Leggy bush rose - advice appreciated

soulboy

I have what I believe to be a Korresia rose bush in my garden. It always produces an abundance of lovely yellow flowers and I prune it each spring by at least a third.

Now though it's reached about 6' or more and is very leggy with all the flowers concentrated at or near the top of the plant. This year it's also covered with blackspot. So, my question is would it be better to cut it back now while it's still in flower, wait until it's finished flowering, or prune as usual in the Spring.

Also, how radical should I be with my pruning, down to about a foot or two, or reduce it to half it's current height, for example.

Marlorena

Well the choice is yours really, but personally I would not want a 6 foot Korresia, so if you have a few nice blooms on it now, I would cut those off, put them in a vase indoors, and then prune the whole thing down to about 2 foot, throw a bucket of water over it, and soon it will shoot out again.... it doesn't matter if it's defoliated, it will soon spring back...  good luck...

soulboy

Thanks Marlorena, that's what I was thinking but I just needed someone to agree it was the best thing to do. I'm also going to remove a couple of inches of the topsoil and then top dress it with some fresh compost to see if it helps with the blackspot for next year.

Hampshire Hog

I had one in a pot that I found had been forgotten at last winters planting the pot was bone dry and the poor thing looked just about dead.

It was about two feet tall so I repotted and cut down to about three inches now four months on it's about eighteen inches and in flower.

So I would say go for it now then give it a good general feed and keep well watered and maybe a liquid feed at the roots once a week until it gets going again.

Good luck 

Nollie

Have a look at the following leggy rose with blackspot soulboy - before and after pics. I too needed encouragement and I am so glad I gave it a severe chop!

https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1014738/does-this-rose-need-surgery#latest

soulboy

Thanks everyone for your comments. I'll be pruning the rose this week and I noticed it's produced a couple of new shoots at the base - trying to tell me something, lol!