Selfsufficientish.com

My poor roses are all sending out masses of "wild" shoots. Everyone else has beautiful flowers. It is apparently a really good year for the roses(ElvisColstello?). Any advice as to where I'm going wrong would be gratefully received. pbf.

Wild shoots? Do you mean suckers? If so, simply cut them off as low as you can get.

An RHS trial a few years ago suggested that, apart from cutting out suckers, the best thing to do with roses is to get out your hedge trimmer in autumn and simply cut them back to one third size. They said they got better results doing this than with traditional pruning methods.

Mike

My roses do that every year PBF, and so far the only solution I have come up with is to dig the bloody things up Are they names varieties, because I don't have problems with those ones?

I think you are right Keaniebean. I don't know what they are, they were already here. The ones I have bought are David Austin and are fine. The others are definitely on their way out now!! Thanks! pbf.

If they have the occasional white single flower on them, then get rid, because they are a right pain PBF, I've dug out most of the ones I had but still have a couple to go. Put something usefull or pretty there instead

We obviously have the same problem! Wish all problems could be solved by digging them out!! pbf.

MKG wrote:Wild shoots? Do you mean suckers? If so, simply cut them off as low as you can get.

An RHS trial a few years ago suggested that, apart from cutting out suckers, the best thing to do with roses is to get out your hedge trimmer in autumn and simply cut them back to one third size. They said they got better results doing this than with traditional pruning methods.

Mike

years ago, my dogs ( when still very young) actually chewed one of the rose bushs down to a small stump!
They just grew back even stronger!..

Really large sharp and plentiful thorns on this one, so was really surprised the dogs didnt rip their mouths to shreds, but they hadn´t!

can i hijack this thread for a mo?
i have 3 roses in our garden, all here when we rented the place, landlady wants them kept but they are really leggy! it looks like they might be shrub roses that were unattended by succesive tenants and now we have roses that are all wobbly lopsided stems to about 5feet and then clumps of flowers!
they do flower very well, just wondering if i should cut them back really hard as nik nik suggests? down to old wood? further? i will be taking cuttings anyway this autumn, just in case!

As far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as old wood on roses. You can cut them back literally to the ground, and up they come again.

Mike