Learn about all-important tasks for maintaining healthy prolific roses.

Filmed and produced by Pippa Marffy.

The sooner you dead-head the spent flower, the faster you will get a second flush. 

If a branch is totally over, prune it back at a thick part of the stem. 

Prune on an angle, at a thick section of stem, just above a leaf node that faces out. Outward facing nodes face out, away from the middle of the bush.

Cutting at the thick end encourages new thick stems and bigger clusters of blooms.

The more inwards growth you have, the less air movement there is and the greater risk of fungal disease there is. 

If you want to keep some blooms/buds, pick and choose the old blooms to snip.

If a bush is totally spent it needs a full summer prune to encourage a second flush.

Prune back to the thick parts of the stem. You don't want to encourage spindly growth. 

Angle your snips so that you encourage outward facing buds to grow. 

After an early summer prune, it will take 5-6 weeks for new blooms to flower.

Prune as soon as the flowers are spent so that the rose does not waste energy growing hips. 

Prune at the thick, sturdy part of the stem, at an outward facing node.