Flower experts have shared their biggest secret for healthier roses that will bloom time and time again over summer – and it's all down to one technique. Pruning your roses can seem daunting, especially when it comes to understanding the specific needs of different varieties.

Experts at Peter Beales Roses shared their advice for pruning your plants, but more importantly, deaheading, as they believe this is the key to getting the perfect flush of blooms and to encourage new growth. Having just won their 30th gold medal for roses at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, their advice is sure to give you some success in the garden.

Deadheading roses

According to the rose experts, who are based in Norfolk, summer deadheading is the way forward for long-lasting roses and requires regular removal of wilted flowers to encourage continuous growth.

By removing spent flowers, you divert the plant's energy away from producing seeds and into creating new buds and flower shoots. This results in a more vibrant, continuous bloom period and a neater appearance for your rose bushes. 

Do this by cutting just above the first set of leaves and keep on doing so throughout the flowering season in order to help roses produce more flowers instead of rose hips. 

Pruning roses

While it can seem daunting, the importance of pruning is all in the timing and understanding the type of flowers you're working with. Pruning works as a crucial step in the growing process and helps to encourage strong and healthy growth.

Not to mention, doing this will aid your flowers by improving their air circulation and reduce their risk of disease, all while helping to shape and structure the roses. It's important to understand the distinctive differences in pruning for hybrid tea and climbing roses for the best results each season.

Pruning hybrid tea roses

According to the experienced rosarians, the best time to get started on pruning this type of rose is as early as February. This should coincide with the feeding time, which allows your roses to get all the nutrients they need for a strong season of growth ahead of them.

Although the gardening experts suggest that if your hybrid tea roses are particularly tall, it may be best to carry out a light prune in autumn and help by reducing their height in half. Otherwise, they may be damaged by strong winds, damaging them right down to the root.

The pruning itself requires you to take a sharp tool, ideally secateurs, and pruning saws for those with thicker stems, and begin to cut out any dead or diseased branches. They suggest identifying a handful of strong stems that will help to form the main structure of the plant and cutting them to an outward-facing bud around 30-45cm from the ground.

It's best to remove any inward-growing branches to promote circulation and fight off any potential of a fungal infection. The cuts need to be clean, at a sloping angle, just above a healthy bud in order to prevent water collecting on the surface.

After the cutting process, they advise using a pruning sealant. While this step is optional, it does help to protect your new cuts from any frost damage. Then, it's time to feed your roses with a fertiliser to encourage their bloom.

Pruning climbing roses

Climbing roses are recommended to be pruned right before Christmas while the plant is still dormant. In doing so, you're ensuring any new shoots haven't already begun to emerge from the buds and so reducing the risk of breaking any new growth.

But if you're a bit late getting started, fear not, as pruning in January or February should still give you good results. It's important, however, to be extra careful to not interfere with any emerging new shoots.

Just like hybrid teas, you want to start by removing any dead, weak, or diseased stems and retain the young stems. Take those stronger stems and tie them onto supports in a horizontal position to encourage their growth and cut back any side shoots by two-thirds.

If your climbing rose has grown long and strong canes, be sure to prune lightly and not excessively for the best flowering results. Once you're done, add some mulch around the base of your plant and feed it with your rose fertiliser to give it that extra boost for the season.