Pruning roses is a must. If you wish to grow roses, you are going to have to prune them. Folks tend to think pruning roses is difficult. Actually, it's quite clear-cut. The outcomes can be amazing. Roses are literally very tough plants, so much so, that if you make every pruning mistake in the book, your roses will likely be better off than if you had not pruned them at all.
Roses must be pruned for a number of reasons. The primary reasons have to do with keeping the plant healthy, maintaining the plants beauty and preventing the plant from getting out of bounds, which could come about within a rather short period of time, especially the taller varieties.
Proper pruning practices give you large stunning 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 fewer, yet larger flowers you will get, and they will 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 take place, many rose plants grow to huge and monstrous. They can essentially take over and swallow up any smaller plants in its path. Pruning keeps them where they should be.
So, when is the most effective time to prune you ask. Well, whenever the weather is right and you have the time. It is best to do it yearly and during the proper season. Just before growth begins in late winter or early spring, actual timing is dependent upon where you live and your environment. This is the best season for the major pruning. If you do the key pruning and do it effectively, then you should not have much to do over the remainder of the season past cutting the spent roses off and making the most of the spectacular beauty of the rose.
Where winter temperatures are 10 degrees or lower, you should delay to prune till after the coldest weather has passed and any winter damage to the plant has occurred. March or April tend to be the best time to prune for most of us.
In pruning a rose plant, get rid of all dead or damaged canes, these would be the dark brown or grey colored canes, the shriveled looking and small scraggly looking twigs. Eliminate suckers, vigorous canes will arise from the rootstock below the bud union. You will need to dig 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.
Once you have completed all the removal pruning, now you need to contemplate what you would like to save. The goal is to save the healthiest canes, these are the flowering canes that bloom in spring. The healthiest canes are the plumper and normally the bright green color. The amount of flowering canes you select depends on the vigor and age of the plant. Having newly planted roses, leave about three to five flowering canes. Older plants can support more. Prune the flowering canes back by about a third to a half.
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