Pruning unlikely to kill roses

Overzealous gardeners are unlikely to kill off roses by pruning them hard, according to industry commentator Helen Yemm.

Making her comments in the online pages of the Telegraph, she suggests that a thorough trim will simply result in the plant flowering later than it normally would.

In the case of older shrub roses that only flower on the back of the previous years growth, Ms Yemm explains that it may skip a year of blooming.

Should this be the case, she adds, gardeners should not prune the rose again until after it has flowered.

Concluding, Ms Yemm asserts that whatever people say, roses can be successfully planted at the "wrong" time of the year.

"Do it by first sinking the recently watered rose, pot and all, into carefully prepared moist soil. Lift it out, leaving a perfect imprint of the pot, de-pot the rose swiftly then plop it into the exactly right-sized hole, firming it gently then mulching," she states.

The Royal Horticultural Society urges gardeners to take the disease threshold of a bloom into consideration when purchasing roses.