A few useful tips for pruning roses

Shape is important when you are growing roses in shrubby bush form, and control over this is best exercised at pruning time.

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For an open bush, prune back to an outward pointing bud. Learn to weigh up the bud formation on each stem, and select up, in or out as you go.

I still feel it’s necessary to make a clean sloping cut just above the target bud, which deflects water away from its base.

Cut too close and it is caught up in the healing process, too far away and the dieback process kicks in, perhaps threatening this healthy bud in time.