How to prune a rose

When

Best: Feb–Mar (northern hemisphere — southern hemisphere: add six months)

When the buds swell in late winter, about 3-4 weeks before your last killing frost. Dead, damaged or diseased wood can come off in any month.

Never

✗ Never prune live canes in autumn in a cold-winter climate — soft regrowth cannot harden off before frost.
✗ Never hard-prune once-blooming roses, ramblers or spring-only climbers in late winter — prune them after they flower.
✗ Never leave a stub, above a bud or when taking a whole cane out at the base.
✗ Never carry sap from one rose to the next on unsterilised blades.
✗ Never try to prune rose rosette out of a plant — dig out and bag the whole thing, roots included.

Months in these rules are northern-hemisphere — in the southern hemisphere, shift them by six.

• Hard-prune bush roses as the buds swell in late winter — about 3-4 weeks before your average last killing frost.
• Cut on a slight slant sloping away from the bud, about 1/4 in (6 mm) above it; never nick the bud itself.
• Cut to an outward-facing bud so new shoots grow away from the centre, leaving an open, vase-shaped bush.
• Keep 3-6 strong canes from last year's growth (6-10 on a big mature bush) and take the rest out at ground level.
• Cut back to live white or pale-green pith, removing dead, brown-pithed, spindly and crossing canes.
• On hybrid teas, grandifloras and floribundas remove canes thinner than a pencil; judge shrub roses by vigour.
• Prune shrub and landscape roses lightly — each spring take about a third of the oldest canes to the base.
• Deadhead repeat bloomers just above the first outward-facing five-leaflet leaf.
• Only grafted roses get suckers: dig down to where the shoot leaves the root and tear it off, don't cut at soil level.
• Dip blades in 70% alcohol before each plant, and again right after cutting any diseased wood.

Sourced from US university cooperative-extension services and the RHS, then adversarially fact-checked — every rule carries its source.

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