Pruning Roses

This rose was blooming in my garden on New Year's Eve. This hybrid tea rose is Unforgettable. It had about 20 buds and flowers on it. Nevertheless, it's time to prune roses. I cut the flowers, and took them into the house for the last bouquet of the year. It will be several months until it blooms again.

 

You will need a good pair of leather gloves and hand pruning shears. For heavier branches, you will need lopers. I use the left glove only, so I can feel what I am doing with my right hand. I always get a few scratches. Long sleeves can help too.

This photo shows how to make individual pruning cuts. Always cut to an outside bud. This means that the but faces away from the center of the bush. We try to open the center of the bush when we prune. Make your cuts about one quarter inch above an outward facing bud. If you want to be really fussy, you can try to see that the cut slopes downward so that rain flows off of it.

Roses here in Santa Maria are very vigorous. This rose is over 5 feet tall, and it's been pruned all season as the flowers were picked. Roses love this cool coastal climate. They love hot climates too, though they may not grow quite as high.

This photo shows the lower part of the rose, where all of the pruning will be done. This rose has been pruned correctly since it was planted. You can see that it is not tangled in the center. This makes it easy to prune again this year. A few cuts will do it.

The right half of the bush has been pruned. I like to cut the bush to about 12 to 18 inches high. As you can see, all inward facing stems have been removed. I am aiming for an open center. The stems will face outward so that the bush is shaped like a vase.

This is the finished job. Notice that most of the stems face outward. I have not reduced each branch to a single stem. It's fine to leave a fork or two at the end of a stem.

 

Many people prune roses to resemble the plants you buy bare root this time of year. That is not the recommended way, but I have to admit it seems to work just fine. People who prune their roses 6 inches from the ground without regard for which way the buds face have beautiful rose bushes. But they aren't developing a permanent open structure. The roses are not as easy to prune for the new season, because stems have grown inward and outward as well. My advice is to prune the correct way each year. You can cut lower if you like, but don't cut haphazardly. Let the buds face outward, and open up the center.

© 1997 by Jim Clatfelter.       Go back to January Garden Calendar

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