Roses are not for the meek. They are too demanding, too sensitive, too thorny, and without their flowers, they are not even very attractive. They have no business in a low-maintenance landscape, or in a landscape maintained by mow, blow and go gardeners. Those who want to grow rose plants for their flowers should be ready to give them what they want, and to prune them aggressively.
The most aggressive pruning gets done during winter dormancy. That process alone can be quite intimidating for those who are just getting acquainted with roses. After seeing them grow through the year, it seems counterproductive to prune big plants back to only a few short canes. Yet, by now, those canes should have produced much taller new canes that are already blooming profusely.
Now it is time to prune roses again, or will be time to do so soon. Deteriorating flowers need to be pruned away to promote continued bloom, a process known as ‘deadheading’. Otherwise, the fruiting structures that develop, known as ‘rose hips’, divert resources and inhibit bloom. Of course, blooms taken as cut flowers leave no hips, but they might leave stubs that may need grooming.
The popular technique of pruning back to the fifth leaf below a hip is not necessarily what roses want. It probably originated from the recommendation of pruning back to a low leaf with five leaflets because the buds associated with upper leaves with three or less leaflets are not as likely to develop into productive stems. However, pruning a bit too low is probably better than pruning too high.
When cutting roses to bring in, it is better to cut long stems, and then shorten them later if necessary. Each stem should be cut just above a leaf so that the bud in the leaf axil can develop into a new stem without much of a stub above it. The cut stem left behind on the plant should not be so long that it extends too far above the canes that were pruned over winter, or becomes crowded.
Crowded stems inhibit growth of vigorous blooming canes, and are more susceptible to rust, mildew and blackspot.
‘Mow, blow and go’ – I love that! Never heard it before! I have a few roses and I agree, hard pruning them is scary but necessary to avoid excess legginess.
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Wow; we have been using ‘mow, blow and go’ since the 1980s. It is good that you don’t know about it. It probably means that gardeners still know what they are doing there.
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My father made a science of growing roses, and had many different colored ones. They are not for the casual gardener, but they’re worth the effort.
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Yes; it annoys me that they so often end up in ‘low maintenance’ landscapes, or that people plant them believing that they will just perform without any help, like a privet of some such thing.
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They definitely need TLC to produce their best gorgeous flowers. We have an environment here that produces black spot easily, and many people don’t know about garden hose water splashing from underneath, etc. And some don’t know to trim off the hips. I’ve given some rose instructions to people. My dad used to raise them from cuttings too. Used mason jars as little greenhouses till they got going. I learned so much from him and he gave me green thumbs!
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The Santa Clara Valley is supposed to be one of the best placed in the World for roses, and I believe it. However, we don’t garden here like we used to.
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(Portland, the ‘Rose City’, is cooler and damper.)
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Aggressively prunes roses, however hard it may seem to do is most effective in producing abundant blooms next season. However I have not tried this on very young roses. It works exceptionally well for the mature one.
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Young roses may not need such aggressive pruning, like newly planted fruit trees. They will need more as they mature.
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Gorgeous Roses Tony!!☺️❤️️
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Thank you. They are old pictures from a client’s garden.
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Gorgeous Roses!
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Thank you.
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