Do we have to prune roses?

When you say roses you immediately think about pruning, but is all that pruning really necessary? When we look at the ancestors of our cultivated varieties, the wild roses, we see that they never get pruned and still they bloom each year. So why do we prune ours each year?

First of all: Look at the rose family. Make sure what kind of rose it is. Is it an Alba? A Bourbon? A Hybrid Tea? Three very different roses and three very different methods of pruning, that is if you want to prune! A good rule that applies to All roses except Hybrid Teas, Floribundas and Polyanthas is: DON'T PRUNE THE FIRST THREE YEARS. Let them grow without disturbing them. Let them make wood, plenty of it. They will bloom, dont worry about that. After three years you can start to correct them if needed for instance when they get too big or you don't like the shape of the bush. Again, you don't have too but it's certainly possible. The old, heritage, once blooming roses Alba's, Gallica's, Damasks, Centifolia's... they don't need pruning. We prune them to give them a nice rounded shape and keep them in check. We do that after they have bloomed so this can be in July, August or September. Always remember to NEVER PRUNE AWAY THE ENTIRE GROWTH OF THAT SUMMER. Shorten the new growth, never remove it completely. Otherwise they won't flower next year.

So you can decide not to prune or to give them a nice rounded shape. What's always allowed? Pruning away dead wood and very thin growth which can't hold up flowers. 

But what with the old, heritage roses which do rebloom like the Portlands, China's, Bourbons, Hybrid Perpetuals, Teas and Noisettes? 

Well also these roses will bloom perfectly without pruning each year. So it's a personal choice to prune, not a dogma. Portlands can be trained into a nice rounded shrub so I myself would prune them lightly in February. The Bourbons and Hybrids Perpetual are always better as climbers or as pegged down roses. You don't have to prune them. When you train Mme Isaac Pereire or Louise Odier as a climber you just shorten their lateral shoots in February but again that's optional. China's, Teas and Noisettes in general hate pruning so let them be, they stop growing when their wood is cut away. But also here: Pruning away dead and weak wood is always allowed! 

So now we only have left: The Modern roses: English roses, Hybrid Teas, Floribundas, Polyanthas and Modern Hybrids. We surely need to prune them? No we don't. But it's advised to shape them. Look at your bush in February: Do you want a natural shape with more but smaller blooms? Then prune away 1/3 of each stem. If the shape of the bush isn't important to you? And you want bigger but less blooms? Then you prune away 2/3 of each stem. For English roses from DA the first option is more likely as the shape is more important. For HT roses and Floribundas the second option is the way to choose. Idem for Polyanthas and Modern hybrids. And of course we also prune away dead and weak wood.

So that's it! Don't go crazy about pruning. First three years we don't prune the old roses and after that it's all about preference. 

I hope I brought some light in this highly debated topic!