A busy time for roses
YOUR roses may look as barren as the majority of the garden, but these dormant weeks are your cue to prepare them for spring growth and summer flowering. There are two main jobs to do now: pruning and planting. You may have trimmed your roses in autumn, but late winter is the time to cut them right back. Remove old, damaged and weak stems and get rid of diseased stems, cutting them back to healthy wood. Cutting them back hard now also helps prevent excessive strain on the plants’ roots when winter storms blow through. Also, remove any faded late blooms or balled flowers that will spread fungal disease if left. Leave any hips, though, for extra winter colour. We have a very old, inherited red floribunda that has been allowed to get…