Summer prune?

What's everyone's position on a 1/3 shear-back for the HTs just about now? Maybe after the next heatwave?

Betsy I just shorten 20-30cm in deadheading as I go around the garden, as blooms finish. So the same bush might get snipped 2-3 times at the end of its flush as each cane finishes. That's for HT's and floris. I cut metre lengths off my Crepescule as she was encroaching too far into my reading nook. I'm new to DA's so not sure what I should do with Graham Thomas.
What do you do?

Silky, that sort of sounds like what I do - I mean every time I cut for the vase, I'm "pruning". I guess. I thought I;d also just take a twirl with with the secateurs and give everything a whittle-down. Not a buzz cut, but just a prom night trim. Some of these long spikey canes are getting on my nerves visually.

You girls are sick, no wonder the roses do not talk to you

Do you have any DA's Betsy? I've read different things so I'm not sure. Trim? leave? varies with different ones? Doesn't matter?
My little Munstead I'm just leaving at the minute, new short canes, lots of buds, looks happy. Graham Thomas longer delicate canes - dunno.

Roseman, what have we said this time? As a matter of fact some of my roses sing to me, some whisper and some just sulk like moody teenagers.

The only DA I have this year is Young Lycidas, which I will not trim, aside from snipping off some of the sprays for the vase. It's such a cute little thing, tiny leaves, lotsa tiny canes, lotsa little buds, healthy little bugger. Totally different form to all my other roses . Like a shi-tzu in a room full of rottweilers.

Sounds like a kindred DA spirit to your MW. (I eagerly await your final season appraisal of MW )

Ha! What do YOU know roseman! My roses like me so much, they let me use their credit cards. Here, they say, take as much as you like, take all the available credit, take a loooong cruise somewhere, why doncha?

God you make me laugh Betsy. Ever tried stand up comedy?

Pamper and more pampering

silkyfizz wrote:
Roseman, what have we said this time? As a matter of fact some of my roses sing to me, some whisper and some just sulk like moody teenagers.

Roseman, I think silky is doing something with her spare rose leaves...[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

now back on topic......if you want a nice autumn flush to carry you into the winter, a small prune half way thru February will do nicely...

John, just found this for the girls

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neptune wrote:

silkyfizz wrote:
Roseman, what have we said this time? As a matter of fact some of my roses sing to me, some whisper and some just sulk like moody teenagers.

Roseman, I think silky is doing something with her spare rose leaves...[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

now back on topic......if you want a nice autumn flush to carry you into the winter, a small prune half way thru February will do nicely...

John, I do not think we have had our Summer flush yet, due to the heat, water and food is good, but the plants seem to be slow due to the heat in my area

most roses go thru a stunt period when it is very hot...self survival, you may call it........last couple of years I have prune in the third week of Feb to get them ready for a show in the second weekend of May. I don't worry if there are flowers/buds on at the time...they will go due to the prune....

Yeah, but your pruning for shows, the girls are pruning for vases and home shows

I figured that...IMHO I think it is too hot at the moment to prune because even when you prune , it is still too hot for the plant to put in a growth spurt, since they are trying to survive the extreme heat....

So I am taking the answer to my question to be: prune in mid Feb, not now.

Well boys you may jest, maybe it's bloke thing. Maybe women bring a unique perspective to the garden. Aesthetics makes the difference between a just bunch of plants and a magical place of beauty.
And that aint the leaves talkin!

that is what I would do................

Then that is what I'll do, Neptune - Thank Yoooo ;-)

So now we're the Girls? Addressed collectively (and might I say, condescendingly)? Is this a Cronulla barbecue? In any case, leave silky out of the hair-and-makeup corner. That's MY corner ;-)

As for that paean to patience gardenweb sermon, it seems to apply to OGRs and (god help us) own-root roses. Why play social worker to a modern HT that for whatever reason doesn't please you? We're not talking about kittens here, we're talking plant cuttings grafted by the hundreds, even thousands. If someone wants to be a helicopter mum to a one-cane wonder, that's fine, but it's not a virtue. It's not even best horticultural practice, which is to edit out the weakest.

Kicking away the soapbox now.

Yep, looks like a barbie and somethings cookin. I'll have marinated steak thanks, well done of course, and a chilled wine while you're at it.

betsyw wrote:Then that is what I'll do, Neptune - Thank Yoooo ;-)

just another thought....if you take off the canopy of the rose bush , you also open it up to be sunburn...then it becomes nasty...

So do you leave the canopy? I'm trying to imagine how that would look, or even how to accomplish a prune without removing it, if you are trimming every cane. Or do you trim down no further than a few inches, leaving a new canopy of the lower leaves to form protection?

I was referring to the canopy with the extreme hot weather now that could hurt the roses.........when you prune at the end of Feb, hopefully the weather will be cooler and even leaving to the beginning of March will still see a lovely autumn flush.....as for the prune , I normally take it back to a minimum of the diameter of your little finger

Good, got it. Great.