The RHS issues its top tips when it comes to a certain popular plant (Image: Getty)
The month of March brings with it the hope of sunshine and the joyous return of .
As such, March is also a prime time when it comes to – particularly when it comes to roses.
This is because March typically falls in the late winter and early spring periods when roses are still dormant.
offers its top tips when it comes to gardening in March.
These top tips also pertain to climbing roses to ensure the lifespan and health of any rose in your garden.
:
March pruning of roses helps the plant to recover quickly and to begin its new growth after pruning (Image: Getty)
According to RHS, when tackling roses, the following tips should be adhered to: Cut no more than 5mm above a bud, ensuring the cut slopes downwards away from it.
This allows no water to be collected on the bud and applies to all cuts, whether removing dead wood, annual pruning, or deadheading, which is the removal of flowers from plants after they’ve died.
:
On established roses, cut out poorly flowering old wood and saw away old stubs (Image: Getty)
Other tips from the RHS for rose pruning include:
- Cut to an outward-facing bud to encourage an open-centred shape.
- Cut to the appropriate height, if a dormant bud is not visible
- Cuts must be clean, so keep your secateurs sharp and for larger stems, use loppers or a pruning saw
- Prune dieback to healthy white pith
- Cut out dead and diseased stems and spindly and crossing stems
- Aim for well-spaced stems that allow free air flow
- On established roses, cut out poorly flowering old wood and saw away old stubs that have failed to produce new shoots
- With the exception of climbing roses and shrub roses, prune all newly planted roses hard to encourage vigorous shoots
- Trace suckers back to the roots from which they grow and pull them away
For roses that have long arching stems, are very tall or they need some sort of support to hold it up, then these are most likely a climber or rambler.
The RHS advice when it comes to these types of roses which only have one thick stem going down, to go easy with cutting them and to rather shorten them by between a third and a half as they may not regenerate if cut hard back.
When it comes to multi-stemmed roses, RHS advises to take out one or two of the oldest looking stems as near to the base as you can.
Rambler roses are non-flowering shoots whereas climbers are those with less vigorous and flowering growth.
The RHS further adds to “feed all pruned roses with a general purpose or rose fertiliser in spring and to use “mulch with garden compost or manure”.