Pruning Roses
Brandon, our Nursery Manager, walks you through the how’s and why’s of pruning roses. The best time to do it is right now! Follow this guide to give your roses the best chance for blossoming!
It doesn’t matter what kind of roses you have, hybrid tea, grandiflora, floribunda, or shrub roses. Now is the time to prune!
To prune properly, you need the best tools for the job. A clean, sharp pair of pruners is essential. Make sure to dip, or rub them down with rubbing alcohol. This ensures no disease transfer between plants. Be sure you have protective gloves to prevent cuts from your rose’s thorns.
If you’re not familiar with when to prune your roses, you can let nature tell you when it’s time. Whenever you see the rose buds start to swell up, or whenever you see forsythia blooming, that’s the best time to prune your roses.
The main reasons to prune are to improve air circulation and to invigorate the shrub with new wood. Air circulation is the number one way to help prevent diseases in your plant. Invigorating the shrub with new wood helps the plant to have better blossoms in the summertime. You’ll want to start with your old wood and keep younger green stems that will produce better blooms. Remove old branches to reinvigorate the shrub. Always remove old dead wood first and then selectively prune from the new one, what you want to keep.
Keep four or five canes that are on your new wood growth. By pruning you can help new wood grow out to have a better shape and more air circulation with a nice V-shaped rose bloom. Pay attention to which way buds are facing when you are pruning, this will help you to know which way a growth is going to go. You want to be sure the buds are outward facing and not going back into the shrub. Most roses can be pruned to about a foot off the ground.
For more information on other plant care, visit the Gardening Guides section of our website.
Check out our YouTube page to see the Rose Pruning video tutorial and more!