Is it too late to cut back plants that are already starting to sprout?

[MrsChemist]

We have some rose plants about 12ft tall. We forgot to cut them back, and now they are sprouting again. The new growth is so high up and we don't want to cut back to only few feet high if it will harm the plants.

TIA

I would cut the evil things back to ground level, dig them out and burn them ,but I do appreciate this may not be helpful

you will be fine to cut them back to where you planned to do it last year, they will proably sprout & grow even more vigorously.

if you really like them you might also want to shove a bit of fertiliser round them as they will probably need it havingt thrust 12ft of growth into the air

Unfortunately, our landlord is rather attached to them, so it's not an option. They look bloody daft being so tall. Last year they were just big twigs with a few roses at the top.

Thanks, I'll get pruning tomorrow

The sprouting is a good thing, as you know they're not dead. Be fearless.

I agree, be fearless. They'll recover some time. :)

I did mine yesterday, it seemed mean to cut off the sprouty bits but I was following GW mag which recommends doing it this month and being harsh. I dug in some Toprose and manure at the same time. We shall see......

I know it feels mean But We Do It For Their Own Good. Repeat after me ....

Oh, what about fruit trees? I never remember about this until they start to sprout, which is why my two apple 'trees' still look like saplings despite being at least 9 years old.

I did (in the sense of getting my friend who's a professional gardener to do) my apple trees yesterday. They need to be done quite soon - depending on where you are in the country - before the sap starts rising.

I went on a course a few years ago to learn how to prune apple trees correctly, however I still get a book from the library every year when I do them (usually late Jan early Feb) as it's best to try and get it right every year to maintain the shape and encourage good fruiting.

Ah yes the sap - must get around to it this weekend then. Thanks both.

With Roses, it's quite important to prune them correctly, otherwise they will die.

You need to find a dormant bud - so look for a sprouty bit, and you should cut a diaganol cut just above the lowest sprouty bit you can see. Do this on every stem/branch.

Disclaimer: it depends on what type of Rose it is, and I didn't do ours, DH did (for the first time). We are also in rented, so here's hoping we did it right!

I've got a 12ft rose bush as well and thought I had missed the boat - maybe I'll chop it back a bit. It's a terrible shape, too - nothing in the middle at all.

I thought it depended what sort of rose it was - old garden, hybrid tea etc - when you were meant to prune them?

Mind you, we moved a patio/floribunda type rose last year - it was that or lose it, as it was where our summer house was going - at the beginning of July on one of the hottest days of the year, end even that hasn't managed to kill it, so perhaps I'm being a bit precious.

Maybe I'll follow TaffetaCat's lead and buy GW mag for guidance.

Royal Horticultural Society guide to rose pruning

Cross-posted with LadyWellian.

The RHS online guide has pages for each type of rose (including when to prune) and has the benefit of being free!

PS (Three posts in a row, sorry!) Do you have a pic of your summer house, LadyWellian?

::garden building envy::

Ooh, thanks Maud. I've got an RHS book (which is where I read the thing about different types of rose), but as the rose was already in the garden when we bought the house, I wasn't sure what kind it was. That link says to assume hybrid tea if you're not sure, which you can definitely do at this time of year.

Now I just have to get some gloves, as the foxes have run off with mine. (I know, I should have put them away.)

Here you go, Maud: summerhouse

Oooh, how lovely. Do you sit in it to drink Pimms as the sun sinks slowly behind the herbaceous border?

I keep my leather gardening gloves indoors at all times, as otherwise they're toys for the fox cubs.

One day, Maud. At the moment it's got a lot of tools that won't fit in the shed until I get some storage in there, plus a couple of pieces of furniture that I won't allow won't fit in the house.

However, while 2010 was the year of the house, 2011 is the year of the garden, so I am hoping that by summer, it will indeed be a place for Pimms in the evening sunshine.

Herbaceous borders I am still working on! Garden is 80ft long and about 15ft wide, so the challenge is to make it look less like a corridor.

A summerhouse and a shed?

::Swoons at the very idea::

You know that the remedy for a long thin garden is meant to be an undulating path to take the gaze to each side (no straight lines leading the eye to the end) and/or breaking it up into 'rooms', I am sure.

Oh, I do love the start of the gardening season.

Sorry to OP for shameful thread hijack, btw.

Maud, I'm planning to replace the straight paving slab path with a brick one (we have bricks from old patio) that will sweep right and then left again in a sort of semicircle, giving me a deeper flowerbed for a bit on the left, roughly where we moved the rose to.

There's a pond with a trellis of winter jasmine behind it on the left and a rose arch ( sans roses)that leads in to what will be the next 'room' (need to plant something to left of arch - am thinking of moving the apple tree that is currently in a plastic bin by the shed (where DH wants to put chickens) if the roots haven't come through the bottom, and maybe some sweet peas up the left of the rose arch to help with the screening.

Then there's the area with the veg patch, the summer house and what will be a patio (made with the slabs I take up from the path - all very recycled!) in front of the summerhouse, with our table and chairs and the barbecue.

Behind the summer house is a largish shed (was there already when we moved in) so there will be a path (if there are enough slabs left!) down the right of the summer house to a 'utility area' with shed, waterbutt, composter and chickens if we can build them something suitably foxproof - we back on to a grassy railway embankment so foxes are an unavoidable fact of life.

I'm sooooo looking forward to making it all happen. If only my seed order from Thompson & Morgan had not got lost in transit, which might dent my ability to get delphiniums to flower from seed this year.

Sorry too for my part in the thread hijack.

That sounds fab, LadyWellian. Perhaps you should aim to open for the NGS when it's all done (although I think the NGS will also take 'works in progress' onto their books as long as they're not a building site). You live near enough for me to buy a ticket and come to snoop admire.

No pressure then

We all need something to aspire too.

Or even to aspire to.