The Right way To Prune A Rose
To grow healthy, beautiful, long-lasting roses it’s important to learn the right way to prune a rose. Specifically, pruning roses allows the gardener to control the shape and size of their plants and encourages healthy, beautiful growth during the entire blooming season. Pruning is also important in order to make a plant fit into a certain place or to keep a certain look in the garden as well.
When pruning a rose remember that some plants have more specific needs than others. Make sure that what you’re going to do is right for the kind of rose that you have.
The main tool that you need to prune your roses will be a great pair of bypass pruning shears. Bypass shears make the cleanest cut, which is extremely important when you’re making a close, detailed cut. If your canes are larger you’ll want to have a pair of long handled bypass loppers because they cut through that old growth wonderfully. If you haven’t done this before you’ll definitely want to wear a long sleeved shirt and a nice pair of gloves (those thorns can really hurt).
Pruning shouldn’t be done until the last frost; times will vary depending on where you live but could be as early as January or as late as May. The reason you should wait until the last frost is because pruning too early can cause damage to the roses. Likewise you don’t want to prune your plants too late either. If you wait too long, pruning the rose will cause the plant to lose sap. It’s important to prune the rose before the sap starts to flow through the plant.
To start pruning, you’ll first need to remove dead branches and canes. You can tell that the cane is dead if it is a brown or gray color. When you cut into the cane you’ll want the pith to be cream or green–So keep cutting until you get away from the brown. When you’re removing dead canes, keep your eye open for damaged canes as well. These should be removed because it they’re rubbing on healthy growth they could damage them. Make sure that you cut as near to the bud union as possible.
No. That’s not all. If you thought we were done, sorry. That was just the beginning. Now we’ll move into the actual pruning of your rose bush. You should start pruning from the base of the plant. One of the main objectives is to open up the center of the plant. This is because opening the center up will allow more sunlight and better air circulation into the plant; this is essential to kill of diseases.
When cutting the canes, it’s best to make your cuts about ¼ of an inch above a bud eye. When making this cut it’s important that your cut is at a 45-degree angle and that you make the bud eye facing outward– Making the bud eye face outward ensures that the rose will grow that direction also.
Next, look all around the plant for branches that are thinner than a pencil. You’ll want to remove these thinner branches because they will not be able to support the new growth.
Keep on the lookout for suckers. These are shoots that grow from the rootstock and they are bad. If not eliminated they can take over your entire rose bush. Suckers are recognizable by the mere fact that they grow from below the bud union. The shape and color of the leaf will be different from the rest of the plant. Because cutting the cane promotes growth you want to pull suckers off instead.
While pruning your rose bushes don’t expect to be perfect the first time. The more you practice, the better you’ll get. In time you’ll be a pro.
