thorny maintenance issues and confusion about how to keep them looking their best. This guide will show you how to prune roses with ease!
For beginner gardeners, roses can be daunting and intimidating to keep. When I first started gardening, I, too, had these feelings. I didn't know how to manage them or what to do with them after they had flowered, leading to the couple I had turned into nasty, tangled messes! It's so easy to opt for a shrub or herbaceous perennial instead. But I want you to know that pruning roses is relatively easy when you know how and can help keep your garden looking its best.
This guide will show how easy it is to prune even the most unruly roses (click here to jump straight to instructions), whipping them back into shape in a couple of seasons. I will show you how to prune roses without any drama or even skill. All you're going to need is some sharp secateurs and gloves—never forget the gloves!
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The time for pruning roses in the UK and Europe is in later winter when the leaves have fallen and the bare skeleton of the rose bush, shrub, or climber is visible. This is when the rose is dormant.
February is the best month to prune all roses, just before spring. The exception is climbing and rambling roses, which I prune in late Autumn instead once they have finished flowering.
The USDA Hardiness Zones divide the United States into regions based on average minimum winter temperatures, helping gardeners determine when to prune roses and other plants. Late winter pruning of roses typically occurs when the risk of hard frost has passed but before new growth begins. Here's a guide to the zones and when late winter pruning is appropriate:
| USDA Zone | Average Minimum Temperature | Month to Prune Roses (Late Winter) |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 | Below -60°F | Late April to early May |
| Zone 2 | -50°F to -40°F | Late April to early May |
| Zone 3 | -40°F to -30°F | Late March to early April |
| Zone 4 | -30°F to -20°F | Late March to early April |
| Zone 5 | -20°F to -10°F | Early to mid-March |
| Zone 6 | -10°F to 0°F | Early March |
| Zone 7 | 0°F to 10°F | Late February to early March |
| Zone 8 | 10°F to 20°F | Mid to late February |
| Zone 9 | 20°F to 30°F | Late January to early February |
| Zone 10 | 30°F to 40°F | Late January |
| Zone 11 | 40°F to 50°F | Mid to late January |
| Zone 12 | 50°F to 60°F | January (pruning may vary less as frost is rare) |
| Zone 13 | Above 60°F | January (pruning may vary less as frost is rare) |
If you don't prune your roses, they can quickly get out of shape and only flower at the very ends of the growth, leading to tall, straggly, awkward-looking roses. Pruning also prevents them from becoming damaged in the winter by wind rock or wounds appearing from crossing or rubbing branches. Pruning roses keeps your plants healthy, happy, and full of buds, which means flowers!
Pruning roses encourages a more manageable and floriferous display (lots of gorgeous, well-spaced flowers) on our roses. Below is a table of the main types of roses and the best time of year to prune them.
| Rose Type | Description | Common Uses & When to Prune |
|---|
| Hybrid Tea Roses | Large, elegant blooms on long stems. Known for their classic rose shape. | Ideal for cutting and floral arrangements. Prune Winter |
| Floribunda Roses | Clusters of flowers with continuous blooms throughout the season. | Mass plantings, borders, or colorful hedges. Prune Winter |
| Grandiflora Roses | Hybrid of Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses, tall bushes with large flowers in clusters. | Formal gardens, cutting, and showy displays. Prune Winter |
| Climbing Roses | Long canes that can be trained on trellises, walls, or arbors. | Vertical gardening and decorative features. Prune After Flowering in Summer |
| Shrub Roses | Hardy, disease-resistant bushes with a more informal, sprawling growth habit. | Informal gardens and low-maintenance landscapes. |
| Miniature Roses | Small, compact roses with tiny blooms. | Containers, edging, and indoor cultivation. - Prune Winter |
| Old Garden Roses | Fragrant, historic varieties that existed before 1867. Often bloom once per season. | Heritage gardens and collectors’ displays. - Light Prune after flowering in Summer then main Prune Winter |
| Rugosa Roses | Hardy, rugged roses with wrinkled leaves and fragrant flowers. | Coastal areas, hedges, and low-maintenance gardens. - Prune Winter Sparingly if damaged or out of shape |
| Groundcover Roses | Low-growing, spreading roses that create a dense carpet of flowers. | Slopes, erosion control, and large landscapes. - Prune Sparingly After Flowering in Summer |
| Tree Roses | Roses grafted onto a tall stem to form a “tree-like” appearance. | Formal gardens and focal points.- Prune After Flowering in Summer |
Using the right tools to prune your roses is essential. If you try to use old rusty scissors or secateurs, you'll likely find pruning roses difficult. The wrong tools can lead to poor pruning cuts and infections, which can do more harm than good. As pruning roses should be easy and fuss-free, let's take a look at the tools needed.
Before you start you will need a clean sharp pair of quality secateurs, I've already provided advice on the kinds of secateurs and how much the beginner gardener should spend here. These are essential to ensure neat and tidy cuts. If not, the Rose may get damaged or diseased. It also helps to make the process much less fussy than blunt crude scissors.
I opt for these razor-sharp Japanese secateurs, but you can pick up a decent off-the-shelf pair for under £15.
It's important to clear up your cuttings, as rose pruning is sharp and woody. If not, you may find yourself grabbing a thorny branch when weeding your flower beds. While you can compost rose cuttings, I'd be mindful that they take a while to break down, and often, their thorns still remain, making it hard to work with as compost. I recycle them in my green bin or shred them rather than put them on my compost heap.
A bucket or flexi trug is best for collecting rose prunings, but it also doubles as a handy tool caddy!
When making any pruning cuts, you always want to cut at an angle away from the lateral bud below (lateral buds turn into horizontal growth off the main stem—think of them as mini branches). This allows rainwater to run off away from the bud. If you cut the wrong way, the chances of the bud rotting increase, meaning your pruning becomes less effective.
You also want to avoid cutting too far above a bud, which will encourage the part above the bud to die back. However, it's not rocket science, and practice will help you determine exactly how high to cut.
The cut is angled away from the bud and not too far up, as shown below. If you leave too much growth above the bud after pruning it, it will die back. Also, don't cut too close, or you may damage the bud.
Pruning roses is super easy but seems to daunt many new gardeners. However, ignoring rose pruning just leads to awkward, straggly roses with fewer flowers and more drama. It's rather simple to prune any rose if you follow these four simple steps. There are a few nuances with pruning certain types of roses, which I cover further down the guide.
These four rose pruning tips are nearly foolproof for most roses, even if you don't know what type of rose you are dealing with. You can't go wrong by following these steps in late winter.
Before we get all giddy in pruning the 'green' bits of your Roses to encourage flowers, we need to undertake some basic housekeeping. By removing the older wood, you're helping to concentrate the plant's energy on the new growth and flowers. Rather than wasting it on redundant stems.
If you notice brown, crispy stems or old, gnarled stems that have no signs of life, we need to remove them. Cut all dead, damaged, or diseased stems back to the next living part of the stem. In the case of really old stems, take them back to the ground. If you're unsure what's dead, snip a small amount off. If it's crispy and dry on the inside, it's dead, so take it back.
The next stage is to prune out any crossing stems. When pruning roses, you're aiming for what is known as the 'Open Goblet' shape. This simply means that the rose bush has airflow and an open shape. Think of the palm of your hand with your fingers in an open cup shape.
Crossing branches rub stems and causes congestion. It also restricts airflow, so rose problems such as mildew and black spots can easily spread. You can spot rubbing stems in winter as you will see notches on the stems where two branches have rubbed. Permanently remove the weaker (thinner) branch and keep the strong one. Yearly rose pruning each winter will eventually stop this from happening.
This last area can be quite contentious in the gardening world, but I've never shied away from that! Each 'type' of Rose from Hybrid tea, Floribunda, Climbing, Rambling, etc, all has certain attributes when it comes to pruning. This guide is for the beginner who doesn't know where to start or the type of Rose.
As a rule of thumb, 1/3 works well to get a rose into a reasonable shape. You can see from the two pictures below the amount I'm taking off this Hybrid Tea rose.
Above: The stem before the cut
Above: The stem after 1/3 has been removed
As a good rule of thumb, if you don't know, then cutting out 1/3, including older stems, is a good place to start. This allows you to remove the above-offending branches and then 'sculpt' the remaining rose into a neat and open shape. If you know what type of rose you have, you can always search for more
I can't stress the need for this step when pruning a rose or any shrub. Mulching will ensure your roses have a steady, slow-release feed when spring comes. Mulching also reduces competition from weeds and helps retain moisture. Think of it as the icing on the cake; it's not the same without it! If you have no idea what mulching is, you can find a handy video below.
Roses are hungry plants, so horse manure or compost are good mulches. I wouldn't recommend wood chips, as they tend to rob nitrogen from the soil as they break down and will inhibit the rose's growth.
Sometimes, you must hard prune your rose to renovate it, as shown with the gnarled witch's finger below. If the stem where the growth occurs is old, gnarled, and plain ugly, it is best to take it back to the ground. With a sharp pair of garden loppers or a clean wood saw, you can remove this stem completely.
This will delay your flowering, but in some instances, it is the only way to renovate a rose properly. Trust me, it will be worth it for lush green stems the following year. Old, unproductive growth should be hard-pruned out completely, as in the image below.
Climbing roses are relatively easy to prune, but timing is key with this type of rose. You want to prune your climbing roses in Autumn directly after flowering. I find it easier at this time of year as you can see what growth has produced flowers and what's not performing.
I aim for one main stem and maybe one of two others. Anything more than this I remove. This prevents a tangled mess and concentrates resources on flowering buds.
With a climbing rose, you can be pretty brutal, taking all side growth back to the main stem, just above the last outward-facing bud. Don't worry that it is cruel; they are resilient, and it will come back. You want to create a strong framework for growth. If you let the stems get too leggy, they will pull away from the trellis and start entwining other stems.
Rambling roses can be pruned in late summer and be ready for flowering the following year. Rambling roses are vigorous, sprawling climbers that produce cascades of flowers, often in a single, breathtaking flush during the summer. Unlike many other types of roses, ramblers bloom on old wood—growth from the previous year—so their pruning schedule and techniques differ significantly from modern climbers or bush roses.
The best time to prune rambling roses is immediately after they finish flowering, typically in late summer or early autumn. Pruning at this time ensures you remove only the spent flowering stems and preserve the new growth that will produce blooms next year. Avoid late autumn or winter pruning, as this can remove essential flowering wood and leave the plant vulnerable to frost damage.
I prune vigorous ramblers like Rosa 'Rambling Rosie' with sheers, not secateurs, snipping off a good 6 inches of this year's growth and then tying back any loose stems or laterals. It's a bit easier than pruning climbing roses as they have far thinner stems, so they don't need to be pruned back exactly to the next bud; they can cope with sheer vs secateurs if you have a large rambling rose to contend with!
Deadheading roses is a simple pruning technique that encourages them to flower for longer. It involves removing a spent flower or rose that's starting to lose its petals. This is done as soon as the rose's flower petals begin to fall as the rose is in its peak summertime flowering window.
Deadheading removes the flower back to the next set of leaves, removing the entire flower stalk. Deadheading roses prevents the plant from creating a rose hip or seed, thus conserving energy for the rose to create more flowers. After all, the rose wants to create hips to reproduce, which is why it flowers. Removing these flowers before hips form forces the rose to keep flowering.
To dead head a rose snip the flower off once it starts to fade back to the next set of leaves down.
See below for a perfect cut on a dead-headed rose.
We've all wondered if a plant is alive, dead, or just having a year off, and roses are no different! While roses can sometimes appear lifeless after harsh weather or neglect, they are resilient plants that may simply be dormant or recovering.
First, examine the stems and canes. A living rose plant will have pliable and green stems beneath the bark. If the stems are brittle, dry, and brown all the way through, they are likely dead. Start by gently scraping the bark with your fingernail or a small knife to check for a green layer underneath, which indicates life. In contrast, if the stems appear black, shrivelled, or hollow inside, they are likely deadwood.
Another good way to check is by bending the stems. If they snap and almost crack, leaving brittle woody edges, they're dead. But these can be occasional dead branches; unless all the branches are like this, there still may be hope.
Dormancy can also mimic death in rose plants, especially in winter or after transplant shock. If your rose isn’t showing signs of growth during its usual active season, try giving it time, proper watering, and fertilizer to see if new shoots emerge. Roses can sometimes recover from apparent death if even a small portion of the root system or lower stems remains alive.
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So there we have it, my easy guide to pruning roses, whether you know what a rose is or not! By pruning roses to an outward-facing bud in late winter when they are dormant, you ensure healthy flower buds will emerge come late spring. After pruning roses, a thick mulch of compost, well-rotted manure, or leaf mould will give your roses the energy they need when flowering in summer.
It's all too easy to remove things we don't immediately like or understand in the garden. I'd urge you to always give a new plant a few seasons before removing it. Getting an established, out-of-shape rose bush to flower is far easier than waiting for a new one to settle in.
If you have any questions please drop a comment below or add one to my Youtube channel where I'm happy to help. You can also check out my Tweet, Facebook or Instagram for more guides and tips.
Check back soon for more garden guides and happy gardening!
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I’ve been struggling with how to prune roses for years. I have either ignored them or simply dug them out. Thanks Garden Ninja for such an accessible guide! Ps I love your Youtube channel is so informative! Keep up the great work!!
Really great information given covering all areas! thanks
I came across your blog post on how to prune roses and wanted to thank you for such a helpful post! When I first started gardening about four years ago, I had no idea what a healthy rose bush should look like or how often they needed to be trimmed. Your article was really insightful in that sense – it clarified the different types of roses and showed me where to find more detailed information. Thanks again!