Hello October.

October is my favourite month, as I can do my favourite annual job in the garden.

A lot of people seem to be scared of rose pruning, but I actually love it. The more challenging the better.

Each year the lovely Rosa “Climbing Shot Silk” gets a tidy up.

Shot Silk is a fragrant, repeat flowering rose which have large double blooms. It has silky textured flowers with golden centre, with strong growth, (ideal for tying in) and dark green glossy foliage.

Tools of choice for this job are, my beloved Felco No2’s, I will be lost without these, (each year I send them to Felco to service them), pruning saw and loppers.

I try to reuse ties for the previous year, but having spare ones help!

This is the Rose before I started, the long whips that are reaching to sky are going to be tied in to produce new blooms next year.

I start by untieing last years clips and start reducing the ends to make it easier to deal with.

With pruning any Roses, always remember to prune the D’s :-  Dead, Dying Damaged and one other I tend to include is Don’t know! So if I have particular piece that doesn’t look right, I will prune it out.

Reduce stems which could potentially grow next year’s long whips, always to an outwards facing bud, a sharp clean cut.

These pieces which are untied float around begging to be tied in, I loosely tie them in and then step back to see the finished vision, I aim for two long stems per wire to maximise flowers on each rung.

This is my finished rose. With the branches laid flat it encourages new growth to shoot up and lovely roses on the end.

And, here is a picture of our beloved Rosa “Climbing Shot Silk” it her full glory!

So that’s the climbing rose pruning done and now to prune back the other Hybrid Teas.

Enjoy October, the nights are drawing in, so make the most of the glorious Autumn sun.

Happy gardening!

Sue x

For help choosing the right climbing rose for you, and to find out when and how to plant it, head over to our rose hub page.

Sue Russell

One of my earliest memories; helping my Mum and Dad weed the veggie plot and collecting chicken eggs from the chooks at the end of the garden. I grew up on a farm as a child and always had my own piece of land to grow and learn with, so I suppose its in the blood!
In my mid twenties, I re trained in Horticulture (Professional Gardening ANCH) and set up my own Gardening business working for clients in the Suffolk/Essex area. For the last thirteen years I’ve had the pleasure of working on a private twenty five acre estate tending to the grounds.
In 2016, I joined the team at Thompson and Morgan in the Customer Care department.
Also season ticket holder at Ipswich Town Football Club!!