Spring is just around
the corner and so are beautiful blooms!
One of the most
rewarding DIY home projects is planning, planting and maintaining your flower
beds and rose garden, giving you the satisfaction of adding beauty and curb appeal to your home.
February is an
excellent time to prune your roses or even to plant new rose bushes. Pruning your roses while the plants are
dormant allows you to control the shape as well as remove dead or damaged
canes. Pruning also encourages those beautiful
spring blooms.
Hybrid tea and grandiflora
roses need to be trimmed this time every year to prevent them from becoming too
leggy and unattractive.
Other types of roses
such as floribunda, polyantha, landscape and ever-blooming old garden roses,
require less drastic pruning. But it is
still a good idea for you to prune to improve their shape and to control their
size and of course to remove dead or damaged canes.
Always use the
correct tools when pruning your roses.
These include: sharp bypass-type hand pruners allowing for clean cuts
and minimal damage to the stems or canes, leather gloves and long sleeves. For larger canes one-half inch or greater in
diameter, you should use loppers.
HOW TO PRUNE YOUR
ROSES
First, prune all of the dead and diseased
canes, cutting them back to the point of origin. Any canes that are weak or spindly and less
than the size of a pencil should be removed as well. Trim additional canes to open up the bush
leaving four to eight strong healthy canes which are at least the diameter of
your finger.
Make your cuts about
one quarter of an inch above the dormant bud.
Choose a bud along the cane that faces outward or away from the center
of the bush. The new stem that is
produced will grow outward allowing your rose bush to be open for light and air
to reach the center making for a healthy bush as well as more blooms. Make sure that you maintain a pleasing shape
while making your cuts.
Knock Out roses can
be cut back one-third of the size of the original bush. If your bush is overgrown (these can grow to
be 6 feet tall and wide) cut two-thirds of the size of the original bush, but
do not cut the bush to less than 18 inches from the ground.
The only roses that
you will NOT want to prune now are your once-blooming roses which are generally
grown on arbors, fences or a trellis.
These roses bloom from spring to early summer from the previous year’s
cane growth. Pruning now would remove the canes that will
produce your blooms. Wait to prune these bushes in midsummer to remove wayward
canes, shaping and training your rose bush to grow where you choose.
February to April is
also an excellent time to plant new rose bushes. Roses need a sunny well prepared bed that has
excellent drainage.
Taking the time to
maintain your roses now will pay off when the weather starts to warm up and
those spring flowers start to blossom!