Roses by secateurs tamed

Fleecy weather and quite an irksome wind accompanying the outdoor chores.   The news of the day is I have done the roses.   Scary work. And that wasn’t the worry about pronging myself in the eye with the thorns. I had spoken to Nicolas earlier and he encouraged me with the words: ‘when in doubt reduce to three buds’.   And I am quietly pleased with the results; even though I suspect I have erred on the side of caution.

Mainly because there were just so many sprouting buds on the stems already. And I had to hold back the thought that each of these was a future flower bloom that I was cutting off.   I may do more of the big picture pruning in autumn this year rather than holding back until now.   Because that way I could be more ruthless and look at the plant as a whole rather than fussing about the flowers.

I have lots of prunings which I will put in a trench and see if I get any free rose bushes later. I have already had one success with propagating from last year and pleased that I might increase my crop.

Right. Miso soup, warmer headgear, and back out to pick up yesterday’s prunings.