Pruning / removing dead bits

[BabbleBee]

Total garden idiot here, really have no idea what I’m doing in my garden but I would like to keep things neat and tidy! It’s a beautiful day here today and I was wondering if it’d do any harm to remove the dead, scruffy bits on shrubs etc? I think I have to leave the hydrangeas for a while? What about roses? I also have a beautiful Acer that just grows and never has anything done to it, should I leave it or does that benefit from a trim?

Thanks in advance for any help!

I wouldn’t touch the Acer. I don’t think they like pruning, and it would lose a lot of its charm pruned into a “neat” shape.

Roses - if they’re bushes - start by taking out any dead branches. Then anywhere branches are crossing, take out one of them. Then cut back everything else by about a third. Choose a vigorous bud pointing outwards, make a sloping cut about an inch higher, with the high side the same side as the bud. Then watch what happens over the summer, you’ll gradually gain confidence.

This general principle works on most things.

Roses - ramblers and climbers - take out dead wood, but I wouldn’t do anything else this year.

As to timing, roses now, hydrangeas leave till you’re not likely to get a frost. As a rule of thumb, prune after flowering (if you prune spring flowering things now, you won’t get flowers this year), though for late summer flowering things it’s better to prune late winter rather than early winter.