Pruning your roses in the autumn

Pruning your roses in the Autumn will ensure that you can enjoy another season of beautiful flowers next summer. During their rapid summer growth rose bushes can become very top heavy and be prone to wind rock which is when the plant's roots are not strong enough to anchor the plant firmly in the ground. By reducing the weight of the plant by pruning your roses before the winter weather sets in, they will be able to survive the winter and be properly pruned in the spring.

All kind of roses will benefit when your prune your roses every year

There are thousands of different varieties of rose bushes to choose from. The best way to choose a rose bush for your garden is to find the right bush for the place in your garden that you have allocated for it. Here are some of our favourites:

• Madame Alfred Carriere will do very well against a shady north wall
• Banksiae Lutea grows well near a sunny sheltered wall
• Paul's Himalayan Musk is the perfect rose for climbing into trees
• Pink Perpute is a great rose to train up pillars
• Glauca has very attractive foliage
• Geranium moyesii hybrid will provide beautiful rose hips
• Gertrude Jekyll Ausbord are bountiful in fragrance and flowers

Pruning your roses is easy and does not take much time

When you decide to prune your roses choose a bright dry day to get the maximum enjoyment from being outside in your garden. Remove any dying flowers that will rot and cause your rose bush harm but leave the rose hips to brighten up your garden during the winter. Check your bushes for signs of disease and dispose of any diseased matter so that the plant will not become re-infected. Remove diseased, fallen leaves that can carry the disease over into spring.

Let the air circulate around your plant when you are pruning your roses

Pruning your roses will allow air to circulate around the centre of the plant by removing the stems that are crowding the interior. Any damaged or dead stems can be removed to leave only the healthy stems in tact. To avoid wind rock during winter storms the length of the stems can be reduced  from a third to half the size. Look for outward facing buds and cut just above these points. Making an angled cut will stop rainwater from entering the plant and causing rot.

By pruning your roses your plants will thank you next year with beautiful flowers

When you regularly prune your roses you will see stronger, healthier roses, reduce diseases by removing diseased wood, improve the circulation of air around the plant and give your rose bushes a nice shape. There are certain tools needed to prune your roses that can all be purchased from your local garden centre. Pruners, long handled loppers and long armed pruning gloves are all available along with fertilisers to make sure that your roses are kept  in tip top condition. Most garden centres stock a wide variety of roses for you to choose from that will thrive when they are planted in the autumn.