I planned on doing my winter pruning of the existing roses around the middle of July but as I wrote before, I had to do a quick pruning on June 23 due to some very strong winter winds. So because of this I had to do my winter pruning earlier than planned, I did the pruning last week (June 29).

How The Roses Looked Before Pruning

First is my Firefighter, this picture is actually after the night pruning that I did, at this moment the rose stood at around , you can also see that this rose branched pretty well, you can see lots of stems that will bloomed well. All of this will be taken off.

The next roses are Just Joey, Dame Elizabeth Murdoch and Baronne Edmund De Rothschild. Just Joey and Dame Elizabeth Murdoch are both kinda intermingled with each other as the distance between them is only about 2 feet.

All 3 of them are about 6 feet tall. You can see them almost reaching the top of the fence which is 6 feet tall. All 3 of them were bought as potted plants that were about 12-18 inches tall when I planted them so their one-year growth in Sydney’s weather was quite robust.

Just Joey Before Pruning

Dame Elizabeth Murdoch Before Pruning

Baronne Edmond de Rothschild Before Pruning

The last of my rose is David Austin’s William Shakespeare 2000. As can be seen, the growth is more of sprawling compared to the hybrid tea roses above. The height is only about 5 feet but the width is about 4 feet. The growth is a also little bit lopsided to the right which hopefully will become more balanced next year, hopefully helped by my pruning.

Considerations For Pruning

• Height : From all the things I read, it seems Hybrid Tea roses need to be pruned hard – most people say to prune anywhere from 18-24 inches, I’ve decided to prune my roses to about 24 inches following these information.
• Thin Stems : I’ll also remove thin stems and centrally growing stems as seen below but I won’t be following other people who only leave about 3-4 stems. I’ll follow more of the ‘prune till you get a nice shape’ thinking, wherein I’ll prune until I get a nice shape and spacing and not caring how many stems will be left. HOWEVER, I will be leaving one thin stem on some plants that are pruned shorter than the thicker ones as this has been suggested in the Gardener’s World tv show. I wanted to see if they will grow into thicker stems as has been suggested in the show.
• Old Stems : I’ll also be removing some very old looking barky stems from the roses.
• Center Growing Stems : Some of the new stems that grew from last year will be removed if they grow in the center of the rose. Even though they will be fresh new stems will good width, I’ll remove them in order to avoid criss-crossing stems and to free up the middle part of the rose for better air circulation.
• Lopsided Growth of William Shakespeare 2000 : My WS2000 is growing more to the right, I’ve pruned and left some existing branching to the left to see if this will help in balancing the growth or at least how it looks.

Thin Stems To Remove

Thin Stems To Remove

Center Stem To Remove

After Pruning

Here’s how my roses look after pruning. Take note of the some of one thin stem at the bottom of all roses except the William Shakespeare 2000.

Just Joey – 18 in by 23 in

Dame Elizabeth Murdoch – 9 in x 16 in

Baronne Edmund De RothsChild – 23 in x 26 in

Firefighter – 18 in x 24 in

For the William Shakepeare 2000, I’ve mentioned that I left a couple of branching stems that are growing to the left. Hopefully this will balance the look of the rose.

William Shakespeare 2000 – 16 in x 28 in

William Shakespeare 2000 Another Angle To Show Lopsided Growth

Dormant Spray After Pruning

Right after pruning, I also sprayed the roses with a dormant spray, basically I mixed the normal dose of Eco-Oil with Neem Oil and sprayed the roses till the mixture is running down the stems.

This will hopefully kill the white scales that you see in the pictures as well as any other eggs, larva and spores present in the stems. Some people feel that they don’t need to do this but for me, I don’t see the the harm in doing so.