Hello,
We have seven old rose bushes in a row about 3 feet apart. They are 6 to
7 feet tall and not very bushy. I want to make them much shorter and
hopefully bushier over time. I don't want to remove and replace these
bushes. I want to cut them down to 2 feet or less and work from there. I
suppose winter time is best for cutting. Does anyone have advice or
suggestions how I should proceed?

TIA. Bill S.

On 26/05/2021 03:50, bilsch01 wrote:
> Hello,
> We have seven old rose bushes in a row about 3 feet apart. They are 6 to
> 7 feet tall and not very bushy. I want to make them much shorter and
> hopefully bushier over time. I don't want to remove and replace these
> bushes. I want to cut them down to 2 feet or less and work from there. I
> suppose winter time is best for cutting. Does anyone have advice or
> suggestions how I should proceed?

As they are old, I wouldn't want to stress them too much as they should
be in full growth now, despite the cold spring. It might be best to do
this in two stages, by cutting back half the growth to a foot or two
now, and leaving the rest until normal pruning time next winter. They'll
look at bit odd this year (but maybe you'll be starting a trend for
mulit-stemmed standards!), but hopefully you can put up with that.

One other thing you could do is take some prunings and root them, and
put those rooted cuttings in the ground next to the old bush. They
should produce flowers lower down than the original bush, but you'll
have to remember to prune them in winter to keep them that way.

--

Jeff

On 26/05/2021 03:50, bilsch01 wrote:
> Hello,
> We have seven old rose bushes in a row about 3 feet apart. They are 6 to
> 7 feet tall and not very bushy. I want to make them much shorter and
> hopefully bushier over time. I don't want to remove and replace these
> bushes. I want to cut them down to 2 feet or less and work from there. I
> suppose winter time is best for cutting. Does anyone have advice or
> suggestions how I should proceed?
>
> TIA.   Bill S.

I did precisely this last autumn. Nearly all bushes are now showing new
growth. And the ones that are not were pretty much dead from
overshadowing already..

However such drastic pruning can be a bit risky: I have seen
recommendations on other shrubs to not take off more than 30% at one go

If you are prepared to take the risk, and replace anything that dies...I
would do it RIGHT NOW.

Roses are very tough.

--
Truth welcomes investigation because truth knows investigation will lead
to converts. It is deception that uses all the other techniques.

On 26/05/2021 03:50, bilsch01 wrote:
> Hello,
> We have seven old rose bushes in a row about 3 feet apart. They are 6 to
> 7 feet tall and not very bushy. I want to make them much shorter and
> hopefully bushier over time. I don't want to remove and replace these
> bushes. I want to cut them down to 2 feet or less and work from there. I
> suppose winter time is best for cutting. Does anyone have advice or
> suggestions how I should proceed?

What sort of rose bushes? There are quite a few different sorts and as
many cultivars are grafted what works well on a very old nearly wild
climbing rose is harsh for a barely clinging to life grafted cultivar.

Autumn would be the ideal time to do it (and you should routinely do it
for the more precious varieties to prevent wind rocking them in winter).
They can stand surprisingly hard pruning and bounce back.

This time of year I would just prune out any weak or diseased stems and
take out no more than a third of them in total. Perhaps cutting one or
two robust stems back a bit harder to force vigorous new growth.

It won't do much for the flowers if you prune them now. They will
inevitably respond to pruning with more stems and fewer flowers.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

THANKS ALL FOR THE INFO & SUGGESTIONS.
I think I will do the radical pruning on just 2 or 3 bushes this winter
and see how that works.

Bill S.