Reviving some neglected roses – a satisfying rescue mission 🌹

When I moved in, the garden was pretty wild with overgrown grass, brambles, and what looked like the remnants of some old rose bushes. The neighbour told me the roses were planted 20–30 years ago, but the previous tenant of two years used to strim them to the ground. No surprise they were struggling.

So far I’ve determined that the yellow rose is a floribunda and the red one next to it is a hybrid tea, although I could be wrong.

In the fourth pic, what I first assumed was a small tree turned out to be an old rose that had completely reverted to rootstock. It was massive – 2.5m tall and full of thorny, flowerless suckers. Then I spotted two deep red roses growing from the base and realised the original ornamental rose was still in there, just buried and overwhelmed. I cut out all the sucker growth, felled the tall stems, fed the base, and have been keeping on top of the weeding. I think the ornamental variety was probably on its last legs and I decided to set out to save it as best I could. I’ve only really gotten into gardening over the last couple months, and so this has been a huge learning curve for me.

The last pic shows buds pushing up from the gnarled old stump – hopefully the original rose is making a comeback! I’ve circled the new basal shoots that have started forming, and I’m pretty excited to see if this old thing can bounce back.

Elsewhere in the garden, I spotted a strange little plant while mowing the grass. Turns out, it’s another rose that must have been hiding there all along. I left it be and now it’s got a flower bud on it!

It’s been rewarding giving these old roses a second chance. Would love to hear if anyone else has had luck reviving really old or damaged roses. I plan to give the rose bushes a proper pruning in winter, as I don’t think it’s been done for years. I have noticed some aphids and black spot, so I need to deal with that next. I have been using soapy water for the aphids and cutting away any leaves I see with black spot.