Peter H.M. Brooks wrote:

"Peter Ashby" wrote in message
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In article ,
"Peter H.M. Brooks" wrote:


I look forward to the next couple of weeks when the dozens of buds at
the
end of each new shoot produce massive bunches of roses, finally
producing
just the shape intended.

Well up here, now that autumn has emphatically arrived I need to put my
mind to the task of moving the rhododendron from its current cramped
position to a more spacious one. The roses have finished and now its
back to watching the orchids indoors for signs of flowering and stopping
myself from loving them to death.

I hope that my piece might have enthused you to pruning the roses.


It was too dark and too cold when I got home to have a look at them. I
tend to leave as much on in the winter as possible to help protect them
from cold. I generally just deadhead after summer and prune at the start
of spring. Some of the flowers were a bit small and misshapen this
summer, i think they could do with a dressing of some appropriate
fertiliser.

You could cut back the rhododendron.

The problem is its rather stunted because a large Hebe next to it has
outcompeted it. Whoever planted the shrubs on that side of the garden
did it with no regard for final size. I removed the horrible small tree
on the other side of the Rohdodendron and it has responded on that size.
This is what has opened the space. I have rescued the Potentilla between
the Hebe and another large shrub by pruning out the lower branches of
the two larger ones to give the Potentilla some light and it has come
up nicely from a state of me wondering if it was still alive.

Peter