hard pruning

13 years ago

Question growing out of our weird weather this spring/summer. Late June, all of July so very very hot and wet - after rather dry early June.

All gardens seem to be crazy (fruiting veggies like tomatoes, eggplant are producing late and less, but LOTS of chard, kale, for example)

Two Therese Bugnet's , front and center flanking the center path in the rose garden have gotten totally out of control, Seriously, can't walk between them.
As rugosa hybrids, I usually just do a late winter/early spring clean up on these.
Can I whack them back to the size/shape I want without hurting next year's bloom?
And, related question,
Gallica Allegra, also exploding out of the very generous allotted space; blooms were late and so totally trashed by the rain. Right now it is all lush green heavy foliage on long bending canes. I may need to just dig it out and move it, if it wants more than the 4' X 4' I planned it for. Prune it hard and leave it? Or prune it hard and move it?

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Comments (3)

seil zone 6b MI
13 years ago
If they're repeat bloomers I'd think they'd be fine. Cutting them back shouldn't stop them from blooming next season.
mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
13 years ago
I'd start by doing a census of how many Therese Bugnets you are really dealing with. It's a fairly polite suckerer, but if there are two or three crowns, it will obviously be two or three times as big.

Aside from that, smaller bushes will obviously bloom less, but what is there should bloom reasonably normally.

Quite frankly hard pruning of something like Allegra scares me. Too much genetic material that can take one look at a real winter, and start growing backwards. If you've had it for a while, and trust it, prune it with the understanding that any new growth won't make it through the winter. I'd plan on moving it early next spring.
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sunnysideuphill
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks to you both. I believe it is still a single TB on each side - I regularly dig out the "extras" for potting up for the May plant sales in town. One is my oldest rose dating from late 80's and moved to current location about five years ago. The second was a sucker from that original location, moved at the same time. Looking closely at the crowns, they appear to be gnarly old singles, with a little sucker a few inches away from one of them, which I will remove.

The Allegra was a 4" band five years ago. Own root, no winter problems ever. Just long floppy canes. With the pruning this spring, it is still over 5' tall right now at the center where it is loosely attached to a fan trellis which isn't the right look for the spot at all. Since it isn't going to bloom again this year, I think I will just tie up the long floppies to that trellis to protect the neighbors, and let it develop through this season. Decide where it is going this fall, prep the spot, then early next spring hard prune and move it.