Pruning roses is a must. If you want to grow roses, you are going to have to prune them. People tend to think pruning roses is difficult. Actually, it is very simple. The outcomes can be incredible. Roses are literally very tough plants, so much so, if you make every pruning mistake in the book, your roses will be better off than if you had not pruned them at all.
Roses must be pruned for a variety of reasons. The key reasons have to do with keeping the plant healthy, maintaining the plants beauty and preventing the plant from getting out of bounds, which will occur within a rather short period of time, particularly the taller varieties.
Proper pruning practices provide you with large gorgeous flowers atop strong, tall stems, ideal for cut flowers. A good general rule of thumb is the further back you cut a rose bush, the lesser number of, yet larger flowers you will get, and they are going to be on taller, stronger stems. Prune less, and you get smaller sized flowers yet more of them.
Pruning eliminates diseased or damaged parts of the plant. What's more , it keeps the plant more open within the center, increasing air flow and reducing pest problems.
If pruning fails to occur, most rose plants grow to large and monstrous. They can actually take over and swallow up any small plants in its path. Pruning keeps them exactly where they are suppose to be.
So, when is the most effective time to prune you ask. Well, when the weather is right and you have the time. You need to do it yearly and in the right season. Just before growth begins in late winter or early spring, actual timing depends on your geographical area and your climate. This is the best season for the main pruning. If you do the main pruning and do it well, then you should not have a lot to do during the rest of the season beyond cutting the spent roses off and enjoying the magnificent beauty of the rose.
Where winter temperatures are 10 degrees or lower, you will want to wait to prune until after the coldest weather has passed and any winter injury to the plant has transpired. March or April are generally the best time to prune for most people.
In pruning a rose plant, eliminate all dead or damaged canes, these are the dark brown or grey colored canes, the shriveled looking and small scraggly looking twigs. Eliminate suckers, vigorous canes can arise from the rootstock below the bud union. You will need to dig all-around at the base of the plant to totally reveal the bottom of a sucker. Cut it flush to the rootstock. Leave the center area of the rose bush as open as you possibly can for circulation purposes. The plant should be sort of cup-shaped with flowering canes around the outside.
After you have completed all the removal pruning, at this point you want to contemplate what you want to save. The goal is to save the healthiest canes, these are the flowering canes that bloom in spring. The healthiest canes are the thicker and commonly the bright green color. The quantity of flowering canes you choose depends on the vitality and age of the plant. With newly planted roses, leave about three to five flowering canes. Older plants can support more. Cut the flowering canes back by roughly a third to a half.
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