Apprentices lighten rose pruning load

It’s rose pruning time again and with over 700 modern roses to prune it can be quite a daunting job.

Luckily, here at the Dunedin Botanic Garden, we employ and train horticultural apprentices. At present, we have eight apprentices, who over a period of three years work towards a level 4 amenity horticulture or propagation qualification.

Every six months apprentices move to a different area of the garden to work alongside the skilled qualified staff. This ensures by the end of their apprenticeship a good understanding of the day-to-day maintenance and a wide variety of horticultural skills and plant knowledge.

Part of their training on site is attending masterclass training sessions. Some of these will be one-off sessions due to reactive work, but there are quite a few seasonal masterclasses allocated throughout the year.

The rose pruning masterclass is a great opportunity for all the apprentices to come into the rose garden for a few days’ pruning. The apprentices get to work alongside fellow apprentices and the curator of the rose collection. We cover a variety of pruning from bush roses to climbers, along with other aspects of rose care.

By the time they complete their apprenticeship they will have had three seasons of rose pruning and gain confidence and knowledge on a wide variety of pruning skills along the way throughout the plant collections.

- Linda Hellyer is the collections curator of the rose, herbaceous and herb gardens at the Dunedin Botanic Garden.