When to Prune Roses
Plan to give your roses a good pruning at least once a year. For once-blooming rose varieties, wait until early summer to prune them, just after they’ve bloomed. They can be shaped up a little more in late summer, but beyond that, pruning healthy stems (also called canes) will reduce the number of blooms you get next year. For most other types of roses, the best time to prune them is in late winter or spring, right after your last frost date. You’ll want to track your local weather forecast because late frosts can vary by weeks or even months from year to year. Though it’s not something to stress over, optimal timing will help prevent injury to your plants and save you from having to repeatedly prune out new cold damage. You may also find it worthwhile to do a lighter summer pruning to remove faded blooms. This helps keep your garden looking tidy and also prepares your roses for a stronger fall bloom. If you prefer a crisp, clean-looking winter garden, you can deadhead very lightly again in fall. But be aware that pruning can stimulate new growth and prevent roses from going dormant in time for harsh winter cold, which can lead to winter damage.
How Much to Prune Back Roses
There are a few different approaches to pruning roses, depending on what you want to get out of them and what type of rose they are. Newly planted roses should be only lightly pruned, if at all, their first year so they can spend more energy on establishing strong roots instead of growing stems and leaves. For older, healthy roses, you can experiment with any of the 3 following styles. Climbing roses are an exception. If they’ve gotten overgrown, you can drastically reduce their overall size by removing excess canes at the base of the plant, but you should leave at least 3 to 5 canes and don’t cut them shorter than 5 feet.
How to Prune Roses, Step by Step
Even after you decide how much you want to prune your roses, it can seem hard to know where to start. Use the following steps as a guide for what you should remove, in order of priority. Make all final cuts at a 45 degree angle above an outward-facing bud eye, pictured above. You don’t need to seal most cuts because the plant will take care of that itself, but some gardeners like to use a dab of white glue on cut surfaces to help prevent disease and pest problems such as cane borers. As you work your way through these cuts, remember that roses are vigorous plants that are hard to hurt. In most cases, any mistakes you make will be quickly repaired by new growth. When you’re all done, it’s time for what may be the most difficult part: clean up. The easiest way I’ve found is to rake clippings into a large makeshift dustpan such as a cardboard box. Then, you can step back and watch your roses thrive and bloom for another year.
