If you only own one pair of secateurs in your gardening life, this is the kind it should be. Bypass secateurs handle the everyday work of a cottage garden — pruning roses, deadheading larger perennials, cutting back salvias and lavenders in late summer, taking out the spent canes of raspberries and fuchsias. The work that brings you out of the kitchen on a Saturday morning and keeps you outside until the light starts going.

The Burgon & Ball RHS Bypass Secateurs are exactly the right version of this everyday tool. Hardened and tempered high-carbon steel blades that hold a proper edge, lightweight alloy handles with a bright terracotta grip (genuinely findable when you put them down in a border), and rubber cushion stops to absorb shock during longer pruning sessions.

From Burgon & Ball, the Sheffield toolmaker who've been making garden tools since 1730. RHS-endorsed and backed by a 10-year guarantee against manufacturing defects. Supplied to us through our partners at AllotMate, who curate proper, well-made tools for gardeners and allotmenteers who'd rather buy once.

Bypass or anvil — which do you need?

Worth understanding the difference between the two, because they do quite different jobs:

• Bypass secateurs (these) — two curved blades that pass each other like scissors. They give a clean, precise cut and are the right tool for green, living stems — roses, perennials, soft growth. The everyday workhorse for most gardeners.
• Anvil secateurs — one sharpened blade that presses onto a flat plate. The mechanism delivers more force with less effort, which is what you want for harder, woodier, drier or dead material — old shrub stems, woody perennials, the gnarlier end of pruning.

Most gardeners eventually own both. If you only have one pair, bypass is the more versatile starting point — most pruning is green-stem work, and bypass secateurs do it cleanly without crushing the cut, which matters for plant health. Anvil secateurs become essential when you have mature shrubs, an established rose garden, or a lot of woody clearing-up to do.

We stock both versions: the Burgon & Ball Anvil Secateurs are the matching companion to these for the harder pruning jobs.

Specifications

• Cutting capacity: Up to 25mm (2.5cm) stem diameter — comfortably handles roses, shrubs and most pruning
• Blade: Fully hardened and tempered high-carbon steel — holds its edge well
• Mechanism: Bypass — clean scissor-style cut for live stems
• Handles: Lightweight alloy with non-slip terracotta soft-grip
• Cushion stops: Rubber, to absorb shock and reduce hand fatigue during longer sessions
• Supplied with: A replacement blade and spare spring
• Guarantee: 10 years against manufacturing defects
• Endorsement: Royal Horticultural Society approved
• Made by: Burgon & Ball, Sheffield (since 1730)
• Supplied through: AllotMate

What you'll use them for

Bypass secateurs are the everyday pruning workhorse. The most-used tasks they cover:

• Pruning roses — particularly the late-winter and spring shaping cuts where a clean angle matters
• Cutting back perennials in autumn — salvias, lavenders, perovskia, hardy geraniums, anything with a soft-to-firm stem
• Deadheading larger blooms and tougher stems where snips would struggle
• Cutting flowers for the house — sweet peas, dahlias, cosmos, anything with stems too thick for snips
• Soft fruit pruning — raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries, taking out spent canes after fruiting
• Light shrub pruning — formative cuts on young shrubs, tipping back wayward stems
• General garden tidying — the various small cuts that punctuate a session

For genuinely woody material — old shrub stems, dead wood, anything dry or hard — the anvil version is the better choice. These bypass secateurs are for the live, green, growing work.

The thoughtful details

A few small features worth noting:

• The terracotta-coloured grip is a genuinely thoughtful design choice. Most gardeners know the particular sinking feeling of misplaced secateurs — putting them down on a green lawn or in a leafy border and finding twenty minutes later that they've vanished. The bright orange-red is properly findable
• Rubber cushion stops absorb the small shock at the end of each cut. Over a long pruning session — half an hour with the roses, a morning of shrub work — the cumulative reduction in hand fatigue genuinely matters
• The replacement blade and spare spring mean these secateurs are designed to be maintained rather than discarded. Springs are the most common failure point on quality secateurs; having a spare in the box from day one is properly considerate
• Lightweight alloy handles — durable enough to withstand serious use, light enough to handle comfortably for hours

Looking after them

A good pair of secateurs will last decades with minimal care. The small habits that get you there:

• Wipe the blade clean after each use, particularly after cutting damp or sappy growth (rose sap can be properly sticky)
• A drop of light oil on the pivot occasionally keeps the action smooth
• Sharpen as needed — high-carbon steel takes a sharpening stone beautifully, though bypass secateurs only need one blade sharpened (the cutting blade, not the bypass plate)
• Clean and dry properly after wet use rather than leaving them on the bench
• Replace the blade and spring using the supplied spares when the originals reach the end of their working life — usually after years of regular use
• Store dry rather than left out in the rain or shed condensation

Treated this way, these are tools you'll still be using in twenty years and quietly recommending to your grandchildren.

As a gift

Premium secateurs are particularly thoughtful gifts because they're often the kind of thing people put off buying for themselves — they make do with cheaper pairs that bend, lose their edge, or break. A proper pair changes how it feels to garden. Particularly suited to:

• A gardener upgrading from cheap kit — replacing a series of mediocre pairs with one good one
• A new gardener with serious intent — investing in the right tools from the start
• A rose grower — secateurs are the rose grower's most-used tool, and a proper pair makes the difference
• An allotmenteer — daily pruning, deadheading and harvesting earns a quality pair very quickly
• A retirement gift for someone moving into more time-rich gardening
• Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas — premium-feeling kit at a sensible gift price
• Pair with our Burgon & Ball Anvil Secateurs for a complete pruning kit covering every kind of cut
• Or pair with the rest of our Burgon & Ball range for a substantial RHS-endorsed gift

About Burgon & Ball

Burgon & Ball have been making garden tools in Sheffield since 1730, drawing on the city's centuries-old expertise in steel. They hold the official Royal Horticultural Society endorsement — a designation given to tools that meet exacting standards for performance, durability and design. We're proud to stock their range; British-made tools at this quality are increasingly rare.

A small thought: the right pair of secateurs is a quietly transformative thing. Cheap pairs make every cut a small struggle — the blade catches, the spring sticks, the action feels effortful. A proper pair just cuts. The work flows. You stay out longer. The garden gets the attention it deserves. We make a fuss of trowels and spades because they do the hard visible work, but secateurs do the small frequent work that shapes a garden over years. Worth making a fuss of.