We now need to start pruning with a purpose, and that means influencing the plant to what we want it to do whilst at the same time maximising flower production for later in the year.

There is no absolute right or wrong way to prune a rose. A generalisation is sometimes made that shrub roses can be cut back to 'knee height' - well this is not strictly true. Indeed some shrub roses and the once only flowering Old Roses; Gallicas, Albas, Damasks, Centifolias and Mosses all flower on the old wood produced last year so we need to be relatively lenient. I will cut these back by a maximum of 1/3 off last season's growth. This will help to retain this older flowering wood, stimulate flowering side shoots whilst maintaining their natural habit.

I adopt a similar method for most other shrub roses and the repeat flowering Old Roses; Portlands, Bourbons, Chinas and Hybrid Perpetuals, as once again I don't want to compromise their arching habit. These will flower on the current season's growth as well as on laterals (side shoots) from the old wood, so by light pruning it gives the plant every chance to put on a good display. Hybrid Teas and Floribundas on the other hand I prune back quite hard, taking off two thirds from last season's growth. Especially in the case of the Hybrid Teas where the flowers may be fewer but are larger.

For the climbers and ramblers, once they are tied in and the framework
established, cut back the laterals to about 15cm from the main stem.

Most roses (exceptions include Species roses; Gallicas and Rosa rugosa) will produce strong new growth from the base or slightly higher up the stem and it is these shoots that will form the new body of the plant and the source for future flowers. In order to allow these fresh shoots to develop, any old stems need to be fully removed.

Identification of a plant's characteristics and its flowering pattern tells us a lot about how to prune it, and there is no better example of this than the widely grown Clematis. This group of plants is split into three different pruning groups as each group has its own style of flowering. We can, for the time being, forget about groups one and two as these flower on older wood and will be covered in a future column. What we do need to do now is prune the group three, these being the summer flowering members which flower on current season's growth. These include C. viticella; C. tangutica; C. texensis as well as varieties such as 'Etoile Violette' and 'Ernest Markham'. These should be cut back to a good pair of buds, about 30cm from the ground.

About a quarter of the gardens I visit have Wisterias growing. I came across one a few years ago, it was old and gnarled and had been hollowed out in several places, presumably by lightning but it was still happily growing away across a pergola. It was making a kind of 'been there, seen it, but still watch me flower' statement. They deserve attention, so to get the best out of them - and this applies to both W. sinensis and W. floribunda - we want to produce as many of those fragrant flowers as possible.

This is simple in its technique but possibly tricky to accomplish, especially if faced with a large looking plant. After the framework has been established and any new shoots tied in, all that needs doing is to cut all the long unwanted growth back to within two or three buds (5-10cm) of the main branch.

This will create short stubby side shoots which will in turn form flowering spurs. If however your Wisteria is too large for such precise treatment then a more relaxed approach can be adopted. Simply cut back all the unwanted growth throughout the season and this will inadvertently create those flowering spurs.

After all kinds of pruning the plant needs a kick start so give them a good feed and water and a mulch if possible. Always keep the label, but if it's one of those little white tags, then after a year or two you won't be able to read it anyway.

Feel free to contact me with any gardening questions by emailing hughs65@hotmail.com