Prepare roses for winter

Opinions on the right way to prune roses are as varied as they are - often - hotly disputed. But at least as far as the right time is concerned, there is a simple, quite objective rule from the Phenological Garden Calendar (which can be used to set dates for regular gardening work based on natural phenomena): Roses are pruned in the spring, when the forsythia bloom.

In order for roses to remain healthy and vigorous and for the remontant varieties to show good post-blooming in the fall, they now need a strong top-up fertilization after the first flush of flowers in June.

Many fungal diseases can only be successfully controlled preventively or very early after infection. Roses should therefore already be checked for infestation and, if necessary, treated preventively. This measure is all the more important if the plants were infested in the previous year and the infection pressure is now presumably high - due to the fungal spores that have survived the winter.