Good Morning,
I am new to gardening and would like to start at a slow pace.
My first endeavor is to learn how to train the rose buses around my home. They seem to grow wild. Our gardener is more experienced in butchering rather than creating a developing good growning habits for the plants around my home.
Any feedback you may have, or a direction to take would be most helpful.
Thank You.
Hardy
Hello, Hardy! Thank you for visiting my website. Pruning roses is really quite simple. They are very hardy plants.
In autumn, you should not do any pruning unless you live in an area that experiences severe and windy winters. If you do, then prune off the top one-third of the stems (referred to as "canes" for roses). The reason autumn pruning is avoided is so that new growth is not encouraged. That new growth would not have time to harden off before the first hard frost.
Also, it's best to allow the last flowers to form hips. This will signal the plant to become dormant for the winter. If you have trouble resisting picking those last roses, your plant may send out new growth and get damaged come frost.
Late winter or early spring is the time to do the most extensive rose pruning. At that time you should see the buds on the canes just beginning to swell.
Prune out any weak, thin or dead canes. Also crossing or touching canes. When making your cuts, be sure they are at about a 45 degree slant above an outward facing bud or 5-leaved stem. Use clean sharp pruners.
Also prune out some of the inward growing canes. On my hybrid teas or floribundas, I also cut to the ground at least a few of the oldest canes each year to force strong new vigorous growth.
Your aim is to end up with a plant consisting of only healthy canes that is sort of an open vase shape for good air circulation.
After the soil warms up a bit in late spring, I spread some compost around each rose. I don't do any other fertilizing. I do try to keep the area around the roses weeded well so that the weeds are not stealing water and food from the roses. I rarely have any disease problems.
During the summer, if you cut roses for bouquets, remember that you are also pruning. Cut at a 45 degree angle above an outward facing bud or 5-leaved stem. Continue to remove any dead or weak canes that appear during the summer. Prune off any suckers that grow from the root stock (if you have grafted roses).
CLIMBING ROSES are handled a bit differently. Prune them only to remove dead or weak growth. (I have pruned mine to the ground to start over when I had not trained the canes to the trellis properly.)
Hope this helps! Thank you for writing.
Sherry
Wow,
What amazing timing! Today for the first time, I ventured out into my yard and started to weed and cut the dead clippings offf of the plants in the yard. It was hard for me not to touch the roses (7 Bushes), which were all gifts.
Thank you very much for your "How To Prune" instructions.
I am going to print it and frame it.
Presently there are many rose blooming, so I will wait, read your instructions, and then prune when the time comes.
Again, Thank you
Hardy
So. California