Pruning Roses

The time to spring prune your roses is when the forsythia bloom in your area. Pruning is necessary because of the particular way roses grow. While a tree's branches get larger over time, rose shrubs produce canes that last only for a few years and begin to die. New canes, called "basal breaks", are produced as the plant tries to replenish itself.

While many experts try to impart a lot of mystery to pruning roses, it really is quite simple. The first thing to remember is no matter what you do it won't kill the rose.

So, knowing that, you can proceed with confidence.

First, is the tool. You'll want to use what is called a secateur. A secateur is a pruner that cuts with a sissors like motion. The other motion, the anvil pruner, cuts by crushing the stem against a metal bar or anvil.  Crushing might damage the end of the stem so use the cutting type. Felco manufactures the best but they are very pricey. Any good quality pruner will work.

Now, to the plant. Remove all dead wood (usually a darker color, even black). Just cut the dead portion. Canes die from the end so you may only have to remove several inches. Look at the color of the pith or inside of the cane. White is good, tan or brown is bad. Keep cutting until you hit white. If you are removing the entire cane then cut as close to the base as possible.

When pruning, you should leave about 1/4" of cane above an outward-facing bud. Angle the cut so the high side is on the bud side. It will act as a mini-roof directing moisture away from the cane. You don't want water to be able to stand on the freshly cut cane.  Next remove any branches that are crossing. When branches rub against each other the chance for disease increases as the surface protection is removed.

Finally, remove any branches growing toward the middle of bush. Ideally, you want the bush to be cup-shaped.  Leaving the middle open dramatically reduces diseases like black spot and various fungi. The spores are often wind-blown, so you want the wind to blow through the rose bush without a mesh of branches snaring the spores.

Stagger the length of the canes you leave, ranging from 8" to 18". Roses bloom at the end of their canes. Varying the length means blooms will be more evenly distributed on the bush.

When you examine the canes, you'll see evidence of the new growth on the stems. Little red bumps, almost like pimples, swell and ultimately sprout from the stems. You will want to "finger-prune" or rub off all the little red sprouts that are growing on the inside of the stem. This will cause all the new growth to grow outwardly, maintaining the open center of the bush.

Finally, to prevent cane-borers from entering the newly cut canes, put a drop of Elmer's Glue or the equivalent on each cut.

This information describes pruning hybrid tea roses. While they are the most popular roses, there are other rose families like climbers, rugosas and old garden roses that need to be pruned differently. We'll cover those next week.

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David Soper, The Garden Guy, writes and lectures on gardening topics. Read more on his website, Adventures in Gardening, www.gardenguy.com