When should you prune your roses in South Africa?

Roses can be pruned lightly during the summer months. Pruning lightly during summer will reinvigour your roses and encourage growth, it also helps manage the size of your rose bushes and promotes aggressive flowering and a longer flowering period.

Termed summer pruning this should be done between mid-October to mid-February and is generally done more severely on younger plants.

More aggressive and heavier rose pruning is done during late winter. Throughout most of South Africa this should be left until late July and August. This is when the days start to get longer and temperatures start rising which leads to new growth and a great time to shape and prune your roses.

In areas which experience severe frost
and cold nights its best to wait till late
August and even early September.
Pruning a bit late is always better than not pruning at all.

Remember pruning in early winter and late autumn could stimulate new growth before winter, resulting in cold damage.