When should roses be pruned, and how hard?

Main pruning is done in late winter or very early spring, when the worst frost has passed but before growth is properly under way — typically when the buds have swollen but not broken. Pruning earlier risks stimulating growth that a hard frost then kills; pruning much later wastes the plant's stored energy on shoots you are about to remove.

How hard depends on type. Hybrid teas and floribundas flower on new wood and respond to hard pruning: cut back to three to five strong stems, each reduced to roughly twenty to thirty centimetres, with an open goblet shape. Shrub and English roses want a lighter touch — reduce by about a third and thin out congested growth. Climbers are mostly trained rather than pruned: tie the main structural stems as horizontally as you can, since horizontal canes flower along their whole length, and shorten the side shoots coming off them to two or three buds. Ramblers, which flower on last year's wood, are pruned straight after flowering in summer, not in winter.

The cuts themselves: use sharp clean secateurs, cut at a slight angle about five millimetres above an outward-facing bud so growth opens the centre rather than crossing it, and cut back to white pith — brown pith means dieback and you need to go lower.

Remove the three Ds first, at any time of year: dead, damaged and diseased wood. Then anything crossing or rubbing, and any spindly growth thinner than a pencil.

Deadheading through summer to a five-leaflet leaf keeps repeat-flowering varieties producing. Stop deadheading in autumn if you want hips.