Help! Not sure what to do with this?

[Spikedcaroline]

Recently moved house and as very novice gardener I’m not sure what to do with this rose bush. A few blooms but mostly branches some of which look a bit dead. Don’t want to start cutting bits off that might produce blooms later - can anyone help?

Roses are very tough and respond well to a good bit of pruning. Even if you cut back anything destined to flower it will regrow and have another go.

I can’t see the detail of the green bits, but as a general principle I’d cut off anything that looks dead or unproductive right now. And do keep deadheading it.

And this winter I’d cut the whole lot back to about 6” off the ground so it can start again. A less drastic approach is to cut back ⅓ of the tall stems ever year so you do the whole thing over 3 years.

Cut it right back to a few inches, roses love a good prune and that’s an old one which has gone leggy.

But do the major cutting back in late autumn or early spring, not now

It will respond well to hard pruning, but at the right time of year which is not now. I read somewhere how to remember: people get given roses on Valentine's Day so that's the time to do it.

At the moment, cut off the spent flower heads and let it get on with it. The plant does have blackspot though, so buy some Roseclear and spray it. Throw away any badly diseased or fallen leaves, give it a good feed of something like Growmore and wait until next spring before giving it a proper haircut.

I had a leggy rose, which I periodically lightly pruned. It was put in by the previous house owner, so around 2000.

In spring 2021 I had a new fence put in and the rose not only got "pruned" totally to the ground, it also got trampled on over a few week period.

It is now gorgeous again!

Also train it, put some horizontal wires in or buy a bigger trellis, then train the branches horizontally, it’ll flower much more and not be so leggy.

Thank you everyone - great advice!

Also is it in a sunnyish position. They don't like constant shade.