Pruning Roses Articles | Gardening

By: Gordon Goh

Pruning 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 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 the roses 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 rose 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 4½ inches thick). Loppers are best for the branches that are thicker, or in other words, approximately the thickness of a pencil. You should use a heavy pair of rose gloves to avoid the thorns.

* Get rid of the winter protection that you set up like cones, burlap, and mounded soil.

* Get rid of the dead wood first. (That would be the black wood that is black inside as well as out).

* Next, get rid of the thinner wood, which are 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 vase-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 your 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. This promotes outward growth.

* 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.