Pruning your shrub roses is essential to maintaining a good shape so you get good air circulation and a healthy plant which will then produce loads of lovely scented blooms.  Unlike modern bush roses, the old fashioned shrub roses generally flower on older wood and so should be allowed to develop naturally particularly those of an arching habit where hard pruning would ruin their graceful shape.  Modern shrub roses can be pruned hard as explained below.  The key is to know what sort of rose you have!

Shrub roses that flower once.  Includes Alba, Centifolia, Damask, Gallica, Hybrid Musk, Moss, Scotts and Sweet Briar groups which include the cultivats ‘Charles de Mills’ and ‘William Lobb’.  

• Prune in late summer once flowering has finished
• Remove dead, diseased and damaged wood, crossing branches and spindly growth
• If necessary remove one or two of the older branches from the centre of the plant to avoid crowding
• Always make a sloping cut above an outward facing bud
• In the autumn reduce the height of stems by one third to minimise any potential wind damage

Shrub roses that flower repeatedly.  Includes Bourbon, China and Portland groups.

• Prune in early spring
• Remove dead, diseased and damaged wood, crossing branches and spindly growth
• Reduce strong new growth by one third.  For ‘English roses’ prune back the previous season’s growth by 30-50% of its length
• Shorten strong side shoots to two or three buds
• With mature shrubs cut some of the older main stems back to the base to encourage vigorous new shoots from the base which will flower the following summer
• Always make a sloping cut above an outward facing bud
• Deadhead throughout the summer to encourage the production of further flowers
• In the autumn reduce the height of stems by one third to minimise any potential wind damage

Modern roses – Hybrid tea roses.

• Hard prune in early spring
• Remove dead, diseased and damaged wood, crossing branches and spindly growth
• Prune out all the oldest stems to ground level
• Prune remaining stems to 15cm above the ground
• Always make a sloping cut above an outward facing bud

Modern roses – Floribunda roses

• Prune in early spring
• Remove dead, diseased and damaged wood, crossing branches and spindly growth
• Prune out all the oldest stems to ground level
• Prune remaining stems to between 20-30cm above the ground
• Always make a sloping cut above an outward facing bud
• In the autumn reduce the height of stems by one third to minimise any potential wind damage