Pruning Shrub Roses

How To Prune Rose Shrubs
And Landscape Roses

Tips and techniques for pruning shrub roses for maximum blooms.

Shrub roses are a group of roses that include landcape roses, modern English roses and rugosas.

The most popular shrub roses are the Knockout rose series. Very easy to care for shrub roses.

Most of the these shrubs will respond very well to an annual clean up and pruning, done in spring or late winter.

Prune back vigorous shoots that originates close to the ground by a third.

The canes, branches coming off these, can be shortened to about a foot long.

Rose Pruning Drawing Courtesy Of Vancouver's Rose Society

>And keep pruning away the leggy, twiggy growth, or you will end up with an unmanagable thicket in a few years.

You should also prune for form, otherwise try to maintain a natural shape.

Rugosa shrub roses do best with minimal pruning. Just cut out dead and damaged wood.

It's ideal to plant rose shrubs so they have enough room to grow naturally, and not be crowded.

But if they are growing too large for their allotted space, and/or you must control their size, you can cut back rather severly in spring, to just a foot or two.

Return to Pruning Roses

Return from Pruning Shrub Roses to Rose Gardening Made Easy Home Page