This rose has been in the same place for around 20-25 years.
Looking at it this year to see what damage our very cold, very long winter may have done, I realized it has become a jumbled mass of small branches with a few larger canes. Looks like this is due to canes being cut back here and there on it though the years, then they branched out… over and over.
It sure looks to me like it could benefit from a severe cutting back, and a lot of those small branches cut out. But, I only grow a few shrub roses and am not really knowledgeable on roses. I've taken pruning classes on trees and shrubs, but nothing on roses. Maybe that is why it looks like it does.
I am not sure if you treat a shrub rose like - oh, say a Lilac and only take out 1/3 of it in any one year - or can I do a severe cutting back and reshape and let it grow back out again? If I can cut it back all at once, how long should I leave the canes?
It has not started to leaf out yet, but with the warm days, it won't be long. Would this be the best time to cut it back? This is when I normally trim out winter damaged canes.
I know it is a very vigorous plant. You can see the comments I made when I uploaded photos to the database a couple years ago.
Is this a bad idea?
Thanks so much!
