Apr 20 2009
Pruning Your Roses
Pruning your roses is one of the most needed and the most
annoyingly difficult tasks that goes with proper rose care. It
takes a steady hand the proper procedure to ensure the best
possible roses that you can get.
Pruning your roses is basically the act of getting rid of
dead and damaged pieces, and teaching the new growth to grow in
the correct outward facing direction. That just means that you
are training them to grow facing the outside of the shrub or
bush. This gives your roses the correct amount of circulating
air to thrive in.
Here is a list of the proper techniques to guide through
the pruning process.
• Soak your pruning shears in equal parts of water and
bleach. This will help to protect your roses from diseases
and insects.
• Pruning in the early spring, just after the snow melts is
best. However you want to do it before any new growth
appears. The best time would be when the buds are swelled,
or red.
• Hand shears are the best tool for pruning the smaller
branches. (about 4 ½ inches thick) Loppers are best for the
branches that are thicker or the thickness of a pencil.
This will make it easier. You should use a heavy pair of
rose gloves to avoid the thorns.
• You want to get rid of the winter protection that you set
up like cones, burlap, and mounded soil.
• You want to get rid of the dead wood first. (That would be
the black wood that is black inside as well as out).
• Next, you wan to get rid of the thinner wood, which is the
stems that are thinner than a pencil.
• Cut all of the branches that cross or overlap one another
because these are often diseased or will become so.
• Keep the remaining five healthy branches. These are often
dark green. You will want to make your roses fluted or
vases shaped, with an open center, and keep them from
touching or overlapping each other.
• Cut your healthy canes to be about one to four feet long,
or whatever size that you prefer.
• Cut you roses properly so that they stay healthy. Cut so
that the bud is facing outside of the bush and at a 45
degree angle that slopes inward so that you can keep
promoting the outward growth.
• You should use bypass pruners that work like scissors and
not the anvil types because the anvils crush the stems and
make the roses more available to diseases.
