"Dave" wrote in message
...
: As I mentioned a while ago my wife who died in April was the gardener
: of the house,And me ,well I used to think the garden looked after
: itself. Anyway Ive managed to keep the gardens really nice throughout
: the summer ,but I still have little or no knowledge. Anyway the roses
: are now looking very untidy and Im wondering if i need to prune them
: before or after the winter,and if so has any one got any instructions
: on doing this. Ive got three climbing roses and the rest are just
: normal ones apart from the two I bought in the summer one of which
: was called sweet Valentine I think. Anyway please excuse my lack of
: knowledge on gardening Dave. Oh one last question,now the winters on
: its way Ive replaced the summer plants at her grave with winter
: pansies,are there any other plants that will flower over the winter
: that I can put in pots?.

Most of the books I've read recommend tidying up the roses at this time of
year by just pruning lightly any long shoots, so that if there are high
winds they won't become unstable. They should then be pruned properly in
Feb/early March.

You could try polyanthus/primulas on the grave as they give a nice splash of
colour.

Hope this helps

K