Gertrude jekyl rose pruning question
 

My container grown Gertrude Jeykell rose has just come through it's 2nd winter and looks very spindly. I have pruned it down to the nearest bud but there are no buds lower down that I can see. Is it safe to just cut it down to about 12" or should I just give it a feed and hope for the best? Any help gratefully received
http://i40.tinypic.com/124ejkm.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/az6sf7.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/18lmci.jpg

Its a little difficult to comment from those pictures alone. Do you have a close up of your lowest bud ? We may be able to comment more on the situation after seeing that.

Thank you for your reply; it's dark outside so i can't get a decent photo just now so I've zoomed in on one of the photos in my 1st post
This is a close up of the lowest bud that I can see which is about 6" above the base. It is the only bud at this level all the others are just at the top of each branch, about 3 foot high.
http://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/attach...d=13308907 23

Gertrude jekyl rose pruning question
 

Feed it. Roses are heavy feeders in the spring.

On Sun, 4 Mar 2012 08:27:18 +0000, yorkshirelass
wrote:


My container grown Gertrude Jeykell rose has just come through it's 2nd
winter and looks very spindly. I have pruned it down to the nearest bud
but there are no buds lower down that I can see. Is it safe to just cut
it down to about 12" or should I just give it a feed and hope for the
best? Any help gratefully received
[image: http://i40.tinypic.com/124ejkm.jpg]

[image: http://i39.tinypic.com/az6sf7.jpg]

[image: http://i44.tinypic.com/18lmci.jpg]

The Bourbon rose 'Louise Odier' and the Austin rose 'Gertrude Jekyll' are some of the most fragrant roses in the world. They produce an abundance of very beautiful flowers. Their beauty combined with their heady fragrance place them on top of the wish list of many gardeners.

These 2 roses are interesting because they can be grown in colder zones due to their hardiness (USDA zone 5 for Loise Odier and Zones 4/5 for Gertrude Jekyll) and still become quite big roses. In warmer zones they also perform well (Even though GJ might benefit from getting some afternoon shade not to fry the delicate flowers in hot sun). Both roses do not have very good disease resistance against blackspot and powdery mildew and benefit from preventive spraying with systemic fungicides.

Found this hope it helps

When tackling roses bear the following in mind;

Cuts should be no more than 5mm (¼ in) above a bud and should slope away from it, so that water does not collect on the bud. This applies to all cuts, whether removing dead wood, deadheading or annual pruning

Cut to an outward-facing bud to encourage an open-centred shape. With roses of spreading habit prune some stems to inward-facing buds to encourage more upright growth

Cut to the appropriate height, if a dormant bud is not visible

Cuts must be clean, so keep your secateurs sharp. For larger stems, use loppers or a pruning saw

Prune dieback to healthy white pith

Cut out dead and diseased stems and spindly and crossing stems

Aim for well-spaced stems that allow free air flow

On established roses, cut out poorly flowering old wood and saw away old stubs that have failed to produce new shoots

With the exception of climbing roses, prune all newly planted roses hard to encourage vigorous shoots

Trace suckers back to the roots from which they grow and pull them away

These tips should be read in conjunction with the appropriate rose pruning profile.

It is necessary to prune your deciduous flower gardening for two reasons: 1. By removing old, damaged or dead wood, you increase air flow, yielding in less disease. 2. You rejuvenate new growth which increases flower production.

Pruning deciduous shrubs can be divided into 4 groups: Those that require minimal pruning (take out only dead, diseased, damaged, or crossed branches, can be done in early spring.); spring pruning (encourages vigorous, new growth which produces summer flowers - in other words, flowers appear on new wood); summer pruning after flower (after flowering, cut back shoots, and take out some of the old growth, down to the ground); suckering habit pruning (flowers appear on wood from previous year. Cut back flowered stems by 1/2, to strong growing new shoots and remove 1/2 of the flowered stems a couple of inches from the ground) Always remove dead, damaged or diseased wood first, no matter what type of pruning you are doing.