Tag Archives: pruning roses

Design trends

Bare Root Roses & Pruning

Hot Cocoa was introduced in 2002 but is still a popular selection.

I see some outstanding new rose varieties available for the 2023 season. It won’t come as a surprise that they are all very fragrant and have good disease resistance. So while you’re out in your garden pruning your existing roses consider adding a new one or two now available in barefoot form as they are less expensive than the canned ones. Here are a few that caught my eye.

Heavenly Scented is a traditional hybrid tea rose with both a strong scent and disease resistance. This stunning rose produces 4-5 inch salmon blooms that have a great spicy-fruity fragrance and are good for cutting. Also out this year is Picture Perfect, a bright fuchsia rose with a creamy white reverse. With strong disease resistance and showy fragrant blooms borne on long stems this is another great rose for bouquets.
Or maybe the magenta Sultry Night with touches of blue and a lighter reverse would look stunning in your garden alongside Uptown Girl which is a great beginner’s rose with scalloped coral-pink petals with the look of English roses?

Distant Drum

But what about pruning those existing roses in your garden? First of all remember that roses are super forgiving so just go for it and you can trim them up again later. Here are some tips to get started.

Most of us want our rose bushes to produce lots of roses on a compact shrub and not just a few exhibition size blooms so prune your shrubs moderately. The goal is to keep the center of the plant open for good air circulation aiming for a vase-shaped bush with an open center. Cut out canes that cross, appear weak or are diseased, spindly or dead. Healthy canes appear green or reddish while old and dying canes are brown. Cut back the remaining stems by about one third. When pruning, cut canes at a 45-degree angle just above an outward facing leaf bud or a swelling on the cane Slant the cut away from the bud to encourage growth outward. Clean pruners after every use to prevent the spread of disease and keep your pruners sharp.

Heirlooms roses such as David Austin, other old antique garden roses, and floribunda roses require less pruning because their open look is part of their charm. Keep this in mind and prune lightly. Old garden roses that bloom once in the spring should be pruned after flowering.

Same goes for climbing roses. Cut out extra stems if there are too many and also cut back long established canes to about the place where they are slightly thicker than a pencil. Then cut each side stem down to several inches. This will make the cane flower along its complete length for a beautiful spring display.

Strike It Rich

It’s best to prune your roses before roses start leafing out or some of their energy will be wasted. Pull off and rake away any old leaves. They can spread fungal spores. Consider spraying dormant plants with a combination of organic horticultural oil and copper soap or lime-sulfur. If you usually only have problems with black spot you can use a mixture of 1 teaspoon baking soda with a few drops of light horticultural oil in 1 quart water and spray every 7 to s10 days during the spring.

Prune your roses throughout the growing season, too. Deadheading, or cutting off spent flowers, encourages plants to re-bloom. Mulch around your roses to conserve water and encourage soil microorganisms.

Design trends

Time to Prune Roses

Both roses and alstroemeria are long lasting in bouquets if you change the water and recut the stems often.

Roses are the flower of love. Many of us have fond memories of favorites in our mother’s garden or of a beautiful bouquet given or received on Valentine’s Day. It’s dormant season for roses which is good for both pruning and adding a few to the garden.

As a designer I have clients who have inherited roses and want to keep them as a remembrance. Others want to create a cutting garden filled with roses and other perennials. Don’t feel guilty for growing those beauties in your own garden. They use less resources than you think and there are many ways to grow them sustainably.

Roses, whether bush types, climber or ground cover carpet varieties, use a moderate amount of water in order to thrive according to the latest Water Use Classification of Landscape Species (WUCOLS) list. This amount of summer irrigation is the same as many of the plants on the list of Scotts Valley Water District’s 800 Approved Low Water-Use Plants for lawn replacement. Plants such as Emerald Carpet manzanita, Joyce Coulter ceanothus, Siskiyou Blue fescue grass, Pacific wax myrtle, butterfly bush, yarrow hybrids and tapien verbena have similar water requirements.

Since now is the time to prune your roses here are a few tips.

Most of us want our rose bushes to produce lots of roses on a compact shrub and not just a few exhibition size blooms so prune your shrubs moderately. The goal is to keep the center of the plant open for good air circulation aiming for a vase-shaped bush with an open center. Cut out canes that cross, appear weak or are diseased, spindly or dead. Healthy canes appear green or reddish while old and dying canes are brown. Cut back the remaining stems by about one third. When pruning, cut canes at a 45-degree angle just above an outward facing leaf bud or a swelling on the cane Slant the cut away from the bud to encourage growth outward. Clean pruners after every use to prevent the spread of disease and keep your pruners sharp.

Heirlooms roses such as David Austin, other old antique garden roses, and floribunda roses require less pruning because their open look is part of their charm. Keep this in mind and prune lightly. Old garden roses that bloom once in the spring should be pruned after flowering.

Same goes for climbing roses. Cut out extra stems if there are too many and also cut back long established canes to about the place where they are slightly thicker than a pencil. Then cut each side stem down to several inches. This will make the cane flower along its complete length for a beautiful spring display.

It’s best to prune your roses before they start leafing out or some of their energy will be wasted. Pull off and rake away any old leaves. They can spread fungal spores. Consider spraying dormant plants with a combination of organic horticultural oil and copper soap or lime-sulfur. If you usually only have problems with black spot you can use a mixture of 1 teaspoon baking soda with a few drops of light horticultural oil in 1 quart water and spray every 7 to 10 days during the spring.

Prune your roses throughout the growing season, too. Deadheading, or cutting off spent flowers, encourages plants to re-bloom. Mulch around your roses to conserve water and encourage soil microorganisms.

Don’t worry whether your pruning job is perfect. Roses are super forgiving and you can always trim them up again later.

pruning roses, roses

Roses in the Garden- Pruning Tips

This beautiful bouquet of mixed roses could be yours, too, if you prune now.

Last fall I designed a garden for some friends after they had a new septic system installed. Little was left of the old garden after the bulldozer left. On Susan and Ken?s wish was a new dogwood, a designated space to grow tomatoes, grasses and a cutting garden. When bare root rose season rolled around Susan got her wish and bought several in her favorite colors: purple, lavender and mauve. They are strongly scented and disease resistant. If you have room for a few more roses now?s the time to get yours in bare root.

And if you haven?t already pruned your roses it?s time to do that too. Here are some tips.

Strike It Rich

Roses are super forgiving so don?t be intimidated by all those rules. Just ask my friend, who shall remain nameless but writes the food column for this paper. Her roses are spectacular.

It?s best to prune your roses before they start leafing out or some of their energy will be wasted. If yours have not dropped all their leaves, pull off old leaves after pruning to prevent the spread of fungal diseases.

Cabbage roses with baby’s breath.

Most of us want our rose bushes to produce lots of roses on a compact shrub and not just a few exhibition size blooms so prune your shrubs moderately. The goal is to keep the center of the plant open for good air circulation aiming for a vase-shaped bush with an open center. Cut out canes that cross, saving the better of the two, prune spindly and diseased stems and dead wood. Also prune canes that appear weak or broken. Healthy canes appear green or reddish while old and dying canes are brown. Cut back the remaining stems by about third. When pruning, cut canes at a 45-degree angle just above an outward facing leaf bud or a swelling on the cane. Slant the cut away from the bud to encourage growth outward. Clean pruners afterward to prevent the spread of disease and keep your pruners sharp to make clean cuts.

Same goes for climbing roses. Cut out extra stems if there are too many and also cut back long established canes to the place where they are slightly thicker than a pencil. Then cut each side stem down to several inches. This will cause the cane to flower along its complete length for a beautiful spring display.

Heirlooms roses such as David Austin, other old antique garden roses, and floribunda roses require less pruning because their open look is part of their charm. Keep this in mind and prune lightly. Old garden roses that bloom once in the spring should be pruned after flowering.

If you have a huge climber de-leafing might not be possible and spraying with fungicide may be your only option if you?ve had disease problems in the past. Rake up the debris beneath the plant and discard to eliminate overwintering fungus spores. It’s a good idea to spray the bare plant, coating the trunk, branches and twigs and the surrounding soil with a combination organic horticultural oil to smother overwintering insect eggs and a dormant spray like lime-sulfur or copper soap to kill fungus spores. If you usually only have problems with black spot you can use a mixture of 1 teaspoon baking soda with a few drops of light horticultural oil in 1 quart water and spray every 7 to 10 days during the spring.

Pruning intimidates some gardeners but when you understand the reasons for making the cuts pruning becomes less daunting. The reasons to prune are for health, appearance and to control size.

Hot Cocoa

Prune your roses throughout the growing season, too. Deadheading or cutting off spent flowers encourages plants to re-bloom. Every time you cut a rose bloom to bring it indoors or deadhead a fading rose, prune the stem down to shape the plant at the same time. Prune to a spot that has at least 5 leaflets. Roses grow from the point where they are cut so consider the overall shape of the plant as you snip.

Don’t worry whether you’re pruning job is perfect. Roses are super forgiving and you can always trim them up again later.

By the way, my friend Susan ended up with a Twilight Zone (dark purple), a Distant Drums (bronze/lavender), an Angel Face (another lavender) and two Mr. Lincoln’s (classic red) which are Ken?s favorite. The Barbara Streisand, which was to be another lavender, wasn?t available.