Alan Titchmarsh explains how to correctly prune roses
October is a great time to start pruning certain plants, and there are a few reasons why.
Lots of plants have lost most, if not all, of their leaves and this makes pruning much easier.
More importantly, some plants are going into dormancy and pruning them now won’t encourage them to develop tender new growth susceptible to frost damage, instead this new growth will begin next year.
Sharing a range of gardening jobs to carry out this month, Sarah Raven highlighted two garden plant varieties that “need” to be pruned now.
Before knowing what to prune, the expert urged gardeners to carry on their regular task of deadheading their plants.
READ MORE: Five ‘effortless to care for’ plants to grow now that thrive in cold weather
Deadheading spent flowers means removing flowers as they fade. There are several reasons why it’s a good idea to deadhead but the main one is that the practice often encourages a second flush of flowers to develop, so the plant uses its energy on the formation of new blooms rather than fruit and seed.
This means gardeners may have a more colourful garden for longer, with some plants blooming right until the first frosts.
Plants to prune in October
1. Buddleia
Buddleia, also known as butterfly bush, makes an appearance in many gardens as a fast-growing shrub.
Some varieties of buddleia can become scruffy if left to their own devices and become a tangle of stems, so knowing how to prune buddleia will keep them looking good and encourage new growth and more blooms.
Don’t miss…
‘Best time’ to ‘always’ prune your hydrangeas or risk ‘no flowers’ next year[EXPERT]
Hydrangea mistake to ‘never’ make now that can lead to ‘no blooms at all’[WARNING]
‘Best’ method to use common kitchen scrap item to ‘boost’ roses – ‘repels cats’[COMMENT]
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info
Sarah instructed: “Tall summer flowering shrubs need to be pruned such as buddleia to about half their height in order to prevent damage by winter winds and to tidy their appearance.”
She also insisted that gardeners “remove suckers” growing around the base of the shrub.
2. Roses
If gardens are exposed to windy conditions then it is advisable to give the roses an early prune to reduce the damage potentially caused by “wind rock”.
Sarah claimed that two particular roses that need pruning are of the climbing and rambling variety.
She said: “Prune climbing roses and rambling roses once they’ve finished flowering and tie in the stems before autumn winds cause damage.
“Any dead, diseased or damaged branches need to be cut back to the ground or a healthy bud.
“Cut side shoots back by about two-thirds to an outward facing bud, and tie in horizontally to encourage flowering shoots.”
Gardeners also need to collect fallen leaves from under rose bushes ”so they don’t carry diseases over to next year” and end up destroying the plant.
Source: Read Full Article