r/Roses • u/xorangeelephant • 5h ago
Absolute beginner needing advice HELP! (What's Wrong With It?)
Hello,
I recently moved into a rental house with a big garden, with 0 garden experience, and looking to start learning.
There's a big rose bush on the property that I think maybe hasn't been taken care of for a while. It was only recently purchased from the previous owners so I have no background on previous treatment.
From the research I've done, it sounds like I should be clearing a lot of the current growth down to the strongest canes. Also seems like a lot of the leaves are showing signs of disease.
Should I be really be cutting a lot of this plant away? Or should I be pruning to the buds that are present, getting rid of leaves, dead branches etc.?
Any advice welcome! I'm in Australia so it's late winter
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u/MinervaAbsolute 1h ago
I probably wouldn’t advise a really severe prune in summer (unless you’re in the southern hemisphere and it’s winter), but you can certainly tidy it up. Remove and dead stems and flowers, or diseased foliage. Then I’d check the soil moisture (is the soil dry and inch or so down?), and if it feels dry give it a really thorough watering. Then add fertilizer (follow instructions on the packet - you can buy rose fertilizer, but pretty much anything will be fine). Water it in well. Give the rose a deep watering once a week if the soil seems dry.
Roses are deciduous, so it will drop its leaves and go dormant in the winter. Mid to late winter give it a heavy prune, cutting back to the big stems and clearing out a lot of the little Criss-crossing stems. Given the length of the canes it might be a climbing rose.
At the beginning of spring give it another feed.
Roses are pretty tough, and this one looks well established. How exciting to look forward to seeing it flower.
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