Rose pruning season is almost upon us so here are some hints to get your roses in the best shape for beautiful summer blooms.

When to Prune Roses

Traditionally the dormant season rose pruning is started around Valentine’s Day and continues through May in the PNW.  One rule of thumb I use is to prune when the daffodils start blooming because then you know that the soil temperatures have reached the point to initiate bud growth.

How to Prune Roses

The Right tools. Use CLEAN sharp pruners for the cuts made to canes and clean sharp loppers or a small pruning saw to remove any and all dead or old, unproductive canes. You don’t want ragged cuts since you will be pruning close to new buds so make sure your tools are sharp. Using clean tools is also important so as not to transfer any disease or microbes to the roses from other plants you may have previously been using your pruners on. Dipping your pruners, loppers and saw into a bleach  and water solution or wiping them clean with rubbing alcohol will kill off transferable diseases. If you have had problems with black spot or powdery mildew remove any leaves that have stayed on through the winter.  Also clean up any dead leaves from the ground under the plant and put them in your clean green container to get them off the property rather than compost them if you do back yard composting. Then be sure to re-dip or wipe your tools between pruning each plant to reduce the chances of infecting a healthy plant.

The Right cut. No matter the kind of rose the right cut is essential for a healthy bud and future flower. To start you should not prune your roses in the fall as the flowers start to die and the rose produces hips (those red to orange seed large seed pods that develop on some roses after blooming) Research has shown that removing the hips and pruning too early makes you plant more susceptible to disease and winter die back and that the hips produce a type of “anti-freeze” for the plant so it is better able to withstand cold winters with less die back and bud loss.  So leave them alone through the winter for best results and healthier plants. When it is time to prune follow the guidelines below for the type of roses you will be pruning and remember to always cut to approximatley a quarter inch from only outward facing buds on any pruning cut – you do not want to encourage inward growth to the center of the plant. A rule of thumb to help guide you to the right size of open shaped plant is to have enough open space on the interior of the plant that you could set a basket ball down inside the plant and the basketball would be held foot or so off the ground. Also be sure not to cut to close, or to far, from the bud you are cutting to – too close and it may die back into the bud, too far and you may be left with a stub that will be susceptible to disease and allows as easy entry for  systemic problems.

Different Rose, Different Pruning Approaches

Hybrid Tea Roses. These are the type of roses that produce the large flowers and usually one per stem. These roses you want to prune according to the size of the canes (stems or ’branches’) you have available.  A small cane approximately the size of a pencil should be  pruned back to four to six inches from the graft  – which is at the bottom of the plant and identified by a swelling at the base of the canes. (this is where the rose was budded onto a root stock). Medium canes  around the size of your forefinger should be pruned down to about eight to twelve inches from the graft. Larger canes that are thumb sized or larger should be pruned at around two feet from the graft. If you don’t see any buds to cut to on a large cane just cut back as far as you can to the lowest visible union – this is where a bud will come from as the season progresses. The desired effect is to limit your plant to four or five of the healthiest and newest canes so that you have an open, vase shaped plant with lots of room for air circulation and space for the flowers to bloom and not be touching each other.

Floribunda and Polyanthus Roses. These are the types of roses that produce lots of flowers per stem.  These are easy to prune, simply head the canes back to an outward facing bud about twelve to eighteen inches from the graft while also removing old canes and leaving an open center and space between the canes

Climbing Roses. These are usually the most confusing of all roses when it comes to pruning because of the mass of the plant climbing over your trellis or wall, but they actually pretty easy to prune. Limit the canes to about four or six healthy, young green canne and remove the surplus. These canes are your structure for the plant and so you only need to cut the main canes to fit the surface you are growing the plant on. Don’t cut as severely as you do with the other types, because a climbing rose produces canes one year and they do not flower until the second year. So if you cut it back severely, there will be no flowers until the next season. The growth that develops off the main canes should be cut back to a second or third growth bud, usually making it only about two or three inches long. You want the new flower buds to be close to the main canes with buds on as many available offshoots as possible for that full gorgeous look.

After Spring Pruning

• Add compost. Once your pruning is finished add a half inch of compost around the plants base – DO NOT pile the compost up against the main stem (graft) that comes out of the soil – in the wet PNW this will cause rot at the base of the plant. Leave about an inch of space of just bare soil close to the main stem and spread the compost to about two feet  in circumference around the plant. The compost will work it’s way into the soil and is there to feed the feeder roots that are just under the top layer of soil. Don’t fertilize yet as this may promote early growth that could be damaged in a surprise frost or cold snap.
• Summer Pruning.  As your roses bloom you will need to do some summer pruning called ‘deadheading’ to encourage more blooms and we will discuss these methods in a future post.

Rose pruning can be daunting since there are some rules to follow that don’t apply to most garden pruning and a recommended professional gardener can be a real help for having this early Spring chore done quickly and correctly.